Review: They Found Him Dead

They Found Him Dead is the third book in Georgette Heyer's mystery series featuring Inspector Hannasyde.  I have all the books in this series, but have not been reading them in order.  I don't feel anything is lost using this method because Hannasyde is very much only the inspector in the books- he is not the center of the story, ever, and so his character never evolves, which is very different than most mystery series that feature one detective in multiple books.But Heyer is really all about the other characters in her mysteries- the ones that are affected by the murder itself.  In a way, this is unfortunate for the reader as if you come across a character you would like to know better, you are never going to see him again.  Contrastingly, Inspector Hannasyde makes no real lasting impression, but is in multiple books.

But perhaps I should get around to actually describing this book.  On the evening of his 60th birthday, Silas Kane goes out for a walk along his property and never returns.  He is found dead the next morning.  Just a few days later, his cousin is shot through the head, and Scotland Yard begins to pay attention.  Everyone is a suspect, from Jim Kane, who stands to inherit it all, to the beautiful, highly sensitive (so she claims repeatedly) Rosemary, who is newly widowed, to, stereotypically enough, the butler.  When Jim's life is endangered by multiple accidents, finding the murderer becomes critical.

It's no secret that I am a Georgette Heyer fangirl and have been for years.  I am predisposed to like her work.  While I prefer her romances, I do enjoy her mysteries because her wit is so sharp in them.  I am not a person who reads mystery novels for the whodunnit.  That's why I prefer those set in the period between the wars, maybe- I love the tension between the classes, the clash of tradition vs. modernity, and all the rest.  I don't think Heyer's mysteries are particularly thrilling- many of them revolve around inheritance issues, in which someone who is likely to come into a great deal of money is also very likely to commit murder (or be suspected of doing so).  So it's not overly difficult to figure out who the culprit is.  But that's not why I read them.

This story has a few hilarious scenes and memorable characters.  Timothy Harte, a 14-year-old obsessed with gangster films, is a gem.  I really enjoyed reading scenes with him, though I think his age is improbable- he acted more like a 10-year-old than a 14-year-old.  I also thought Rosemary, the highly sensitive widow, had some great lines about her nerves and her intuition.  While I am sure the other characters will fade from my mind, these two are probably who I will remember the most in this story.  And while They Found Him Dead is not my favorite mystery, or even my favorite Heyer mystery (that honor belongs unreservedly to Footsteps in the Dark), I still really enjoyed curling up on my sofa reading this in the last few days I had before school started!