No Wind of Blame - Georgette Heyer - SPOILER Thread

[Susan]

This is the first in the Inspector Hemingway mysteries, first published in 1939.

A Russian Prince, scandal and blackmail, a lot of theatrics, plus a murder which seems almost impossible to solve...

http://www.georgette-heyer.com/books/...

Please feel free to post spoilers in this thread.

[Roman Clodia]

What a fun read! It felt as if Heyer had released her more malicious side here than in her romances, with a whole slew of foolish or unpleasant people. I'm just surprised no-one had murdered Wally earlier...

Perhaps it's just me but I felt the 'murder by mechanism' was a bit of a cheat.

[Susan]

Me too, Roman Clodia, but I enjoyed the book so far that I overlooked the rather bizarre murder method!

[Jill]

Yes, I did feel that was a bit of a cheat , however, I felt it was a bit more fun to add to the daughter's reinvention of herself every five minutes.
I wasn't that upset with Wally, as everyone seemed to be trying to get money from his wife, and she was openly flaunting a friendship with quite a few males besides the Prince

[Roman Clodia]

Yes, I loved Vicky, too! I felt Ermyntrude (listened to the audiobook so unsure of spelling) was foolish but essentially benign whereas both Wally and the awful White were brutal and cruel. The way White treated poor Janet, his daughter - I wanted to reach into the book and murder him myself!

[Susan]

I didn't think Wally was so bad, at first. Everyone seemed to be in love with Ermyntrude, so his behaviour was viewed with displeasure. Getting money out of her was one thing, but getting a local girl pregnant, especially one of such a lower class, was obviously humiliating. Mind you, Heyer had no real sympathy with the girl in question, did she? We find a similar thing in Nemesis, next month. Interesting to see these views, considering the current news stories as well.

[Roman Clodia]

Maybe I was influenced by the audiobook narrator as she gave Wally an aggressive and rude voice right from the start. I'm not sure, though, that Heyer sympathised with anyone and part of the fun was the unalloyed bitchiness!

The joke about the 'prince' and Prince the dog made me giggle!

[Jill]

The girl in question didn't seem too put out and her brother only really wanted enough money for the child's upbringing, which would have fallen to him otherwise. I think there is evidence of many a " lower class" girl being paid off or got rid of ,if they found themselves in this situation. Mostly completely hushed up by both sides

[Susan]

Yes, true enough. There is just always that reasoning that the girl is at fault. Anyway, overall, a fun and enjoyable read. I'm glad I read it.

[Jill]

The dog joke did make me smile, as I was named after the old Scottish terrier my parents owned at the time of my birth. Luckily for me I suppose she only lived just past my second birthday so not much confusion.

[Betsy]

Most of the characters really turned me off, especially the women. They were all a pain in the neck and, for me, they really detracted from the story. Hemingway was in it so little, I really can't tell what kind of policeman he really is. For me, it is the detective that makes the story, so right now, I am very leery of the Hemingway mysteries.
It was also much too long for what she was trying to convey. Too much irrelevant chatter that had nothing to do with the mystery.

[Lady Clementina]

Susan wrote: "Me too, Roman Clodia, but I enjoyed the book so far that I overlooked the rather bizarre murder method!"

So did I- in fact I actually enjoyed how Hemingway worked out the complicated mechanism

[Lady Clementina]

I enjoyed the Prince/Prince joke as well.

[Lady Clementina]

Susan wrote: "I didn't think Wally was so bad, at first. Everyone seemed to be in love with Ermyntrude, so his behaviour was viewed with displeasure. Getting money out of her was one thing, but getting a local g..."

Initially it seemed to me as though none of them had a strong enough motive to actually kill Wally, despicable though he was.

[Lady Clementina]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Yes, I loved Vicky, too! I felt Ermyntrude (listened to the audiobook so unsure of spelling) was foolish but essentially benign whereas both Wally and the awful White were brutal and cruel. The way..."

Vicky was fun certainly but I wouldn't have been as accommodating had I been in place of the Inspector- I mean this was a murder investigation after all.

[Susan]

I never really thought it was Ermyntrude who was guilty, even though she had a motive. She might have been annoying, but she had a very kind heart - she was always thoughtful towards Mary and, at the end, even towards Janet and Alan. Vicky didn't annoy me, but I also thought - in the beginning - that Hugh liked Mary!

[Judy]

I agree the murder method/revelation was a bit of a cheat - there didn't seem to be any way of deducing whodunit until the answer was suddenly revealed! But I wasn't too bothered as the main delights of this book for me were the characters and the dialogue.

[Judy]

Susan, I also thought Hugh and Mary would be an item at the start and was surprised when he starts to get on increasingly well with Vicky.

I thought the doctor ending up with Mary was a bit random - had we had any hints of that earlier, or was it like the supporting characters who get married off at the end of Shakespeare comedies?! I actually had the doctor down as a suspect, lol.

[Susan]

I thought the doctor liked Ermyntrude! There were some great names in this, by the way.

[Roman Clodia]

Yes, I though Hugh and Mary... until Vicky starting telling him how dull he is and then I 'got' it! Mary and the doctor, though, completely out of the blue!

[Roman Clodia]

Hemingway was a disappointment: I couldn't get any kind of handle on him - maybe he emerges more as a character in the later books?

[Lady Clementina]

Roman Clodia wrote: "Yes, I though Hugh and Mary... until Vicky starting telling him how dull he is and then I 'got' it! Mary and the doctor, though, completely out of the blue!"

I wondered since it was hinted Hugh admired Mary but the interactions with Vicky seemed to suggest something else altogether.

Re the doctor and Mary- while I too thought he was interested in Ermyntrude till all was revealed, thinking back I realise their interactions (Mary and Doctor) did show them to be close friends.

[Rosina]

I could see the Hugh/Vicky relationship developing, but the Maurice/Mary one did come out of the blue. I suppose because it would have cleared him of any suspicion in the murder. The book wouldn't have suffered if the ending had merely hinted that there might in future be a relationship.

[Susan]

She is an author who likes to wrap things up, rather like Christie, I think, Rosina. Must be her romantic streak :)

[Judy]

I quite enjoyed Hemingway but it's a shame he doesn't come into the story a bit earlier, rather than the boring inspector who is messing up the investigations up to that point!

[Susan]

No, you don't really get to know Hemingway, do you?

[Marwan]

Vicky was very annoying, Ermyntrude was the queen of drama. Wally was fine until he ratted out his wife ( I really despised him), you know when his cousin wanted to borrow the rifle and Wally told him that his wife was against it.

[Susan]

I can see how people found the characters annoying. Personally, I quite liked most of them. Wally was a weak character - the kind of man who props up the bar of the local pub and moans about everyone, touches people for a loan and never buys a round... He married the wrong woman, for the wrong reasons. What she saw in him was less clear, but then he could be charming, I suppose, when he wanted to.

[Lady Clementina]

Susan wrote: "I can see how people found the characters annoying. Personally, I quite liked most of them. Wally was a weak character - the kind of man who props up the bar of the local pub and moans about everyo..."

I could too- I liked Vicky but realised (as I said) she would have been a bit of a nuisance if I were investigating.

[Lady Clementina]

Susan wrote: "I never really thought it was Ermyntrude who was guilty, even though she had a motive. She might have been annoying, but she had a very kind heart - she was always thoughtful towards Mary and, at t..."

I didn't think that was likely either- she disapproved of divorce not Wally so it wasn't his fault if she really did consider leaving him. But I don't think she did- it was more about having a string of admirers.

[Susan]

At first, I found Ermyntrude a bit tiring, but, by the end of the book, I liked her much more. She did like the attention though, as did her daughter...

[Rosina]

The best thing about Hemingway (and Hannasyde) was that neither of them had a drink problem, PTSD (although they might well be WWI veterans) or a murdered wife whose killer remained unconvicted. Not knowing much about them was a plus in my book!

[Betsy]

Agreed. Many modern detectives are such basket cases, and we hear about their problems almost as much as the mystery.

[Susan]

That's a good point, Rosina. More emphasis on the mystery and less on the actual investigator can be refreshing :)

[Leslie]

What do you all think about Alan & his love of things Russian?

I was amused by his character but find it unlikely that he would have appealed to Vicky even briefly. Do you think that she took him up just to annoy Mary & her mother?

[Betsy]

Vicky was annoying in all her poses so she probably just picked one at random, and Alan 'lucked' out.

[Judy]

I thought Alan was quite amusing - nearly as fond of acting as Vicky!

[Lady Clementina]

Judy wrote: "I thought Alan was quite amusing - nearly as fond of acting as Vicky!"

The inspector was happy to oblige as well- he had to have known what was coming.

[Susan]

Alan probably wasn't unusual at that time, when politics was so heavily divided. Choosing Communism for many was a reaction against Mosley's Blackshirts and rising fascism. Alan just seemed to be tolerantly ignored, with people assuming he would grow out of it. It was extra sweet that Ermyntrude took him and his sister in - not only was their father responsible for the death of her husband, but they were both quite annoying in different ways!

[Judy]

Talking of Russians, what did anybody think of the Russian Prince in this novel? I had the impression he had made up an awful lot of his experiences - are we supposed to believe any of his stories?!

[Roman Clodia]

I didn't believe a word of his stories, and enjoyed the Prince as a character precisely because I saw him as an utter fraud!

Btw, when did people think the story was set? I see this was written in 1939 but it felt earlier to me - still quite a long way from the 1917 revolution for the Prince to still be harping on about it rather than Stalinism.

[Judy]

Definitely felt earlier to me too, R.C., and agreed about the 1917 revolution. I thought this must be set in the 1920s, but didn't spot any definite indications of the date apart from the Prince's tall tales of the Bolsheviks. (Is he a prince at all?)

[Susan]

I have read about those who fled the revolution and ended up, mostly in Paris, but who never really got beyond that event in their life. Perhaps it did just override everything they did and, remember, lots of people never really knew about the horrors of Stalinism until much later. Was it H G Wells who wrote about how trustworthy Stalin was just before WWII?

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics...

Actually, it was 1934.

As for the Prince, yes, he was probably a huge fraud.

[Judy]

I thought the ending was a bit of a cheat as there was a sudden revelation of information that hadn't been hinted at earlier... but it was a nice twist that Ermyntrude was right in her suspicions after all - if for all the wrong reasons!

[Susan]

I am sure she let everyone know she was right too, Judy!

[Roman Clodia]

Judy wrote: "I thought the ending was a bit of a cheat as there was a sudden revelation of information that hadn't been hinted at earlier... but it was a nice twist that Ermyntrude was right in her suspicions a..."

I thought a double-cheat, really, with the flurry of revelations and the mechanism of murder. All the same, the wit, the malicious fun and the characters all had a standout role and made up for it.

[Susan]

Yes, I loved the whole feel of this. Very tongue in cheek, with a good cast of characters.

[Roman Clodia]

I'm listening to Envious Casca at the moment and the format is the same with deliciously irritating characters all gathered together for Xmas - I'm liking it even more than Winds and found myself smirking on the tube last night!

[Susan]

Yes, it's quite similar in feel. I enjoyed it too.

[Sandy]

Finished last night and enjoyed the cast of characters. I didn't find the solution as much of a cheat as others have. For me, the fact that the dog didn't bark was a clear indication that there was no shooter present. Which then pointed to the person with the 'unbreakable' alibi. But there was no motive. Eventually, when Hemmingway started looking for the aunt's relatives, I remembered there was a link between Wally and White. And I remembered White had been in the gun room with a case. However the fact that one gun would it into the case but the other wouldn't was confusing. It highlights how very little I know (or care) about guns and the differences between shotguns and rifles.

So, while I am very proud of how much I figured out, I don't think it would have worked. Aiming the gun correctly and timing Wally's passage over the bridge to be able to shoot him thru the heart seems very unlikely.