Heyer, Georgette - They Found Him Dead (1937)

Review by Nick Fuller

2/5

A reasonably entertaining but astoundingly generic account of murder in a Large English Family, many of whom are well characterised. The best are the matriarch Mrs. Emily Kane, the “neurotic” Rosemary, and the young Mr. Timothy Harte. The book itself reads along well, although the flimsy detection takes place back to the ‘tragedy of errors’. The plot itself is uninspired and obvious, relying on the clichéd heir from Australia. Heyer was much better with creating something new from the cliché of A Blunt Instrument.

The trompe l'oeil school of painting goes to enormous lengths to make a painting seem like something it isn't -- a real vase of flowers, perhaps, or a hole in the wall. In the same way, Georgette Heyer goes to enormous lengths to make her Hannasyde novels seem like detective stories. There are murders, motives, suspects, police. There are interesting and sometimes comical conversations about the murders and the events leading up to them. There is much to-ing and fro-ing by sergeants, inspectors and constables as they check alibis and interview witnesses. They are often very entertaining books. The only thing they lack is detection.

They Found Him Dead is a case in point. Elderly Simon Kane goes for a cliff walk in the moonlight, and never comes back. Later Clement Kane is shot in his study. Superintendent Hannasyde is called in on page 96. He does a great deal of theorising. Various facts emerge -- not because of Hannasyde's investigation, but merely because people who have hitherto kept quiet decide to reveal them. Attempts are made at a third murder, while the police sit back and goggle. And right up to page 267, with only seventeen pages to go, Hannasyde is simply baffled. The intelligent reader, who has guessed the whole thing a hundred pages before, waits for the wily Superintendent to spring his trap. But there is no trap. The poor man is as guileless as a newborn babe. Only a last-minute lucky inspiration prevents the Kane murders from going into the Unsolved file forever.

Heyer has so many talents that other writers lack. It's a damn shame she couldn't take the trouble to write detective stories.

Jon.