Customer Reviews

The Unfinished Clue

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Heyer's mysteries are always more memorable for the characters than for the solution. There are suspects galore who hated the dead guy - or at least found him very annoying - and the various motives are more amusing than the identification of the actual culprit.

From the cover :

Sir Arthur Billington-Smith was nobody's idea of the perfect host. In fact he was absolutely frightful. He bullied his wife, grumped at his guests, refused gleefully to help out an indigent friend, and positively blew his stack when his wayward son took up with a nightclub dancer who was definitely N.Q.O.C. (Not Quite Our Class). Is it any wonder that one fine, bright, English June morning Sir Arthur Billington-Smith quite literally became a bloody bore when he was firmly stabbed in the back with a pretty little Chinese dagger? And is it any wonder that dev'lishly attractive Inspector Harding from London thought everyone was guilty?

This is a mystery novel set in Britain around 1934 (which is when it was written). The mystery was clever, and the world-building and pacing were very good.

The author introduces a lot of the characters quite rapidly at the beginning, but it's clear how everyone is related to each other. The characters were all engaging and entertaining. There is a good-natured humor to the book which shows up in the dialogue and in the quirks of the various characters.

There were plenty of clues to this mystery. It's quite possible to guess the who and the why, and yet at the same time you're not likely to guess correctly. (As in, it's the perfect balance of being guessable without being too easy.)

There were two uses of very mild cuss words. There were no sex scenes. Overall, I'd rate this as good, clean fun.

Genre Reviews
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General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith was a man whom everybody hated. So when he has a house packed full of ill-assorted visitors, each one of which he is on quarelling terms with, and he is found stabbed in the back, the police have a tough job on hand. Luckily inspector John Harding from Scotland Yard has a good head on his shoulders. A lovely read, in the best Heyer tradition.

Georgette Heyer always delivers a most enjoyable Classic British Mystery Book. I just love her sense of humor & her ability to move the mystery right along. I bought this book to re-read on a long and trying series of flights...perfect diversion!

Georgette Heyer delivers as usual a well written and interesting book. There are several suspects because the man who gets murdered is a nasty person. All the main suspects are introduced in the beginning of the book, but Georgette Heyer describes their relationship to the victim, for those who are not related she tells how they met him, also she tells you about everyone's background and their thoughts on him. This is the third mystery book I've read by her. I've also read four of her historical novels and quite a few of her Regency romance novels -- the more books I read by her the more I can't wait to read the rest!!

I really like turn-of-the-century British drawing-room mysteries, and this fit comfortably into that category. The mystery was good, the ending a nice 'twist', and the writing very good. However, I felt that the storyline was trite, and the characters - even the 'good guys' - were unlikeable or vapid.

Verdict - this was not one of Ms. Heyers' best efforts. The writing was good, but the story was conventional and the characters painted in black & white.

Note on Kindle formatting: Only OK - there were multiple instances of words run together, and inconsistency in hypenenated last names (sometimes they were hyphenated correctly, other times they were run together with both names capitalized).

Georgette Heyer knows how to write, to construct interesting characters, put them in interesting situations, add a bit of humor and deliver most entertaining books to us. This is one of them. Using the stock setting of the Old Mansion and assorted members of the family, one of whom, the holder of the purse strings, is a Nasty, she sets up a murder. Of course, there is the quite normal charming daughter, and, down from Scotland Yard, a most personable detective. There is sufficient misdirection and puzzlement to satisfy the more traditional mystery lovers among us, and sufficient idiosyncrasy to amuse all of us. Not a deep, complex read, it should be satisfying to many.

Georgette Heyer's "The Unfinished Clue" is an English country house mystery designed for murder. The corpse invited his own demise by antagonizing every person with whom he had contact. This novel is seventy years old, but still delights readers with its crisp, witty dialogue and intriguing puzzle of who actually did everyone else in the story a favor by sticking a knife in the old boy's neck.
The tight time frame leaves the local police and Scotland Yard's Inspector Harding coming up blank as each suspect with a strong motive is moved from the list of possibles; a clear case of everyone is a suspect and no one is guilty. Join legions of cozy mystery fans for a fun read from a reclusive author who let her work speak for its self, because shout it does nearly forty years after her death. Seldom mentioned in the ranks of Agatha Christy, Josephine Tey, or Dorothy L. Sayers, Ms. Heyer deserves her place.
Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Sins of the Fathers."

The "unfinished clue" is the word "There," written by General Billington-Smith, part of the name of the person who stabbed him to death in his study with "a curious Chinese dagger." Despite the conventional setting and characters, both are very amusing. The Scotland Yard detective does nothing but listen to witnesses and fall in love with the victim's sister-in-law, but there is a pleasingly complicated schedule of movements, the discrepancy in which reveals the most unlikely person as murderer.

This is my third Heyer book and so far it's the most disappointing. The first half of the book is whimsical, getting to know the characters and their foibles. The second half of the book is almost solely an inspector interviewing each character about the events in the first half of the book. Equally annoying is that the solution is very easy (I knew as soon as they found the 'unfinished clue' who it would be) and at the same time, the reader isn't given the data to confirm the solution until the unveiling of the murderer. I would definitely recommend reading a different Heyer mystery.