From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

The Unfinished Clue

Georgette Heyer

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Jun 06, 2014 CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph rated it really liked it

Shelves: mysteries, audio, historical-fiction

A charming compulsively readable 30s English house party mystery. I listened to this on audio, and didn't want to get out of the car, because I wanted to hear what happened next. I'm not saying it's an original concept, but it was fun, with lots of colorful characters having cocktails and putting on gloves before driving and calling each other darling. Several of the characters had hidden depths, including, obviously, the murderer. I'll say--I thought I had this figured out very early on the boo A charming compulsively readable 30s English house party mystery. I listened to this on audio, and didn't want to get out of the car, because I wanted to hear what happened next. I'm not saying it's an original concept, but it was fun, with lots of colorful characters having cocktails and putting on gloves before driving and calling each other darling. Several of the characters had hidden depths, including, obviously, the murderer. I'll say--I thought I had this figured out very early on the book. and I WAS close, oh so close. I understood the unfinished clue--but mistook the person to whom it referred. When Inspector Harding went to arrest the person, I shouted in surprise (I was alone in my car, so it was OK to do so. :) And Dinah and Inspector Harding were both charming characters for whom it was easy to root. I can't say a lot more about the others without spoilers; there were several other likable ones, but most of them were absolutely hateful rotters. The victim, if you can call him that, was a horrible abuser--hearing the way he treated his wife was like a flashback to my childhood, and not a pleasant one. Most of the others were weak and selfish, with a few especially annoying ones thrown in. Jeffrey reminded me a lot of Catherine the Great's first husband, interestingly enough, which gave credence to the actual existence of someone as weak and foolish as himself. and Lola, for some odd reason, reminded me of Mariah Carey. Which is probably horrible, and based entirely on various pieces of gossip I've picked up from tabloids over the years. but there you have it.
Probably my only complaint was the two non-Anglo characters in the story: Lola the Mexican and Sam the Jew. That wasn't their actual names, but it's what she should have called them. They were drawn in such insultingly broad terms, in stark contrast to the charming, elegant, polite Anglo British characters. I don't know if this was the stereotypes of their ethnicities at this time in England, but the characters could hardly have been written from a position of familiarity with their cultures. I know it was a different time period, when such ignorant portrayals were as normal as they were acceptable, but the implied racism is rather distracting at times.
Otherwise an utterly fun and lightheartedly charming mystery. Perfect for summer reading. ...more

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