Georgette Heyer Fans discussion

"Having extricated the car from the ditch with the aid of a farm-horse, Charles and Peter drove it into Mansfield..."

Heavens! I said M. Duval was not long for this world and now here he is in Ch.13 dead as a doornail! Too bad I was not at the seance--I clearly have gifts ;)

Strange wasn't at the Inn when Duval died, but then Col. Ackerley was not at home then, either, and Peter and Charles don't seem the least bit suspicious of him!

I know! Peter and Charles are obviously not used to spotting crooks!

Indeed! And they don't even wonder when the pukka sahib very suspiciously deflects any discussion of his time in India....Col. Ackerley is way up there on my list.

And Mr. Titmarsh chasing moths all over the place doesn't bother them, either, even though the constable is obviously inept at keeping an eye on him. They're just surface-lookers, I'm afraid!

A bit blinkered by class-consciousness!

Meanwhile...Peter and Margaret are now locked in a dungeon!!! And they think they hear a printing press?

Ch. 26: The Monk unveiled!

These are the most exciting chapters. When idiotic Margaret gets shut up in the secret passageway and stupid Peter goes charging in to rescue her, well I just couldn't put it down.

The story gets rather cheesy from there though. "OMG we're locked in a dungeon!" "OMG it's a printing press! I wonder what they're printing?" "How do we get out of here? "OH no it's the Monk... oh wait it's only Strange. No he can't be the Monk because I lurrrvvee him." Anyone else want to leave Margaret locked in the cellar after that?

Hana wrote: "Indeed! And they don't even wonder when the pukka sahib very suspiciously deflects any discussion of his time in India....Col. Ackerley is way up there on my list."

That was the clue that made me positive he was The Monk. I knew because it's always the person who says "Oh don't worry you can tell me!" the one who knows everything is obviously the one whodunnit because who else knows what's going on? Charles and Peter reserve a place on the stupid list for that.

I did think maybe Titmarsh was involved but he was so sweet, I didn't want it to be him.

The romance just did not work at all. They've seen each other like 3 times and he lied to her the first two times. That's a great way to begin a relationship.

Ha! I guessed right on both the good guys and the bad ones. But I have to agree, Qnpoobear, once Strange shows up all the air sort of goes out of the story and it's just a muddle of a run for the finish.

I'm afraid I suddenly got fed up with this book and stopped reading it halfway through chapter 12. I just found all the stereotyping too much, not balanced by enough real people that I cared about. Tortured Frenchman, cloddish constable, eccentric moth-man...

I thought it improved a fair bit up until ch. 26 and then it went rapidly downhill, but I agree, HJ. too many stereotypes--the characters never came alive for me. Just a so-so mild diversion.