A Blunt Instrument

After reading my first two, I wasn't as enamored of Georgette Heyer's mysteries as I had hoped to be. But I liked this one!  The plot centers on the murder of Ernest Fletcher, a man-about-town and good-natured blackmailer, who is killed in his study with a (guess what).  The clues and miscues all evolve around timing, with one or two unidentified men, a woman, her husband, and a police constable all coming in and out between 9:58 and 10:02.

      The Sergeant hunted among the papers before him on the desk, and selected one covered with his own handwriting. 'Well, Super, I don't mind telling you that I've had a shot at working the thing out for myself. And the only conclusion I've come to is that the whole thing's impossible from start to finish. Once you start putting all the evidence down on paper you can't help but see that the late Ernest wasn't murdered at all. Couldn't have been.'
      'Oh don't be absurd!' said Hannasyde rather impatiently.

I lost track of all this about halfway through, but it didn't really matter (though the twist at the end was well done).  What was appealing about this book were the suspects and their friends, the Bible-quoting constable, and the campy dialogue, which had some of the same feeling of the old movies (Cary Grant, William Powell and Myrna Loy) that I like to watch. 

      'The Superintendent?' she said numbly. 'Yes. Yes, you must tell the master, of course. Show the Superintendent into the library. I'll come.'

      'What for?' asked Sally, when the butler had withdrawn. 'He didn't ask for you.'
      'It doesn't matter. I must see him. I must find out what he wants. Oh, dear, if only I could think!'

       'Can't you?' asked Neville solicitously. 'Not at all?'

{Natasha and Cecil, by Vivienne Strauss.
The paintings and their titles are hard to resist.}

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