Monday, February 15, 2010

New Release: They Found Him Dead


If you ever want to go into a mystery knowing exactly what the initial crime will be, look no further than Georgette Heyer and her awesome mystery titles!  With names like Behold, Here's Poison, Death in the Stocks and the newly re-released They Found Him Dead, you aren't too surprised at what you encounter.  What is surprising is the variety of characters, the plethora of false leads and the other crimes that happen throughout the rest of the novel.  These mysteries usually turn out to be anything but straight-forward.

In this book, we visit one of Heyer's favorite settings -- the English country home -- where a hodge-podge of relatives are gathered.  Inevitably, we find one of them dead -- this time the patriarch of the family, Silas Kane.  Though he seems to have died of natural causes, not everyone is satisfied that Silas was not maliciously cut down before his time.  When other events happen, it becomes obvious that someone has it out for Kane and his heirs.

I thought this was a good mystery but there was one character that I loved which really made the book for me.  Mr. Harte is a fourteen year old boy who is obsessed with American gangster films and regularly attempts to use the vernacular and tones of these films.  He is spunky and bright and, at the same time, whiny and petulant.  In short, he's fourteen!  His character was a breath of fresh air and I wish there was a follow-up novel of his character.  Beyond Harte, this is a typical Heyer mystery with a fairly obvious suspect that you still can't be sure of until the very end.

Finding a good mystery between the pages,
K


Support our site and buy They Found Him Dead on Amazon or find it at your local library. We received our copy from the publisher.

5 comments:

  1. I have an award for you!
    http://bookywooks.blogspot.com/2010/02/one-lovely-blog-award.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. I nominated you for an award as well! Check it out here:

    http://morningcupwithmeg.blogspot.com/2010/02/beautiful-blogger-award-part-deux.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. That cracks me up about the book titles! I could just see a little game with that: "They Discovered Him Hanging from A Noose" "He Was Bloated from Drowning in the River" "She Was Blue in the Lips From Ingesting Cyanide Administered by Nancy" ; )

    ReplyDelete
  4. I''ve yet to read one of her mysteries, but this sounds like a fun one. It would be nice to see what her characters are like that are more modern (20th century anyway!).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks, Nicole and Meg!

    Jenners - We should have a contest to see who can come up with the best obvious mystery title!

    Danielle - Her mysteries aren't as good as Christie or Tey or Marsh but they aren't bad!

    ReplyDelete