No Wind of Blame

During her lifetime, Heyer was better known for her Regency romances than her mysteries and that may still be true today. But if you are a fan of clever stories, with excellent dialogue and an amusing cast of characters in an English country house setting and have not checked out the dozen or so of her mysteries, you really owe it to yourself to do so. And happily, you have the very nice editions, reissued by Sourcebooks, to make it an even more attractive prospect.

In 'No Wind of Blame', we are in the English countryside of the late 1930's, in the lovely estate of Ermyntrude Carter. Ermyntrude was on the stage as a young woman and inherited the impressive house and her fortune from her first, beloved husband. Sadly, her second show more marriage, to the ner'do-well Wally, is not quite so beneficial. It seems he has found a number of seedy ways to spend her money, including gambling, wine, women and song and maybe a shady business dealing or two. His activities have drawn the displeasure of many in the neighboring community beside his wife. Those that care for Ermyntrude, including her daughter from her first marriage, Vicky, several admirers, including a very questionable Russian prince and even Mary, Wally's cousin and ward have their issue with Wally. And that just scrapes the surface of the suspects. Yes, suspects, because Wally will be shot to death as he crosses the estate and so starts the mystery, a mystery full of twist and turns, red herrings galore, a big and lively cast of characters and a nice dash or two of romance to top it all off before coming to a logical and satisfactory conclusion.

Certainly Heyer's books will remind you of Agatha Christie's to a degree, although I don't honestly remember Christie being quite so funny. Heyer is often very amusing and her excellent dialogue is really the high point of the book. At times, granted, it can make for some rather slow going because you really have to pay attention to what is being said, but you will be rewarded if you do. I will also warn you that the first quarter of so of the book may seem rather slow, because it takes a fair bit of talking to acquaint us with a rather large cast, most of whom will soon be suspects. But once poor Wally gets himself killed, things start to pick up, especially with the arrival of the witty Inspector Hemingway from Scotland Yard.

If you are a mystery fan, especially of the witty, clever English country house sort, you do really owe it to yourself to check out 'No Wind of Blame'. As Dorothy L. Sayers, quoted on the back cover of the book says, “Miss Heyer's characters and dialogue are an abiding delight to me...I have seldom met people to whom I have taken so violent a fancy from the word 'Go”.” show less

Nice. A beautiful example of giving the reader all the clues (well, almost all) - but anyone who put them all together (the how, if not the why) in advance of Inspector Hemingway is far more brilliant than I. Persons and personalities, extremely complex intertwining of motives and connections...and the doctor completely surprised me at the end, I'll have to read it again to see if there were clues to that. Several very annoying characters (especially Vicki - she may have been intended to be amusing, but she drove me nuts with her theatrics), several very nice ones - and the obvious HAE didn't happen, but several others did or will. Heyer does a beautiful balance of characters and mystery - the mystery rises out of the interactions of show more characters, the characters deal with the mystery in individually appropriate ways, and the solution makes perfect sense of all the twists that have been uncovered. Lovely. Now I want to read another Heyer - either a mystery or a romance. Anything she does is good. show less

When the insufferable Wally Carter is shot dead on the grounds of his wife's estate, Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard soon discovers that there is no shortage of suspects. Wally's wealthy and long-suffering wife Ermyntrude, upon whose largesse he had been living, had only just learned of his affair with a local girl. Ermyntrude's two "suitors" - the stern Robert Steele, who was in love with her; and the charming Prince Varasashvili, who was in love with her money - each wanted to be her next husband. Then there was Ermyntrude's temperamental daughter Vicki, who liked to play-act; sensible Mary Cliffe, Wally's ward and possible heir; and the outraged Percy Baker, brother to the girl Wally had "gotten into trouble." But which of them show more was the guilty party...?

Having read all but two of Georgette Heyer's historical novels, and all of her romances, I have long been meaning to pick up one of her mysteries. Sadly, No Wind of Blame was a rather disappointing first foray into Heyer's work in this genre. I could see that the reader was meant to find many of the characters - particularly the precocious Vicki - amusing, but somehow the Heyer magic just didn't seem to work here, and I found the characters unsympathetic and tiresome. I also thought that the narrative lacked suspense, not because I was able to guess the solution immediately, but because I simply couldn't dredge up any interest in the solution in the first place.

It's possible that my expectations were simply too high, and that Heyer's mysteries were bound to suffer, when compared to her brilliant romantic novels, or to the work of such masters of the country-house mystery as Agatha Christie. Either way, although it was mildly entertaining, I wouldn't recommend this title to anyone but Georgette Heyer completists. show less

No Wind of Blame, one of Georgette Heyer’s thrillers, was published in 1939 and features the usual accoutrements of the country-manor murder: an upper-class family simply seething with complicated relationships and eccentricities, whose family party is crashed by a competent detective from Scotland Yard who is less than respected by the local authorities. This particular title also boasts a money-hungry Russian (or rather, Georgian, excuse me!) prince, an angry “Bolshie,” and a dog that mysteriously does not bark.

The murder itself is a bit contrived (well, okay, more than a bit). The likelihood of such elaborate and complicated mechanics actually working to murder someone seems quite improbable, but we’re not here for that, show more right?

Where Heyer shines, as usual, is in her characters’ dialogue and relationships. Mary Cliffe is the ostensible heroine, as the story opens by her staid side, but her young relative Vicky soon steals the show. Mary is left bland and lackluster and sensible on the sidelines, for Vicky is an actress (or fancies herself one, anyways) and is always playing some dramatic part. One day she she is Sports Girl; another, Early Victorian, and so on. It would be exasperating in a real person, but in a literary creation it’s highly amusing.

Ermyntrude Carter is another brilliantly drawn character, a rather foolish woman whose hysterics and “woman’s instincts” make life a trial for Inspector Hemingway. And yet there is a kindness and humility about her; she’s hard not to like, even when she is being ridiculous. One is thankful that she does not fall into the clutches of Prince Alexis Varasashvili, the smooth-talking prince who would like nothing better than to take the fair Ermyntrude—and her fortune—to have and to hold forever.

The title is taken from the line “And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe” in Hamlet, when Claudius is plotting with Laertes to murder Hamlet and make it look like an accident. It doesn’t perfectly fit here, as there is no way this death looks like an accident, even superficially, but it’s certainly a catchy title. All in all, this is a predictable but fun mystery to be enjoyed for its wit and comedic merits more than anything else. show less

First of the Inspector Hemingway series of mysteries. Another of Heyer's tales of murder amongst the wealthy in 1930s England, this one is seen primarily through the eyes of Mary, the younger cousin and ward of Wally Carter, a man who has married an extremely wealthy and somewhat vulgar widow. Ermyntrude was an actress before she married her first husband, and is inclined to histrionics at home, but is also a kind and generous woman who has offered Mary a permanent home and a position as her secretary. Mary is genuinely fond of "Auntie Erm", and thus has little patience with Wally's domestic misdemeanours, which include spending Erm's money on gambling, drinking, dodgy business deals, and as it turns out, another woman.

There's a large show more cast of characters, and a good third of the book is taken up with introducing them to the reader before Wally is shot dead in broad daylight in front of witnesses -- but without anyone seeing the shooter. As usual, the characters are stock stereotypes who are brought to vivid and entertaining life by Heyer's careful characterisation and witty dialogue, and there's a thoroughly enjoyable story to be had out of watching the characters interacting even before we get down to the murder mystery itself. There are plenty of good suspects, and plenty of red herrings, and mixed in amongst them enough genuine clues to play fair to those who want to play the game. Great fun. show less

I loved this book. The murder occurs about a third of the way through the novel, allowing enough time to set up the various characters. The solution to the murder is ingenious, as is its execution, and holds together well. But the sheer strength of this book are the characters and dialogue. There are some fantastic exchanges between the main protagonists. I particularly loved Vicky, who lives her life as a series of characters, 'sports girl', 'the ingénue' and her encounters with Inspector Hemingway are particularly hilarious. In this book Heyer proves that she has Agatha Christie's eye for plot and character, but successfully mixes this with the sparkling wit and humour that characterise her Regency novels.

Of the Georgette Heyer mysteries that I've read so far, No Wind of Blame is one of my favorites. It has a more balanced set of characters--with a few that are even tolerable people--and a strong mystery.

With the first third of the book reserved for character development before the murder, this book shows the strength of the Heyer mystery. A pieced-together family lives in their English countryside home, Palings. We have Ermyntrude Carter, a widow on her second marriage with an adult daughter, Vicky, from the first. Her husband of the last two years is Wally Carter who brought along with him his cousin and adult ward, Mary Cliffe. They are an unconventional set that have their good days and bad. Ermyntrude was on the stage in her youth show more and Vicky spends her days on her own mental stage and gets through her days by acting in different personae. In the adjoining Dower House is Wally's distant relative, the generally-disliked Harold White, who tends to bring out the worst in Wally. Ermyntrude has a retinue of admirers in the picture as well and when Wally is murdered one afternoon, there is no shortage of suspects.

I really enjoyed this book and it is one that I would definitely recommend to someone new to Georgette Heyer's mysteries. There were a few twists and turns and the requisite Heyer romance. It also features a new detective from Scotland Yard, Inspector Hemingway, who has a great sense of humor to match his strong wits. show less