“‘And I suppose this is the approach-course,” said Charles Malcolm. “Full of natural hazards.”
Footsteps in the Dark, Georgette Heyer
This is the second Heyer I’ve read - still a mystery, not yet one of her famous Regency books - and I didn’t like this one quite as much as the last. It’s a very by the numbers 1930’s mystery - stock characters, spunky heroines, and a plot that I, the famous “can’t guess whodunnit” girl saw a mile away. To its credit, it was written in 1932, so I suppose nothing in there was quite as cliched as it seems to me, standing in 2011, but still, this is pretty by the numbers. If you want to read a classic 1930s mystery, I’d stick to Christie, who manages to have surprises up her sleeve, even after all this time.
I will say that if you do want to read a perfect example of all sorts of cliches coming together this does have it all - two bantering couples, a mysterious love interest that might be the criminal, but that our heroine just trusts, against her better nature, a spooky old house with a ghost (or IS it), surly locals, incompetent police, a mysterious tunnel, an abduction, and a pukka sahib! Gosh - you don’t really realize how fresh Christie, Sayers, and Marsh are, until you read something like this.
Categories: Fiction