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Behold, Here's Poison (Inspectors Hannasyde & Hemingway, #2)

Georgette Heyer

Start date: March 15, 2022

Finish date: April 8, 2022

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: Next in our buddy read series of Heyer mysteries
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What Members Thought

Feb 16, 2022 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is an excellent Georgette Heyer mystery, featuring the unusual death of the unpopular Gregory Matthews, who presides over a family home including his sister, his sister in law and her two adult children, Guy and Stella. There are also a good range of other possible suspects, including a host of other relatives, a kindly neighbour and a disreputable doctor.

Like other Heyer mysteries I have read, some of the characters from previous books appear, such as Giles Carrington. There is also a rat ...more

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Mar 15, 2022 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore rated it really liked it

Shelves: murder, georgette-heyer, england, mystery

Behold, Here’s Poison (1936) is the second of Georgette Heyer’s mysteries featuring Superintendent Hannasyde; in these Hemingway, who later features in his own subset of mysteries, is Sergeant.

Behold, Here’s Poison opens below-the-stairs in Poplars, where the unpleasant and domineering patriarch Gregory Matthews lives with his older sister, Harriet, widowed sister-in-law, Zoe, and Zoe’s two children—Guy, who works as an interior decorator in his own venture in partnership with a friend, and Stel Behold, Here’s Poison (1936) is the second of Georgette Heyer’s mysteries featuring Superintendent Hannasyde; in these Hemingway, who later features in his own subset of mysteries, is Sergeant.

Behold, Here’s Poison opens below-the-stairs in Poplars, where the unpleasant and domineering patriarch Gregory Matthews lives with his older sister, Harriet, widowed sister-in-law, Zoe, and Zoe’s two children—Guy, who works as an interior decorator in his own venture in partnership with a friend, and Stella. Living close by is Gregory’s married sister, Mrs Lupton, with her husband, Henry and one daughter Janet while another married daughter Agnes also lives not too far. Another nephew and Gregory’s heir Randall lives in London. The morning our story opens, Gregory is found dead in bed. The family put it down to natural causes for Gregory had heart trouble, and had eaten a heavy meal the previous night (including ‘duck’ as Harriet stresses multiple times, rather than the cutlets she’d ordered for him). The doctor, Deryk Fielding agrees that the symptoms are all of syncope, but Mrs Lupton, who is rather like her brother in character, demands a post mortem. While this may have been done just out of spite, it turns out that Gregory had in fact been murdered, poisoned, and with nicotine no less—not a very ‘common’ poison.

Hannasyde arrives with Hemingway and the local inspector in tow, only to find yet another dysfunctional family, full of eccentrics, most of them constantly at loggerheads, if not at each other’s throats. Any of them could have done it and most did have a motive—money and love—the usual suspects among them. But which of them did?

In its broad structure, this book was much like the previous Hannasyde mystery, Death in the Stocks, with a dysfunctional family with an unlikeable patriarch, a pair of siblings, of which the girl (here Stella) is engaged to a man whom the patriarch disapproves of (here Dr Fielding); the boy in need of money (and here also in danger of being shipped off to Brazil), among other elements. But despite the similarities, it was very much its own story.

This book one once again stands out for its writing, eccentric characters and humour. Among the characters, a couple of standouts for me were aunt Harriet, who has an economy-mania to the extreme—so much so that she does some rather morbid things, apart from trying to cut back on expenses so much that people are loath to eat a meal in the house. Then, somewhat on the lines of the Vereker siblings in the previous book, we have Randall Matthews, who drips sarcasm but is also far brighter than he’d like to let on, although we get many hints of this as our story progresses. We also run into a few of the characters from the previous book, which I very much enjoyed, since like in Barbara Pym’s books for instance, one gets to know what they’ve been up to since our previous meeting. Heyer’s writing and the humour in the story are wonderful as always, though in terms of pure dialogue, I felt there was more sparkle in the previous book.

There is also a romance thread to which I picked up a hint fairly early on, which led me to count one character at least out of it (though I did wonder if Heyer would still surprise me). There is a fair bit of banter between them, but Stella, at least seems to mean it some of the time.

As far as the mystery itself was concerned, I could not at all guess whodunit so that element took me entirely by surprise. Also, the why was something I didn’t work out, but there were a couple of elements as to which I was able to pick up clues as the story progressed (and I think other mystery readers would be able to as well), but which Hannasyde seems to pick up on much later (but then again, we’ve seen and heard things he hasn’t).

A delightful read with a great set of characters, and a mystery I could not guess, this one kept me engrossed all the way till the end.

4 stars ...more

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Jun 18, 2015 Kavita rated it liked it

Shelves: uk, mystery

A Georgette Heyer mystery, this one was refreshing after all the dull stories about dysfunctional families I had been reading. This one is too about a dysfunctional family, but much more delightful to read than the modern stuff that is being dished out and is so popular. The book starts off with a man, the unlikeable patriarch of a family lying dead and the doctor had already signed his death certificate. But then, a member of the family starts to question the nature of his death and the police ...more

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Mar 21, 2019 Jill rated it really liked it

Shelves: georgette-heyer

I am of the opinion that all families in the Golden Age were dysfunctional. The family in this book were one of the worst so far that I have read. Having said that it did keep me interested and guessing all the way through.

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May 23, 2021 Andréa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: digital, mystery-thriller-crime, classics

OK, pretty much all the main characters (except the Scotland Yard men) are unlikable in this one. Totally not ok with the romance in this one, either. (view spoiler) But, like with The Unfinished Clue, the conclusion of this one took me by surprise because (view spoiler) ...more

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Apr 12, 2020 Bev rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage-mystery, british-mystery, mystery, bought-1993

see review on other edition

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May 03, 2019 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery, mcpl-book, audionovel, virtual-mount-tbr-2019, country-house

Another of my forays into audionovel versions of mysteries. On the whole, I much prefer listening to books that I've already read at one time or another. Even if it's been a while (as with this one), things at least seem familiar once I get settled in. That's especially useful for mysteries--because I'm definitely apt to miss important points if I'm hearing the story for the first time (it's much harder to keep everything straight in my head if I'm not actually reading). Of course, with this one Another of my forays into audionovel versions of mysteries. On the whole, I much prefer listening to books that I've already read at one time or another. Even if it's been a while (as with this one), things at least seem familiar once I get settled in. That's especially useful for mysteries--because I'm definitely apt to miss important points if I'm hearing the story for the first time (it's much harder to keep everything straight in my head if I'm not actually reading). Of course, with this one I still didn't catch on to who the murderer was even though I'd read it all before.

As with my previous audionovel reviews, I'm going to focus more on the reading performance rather than the story. For my views on Heyer's work, please see the review linked to the title above. Ulli Birve is a much more talented narrator than John Franklyn-Robbins was in Murder Must Advertise. Though her tone remains languid and cultured for nearly all of Gregory Matthews's relations and acquaintances (for the most part--not counting the lower servants and the smoking shop keeper late in the story), she provides a strong range of voices and it is extraordinarily easy to keep the characters straight even though there are many of them. If I have any complaint on that score, it's that she goes a little overboard with the languid, listless tone for Randall Matthews. I do realize he's supposed to be the uninterested, sneering cousin--but she really overdoes it. I don't remember being quite so put off by his tone as it came to me off the page.

She is particularly good with the aunts, Gertrude and Harriet. Though I do think Gertrude gets short shrift in the story--she's the one who is the most honest and wants the truth to come out, no matter what it is. She knows her own mind and I only wish she weren't quite so abrasive. Strong female characters should be a good thing.

Overall, an excellent audio version of Heyer's novel. One I enjoyed quite a bit.
★★★ and a half for the audio edition. (rounded up here)

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. ...more

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Apr 15, 2022 Frances rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-series

The second of Heyer's mystery series, this was another fun read with some well-drawn characters and an interesting mystery. I look forward to reading the rest of this duo's adventures. ...more

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