The Unfinished Clue

Who would want to kill Sir Arthur Billington Smith? Turns out everyone. He was a real jerk. He treated everyone so horrialbe even his wife and son. Always yelling at them and putting them down. Then flirting and getting way too friendly with a house guest right in front of his wife and her husband. Not a great human being. I loved Dinah the heroine and how she never let anyone push her around. She is the kind of person you would love to have as a friend. She is one of the only people who will go toe to toe with Sir Arthur. Heyer's characters are always entertaining and amusing but she out did herself with Lola. Lola is one of the most selfish and outspoken people I have ever read about and her saying anything she thinks is so hilarious. show more Captain Billington Smith was an entertaining character. Making trouble everywhere he went. I really didn't like him much as a character but I found his wit enjoyable against my better judgement. I thought Inspector Harding was great and am sad that this is his only book. I was so surprised and shocked at who did it and never would have guessed. If you enjoy mysteries and colorful characters then I totally recommend this book. This is one of Heyer's best mysteries. show less

When General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith is murdered in his own study, his house is full of family members and weekend guests who have ample cause to applaud his demise. Was it his son, an impetuous youth the General had been about to disinherit because of his engagement to an unsuitable woman? Was it that woman, who insisted that she could not marry the son unless he continued to be rich? Was it one of the guests, who was disgusted by the General’s continued attentions to his pretty but vain wife? Was it, indeed, the General’s own wife, both because of his flirtations with other women and because he constantly disparaged her in public? Those are only a few of the suspects and motives that Detective Inspector Harding of Scotland show more Yard must sort through to arrive at the truth…. “The Unfinished Clue” is one of a loose collection of Georgette Heyer novels dubbed the “Country House Mystery” series, so-called because they are each set in a stately home, not because they have any specific characters in common. It was published in the 1930s and carries a few stereotypes not unusual for the time, including the bad-tempered victim himself (“lord of the manor” in the grossest terms), the Mexican “spitfire” girlfriend, the Jewish publicity agent, as well as very clear demarcations as to which characters matter (the upper classes) and which do not (the servants). That said, the story is a lively one and the plot is well crafted, and I never came close to guessing the solution, which is a good thing in a mystery! Don’t take it too seriously and enjoy it for what it is; recommended. show less

In The Unfinished Clue, Georgette Heyer writes a classic English country-house murder with a cast of suspects who all have something to hide. It's not terribly original, but we never do go to English country-house murder mysteries for originality, do we?

It's a typical house party in the home of a wealthy English family. Dinah Fawcett is visiting her sister Fay, who is married to General Billington-Smith, an older and cantankerous man who is pursuing a flirtation with the wife of one of his guests. Fay's would-be lover Stephen Guest is there, along with the General's son from his first marriage, Geoffrey. Geoffrey has brought his Mexican dancer fiancee, Lola de Silva, and there's also the General's nephew Francis. When the General is show more found murdered in his study, suspicion falls on almost every member of the party and Inspector Harding of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. He finds a plethora of motives; the General was so universally disliked, it's hard to find people who don't benefit in some way from his death.

I love Heyer's Regency novels, but can't love her mysteries with quite the same unreserve. The characters are too unsympathetic, even the good ones. Though I enjoyed the mystery, it took a little while to get past my repugnance for the cast. What a bunch of nasty, selfish people! It seems to be a theme in Heyer's mysteries that the murdered person is thoroughly unpleasant, with the rest of the characters not far behind.

Heyer tries to give us a heroine in Dinah Fawcett, and while she's a smart, sassy young woman with great dialogue, there was still something off-putting about her. Maybe she just wasn't developed enough. Lola de Silva is, as Miss Fawcett says, "rather good value" with her deliberate and unashamed self absorption, but even she can't save the situation. Geoffrey's exasperating, Francis infuriating, Fay helpless, Stephen stolid, Basil Halliday ineffectual, and Camilla cheap. I liked what I saw of Harding, but it wasn't enough.

I'm never good at guessing the solution. This one works, sort of, but it's just a tad unfair. I'm sure I will continue reading Heyer's mysteries — they are well written, after all — but I don't think they'll ever become favorites. show less

When a man with more enemies than friends is murdered in his study during a weekend house party, the local constabulary calls in Scotland Yard. Everyone in the house had motive and opportunity, with the exception of one person. After reading the reports and reinterviewing all the suspects, Inspector Harding makes a surprising discovery that leads to the murderer.

The book’s title is a spoiler. As soon as the unfinished clue was introduced, I knew what it meant. I spent the rest of the book trying to figure out which of the women it pointed to.

Characterization is Heyer’s strength, whether she’s writing Regency romance or detective fiction. Her plotting isn’t as strong as Christie’s or Sayers’s, so re-reads of Heyer’s show more detective novels probably aren’t in my future. show less

Country house murder mystery written and set in the early 1930s. Great fun, with an entertaining cast of suspects and some cunning red herrings.

Dinah Fawcett arrives at her married sister's house for the weekend, only to find Fay's household in turmoil. Fay's stepson has arrived home with his fiancee, a famous and extremely flamboyant cabaret dancer from Mexico. Fay's husband has taken this as well as you'd expect from a bullying martinet of a wealthy retired army officer. General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith has always despised his highly strung son, not least because years ago his mother ran away with another man.

This would be bad enough if there were just family present, but Sir Arthur has invited guests for the weekend, and show more naturally is now blaming Fay for their presence. There are other weekend guests too, some self-invited, others not. And then there are the neighbours who drop in, with or without an invitation...

Sir Arthur proceeds to give almost everyone staying in the house motivation for killing him, so it's no surprise when he's found dead in his study the next day, stabbed with his own paper knife. It's up to Inspector Harding of Scotland Yard to sift through the assorted stories the potential suspects have to tell. Not an easy task, given the mix of attention-seeking and attention-avoiding to be found at the house party, as the various participants try to paint their own actions in the fashion most congenial to them.

Dinah takes charge of the household, being possessed of both common sense and an impeccable alibi. These two things also make her a useful source of information for Harding about the people at the house, even if he has to allow for her having a vested interest in protecting her sister. The novel is primarily told from Dinah and Harding's viewpoints, and there's a nice romance sub-plot in the background that adds to the story without being allowed to overwhelm the main mystery plot.

The book was written in the 1930s and it shows in the attitude to class and race, with some of the characters being very stereotypical; but Heyer also deftly uses assumptions in those stereotypes to lay false trails. And for all the stereotyping, there are some lovely characterisations here. If 1930s country house cosies are your thing, this is a stylish and witty example of the genre. show less

Heyer has a knack at creating singularly odious people to murder in her novels, and Col. Billington-Smith is no exception. A bully who alienates and abuses his whole family, and community, no one is exactly suprised when he winds up dead. Still, the case proves thorny, for several reasons, not the least of which is that the CID man from Scotland Yard sent to investigate finds himself having less than professional feelings for the sister-in-law of the victime.

This is the third of Heyer’s detective novels and this reader gets the sense that the author is still searching for exactly the mix of plot and characters to achieve the desired effect. Unlike her first two excursions into the murder mystery genre in this book the detecting is done by a professional and the local constabulary are not portrayed as hayseeds. Instead the reason given for calling in Scotland Yard is prosaic and believable--that when a murder takes place in the home of a locally powerful and influential family it is best that it be investigated by someone who is not local and not likely to be intimidated by the suspects and witnesses.

Like so many of her contemporaries Heyer fell back on stereotypes as she constructed her show more stories however unlike those many contemporaries Heyer not only seems aware of this but she also tips a wink at her reading audience. Some of the servants are wide-eyed devotees of cinematic cliches and others are even minded, thoughtful and responsible. Lola de Silva is an over-the-top Mexican cabaret dancer and yet she is not presented as typical of Mexicans rather as typical of self-centered egotistical people.

Heyer’s writing style is lively without being comedic; a voice she perfected in her Regency Romances. The reader is likely to be so entertained with intertwined stories of the cast the characters that they do not notice with what dispatch the detective quite professionally finds out what happened over the course of the weekend. Heyer needs to provide neither maps nor charts for the reader to follow the story and she falls back on neither the locked room nor an unusual or convoluted method of murder. In a pleasant reversal of the habit of other mystery writers of claiming to have provided the reader with all the information necessary to solve the crime while having done so in the most misleading fashion Heyer provides the reader with more information than her detective has any reason to know while convincing the same reader that the detective showed no unrealistic amount of intuition in solving the crime. show less