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1 internautes sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
4.0étoiles sur 5
Light-hearted romance with a bit of mystery, Déc 12 2000
This is one of Heyer's most complicated murder mysteries. It is absolutely stuffed full of red-herrings.As usual Heyer takes us to a classic English village, sometime in the 1930's, and into the home of Ermintrude, her daughter Vicki, Ermintrude's second husband Wally Carter and Wally's young relative - Miss Cliffe. Add to that mysterious Russian Princes, strange goings on in various shrubberies and unexpected shooting and you do have a very nice base for a mystery in the usual ironic Heyer-style. In classic Heyer way she also mixes in a little romance, but in very un-Heyer-like move she does a switch in the romance which never ceases to annoy me each time I read it. In the beginning we are made to think that Mary Cliffe is the lead heroine and Vicki, daughter of the singularly eccentric Ermintrude, as the flaky it-girl. Somewhere in mid-book things suddenly do a volte-face and we are expected to accept Vicki as the heroine....anyway... I don't know that this is one of Heyer's best mysteries, I rather like Behold Here's Poison - best - but it does deliver in wit and substance. It also offers a very satisfying mystery to try to work out.
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1 internautes sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0étoiles sur 5
A period piece mystery that deserves a second look., Aoû 23 1999
Par Un client
Georgette Heyer was considered an excellent mystery writer when she began writing her stories in the 1930's. No wind of blame was written in 1939 and tells a neat story of murder and social manners of the time. There is an inspector and his superintendent, many clues spread throughout the story and a little love story all rolled into one. A great read if you enjoy English village mysteryies.
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3.0étoiles sur 5
Great mystery novel with wonderful historical accuracy, Nov. 15 2009
I liked this book because it seemed to have captured the very essence of English society of the time and it was just so accurately done I had no problems picturing the setting, the characters, and as I progressed with the story it just got more interesting.
I loved the mystery aspect of this, it certainly did keep me guessing! you're actually left until nearly the very end to learn who the culprit was. I found myself always changing my mind on who might have done it (some of my guesses were so outrageous I'm actually laughing about it now) but it was nice how it was written to make it look like as if each of the suspects could have possibly done it since they all had a motive to do it. Each suspect was explained with their possible connection to the murder and it was done in such a clever way you're left jumping from one character to another pointing the finger as to who did it. Definitely a job well done in that aspect of writing.
Character wise, I liked most of them. With a name like Ermyntrude what's not to like! I have to admit I liked Mary from the start. She just seemed so steady and had a serious head on her shoulders I enjoyed her character a lot. I thought Vicky was one of the most annoying characters in the book. I couldn't really stand her and her melodrama and immaturity just made you hate her even more, especially when she started pointing the finger and trying to get Inspector Hemingway to go to other possible suspects to take the blame off of her (in many ways I had it set in my head that she was the one who committed the crime and she was my main suspect, but only because I just couldn't stand her and wanted her out of the way). Hugh doesn't really help much with telling Vicky to be quiet and I really don't see what he sees in her but to each his/her own, right? (I rather wanted him to be with Mary). The Prince was such a stereotypical charming character but had a phony side to him that made him enjoyable to read, especially his behavior towards Ermyntrude, it was obvious he was after her, but it was just funny to see him try and get her attention.
A few criticisms about this book, well the plot is a little slow but it's to give you a proper introduction to the characters and a way to get you to know them more so the mystery will work out perfectly. I understand that and think it was a necessity otherwise if you were just to read about the suspects and their motives without really getting to know their character it just wouldn't be a fun read at all. It could have moved a little more quickly though. Another thing, because this book was written in the 30's, it's a very different style of writing and I found it a little hard to get used to. Plus Inspector Hemingway got so analytical about the case, and if you combine that with the style of writing it got hard to follow and understand sometimes. I had to reread some passages to get the understanding of it.
Overall, a wonderful mystery read if you have the patience to get through the writing and a slow moving but interesting plot.
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