Reading the Detectives discussion

Our April group read is: Duplicate Death, published in 1951.

London is the scene for a card party given by a social-climbing hostess. Suddenly, the seemingly civilized game of Duplicate Bridge is interrupted by a double murder, both victims murdered by the same sinister method, strangled with picture wire. The crimes seem identical, but were they carried out by the same hand? And, what was the connection between the first, a mysterious man of the world, and the second, an ambitious widow? Inspector Hemingway has his work cut out for him, and the odds of solving this crime are stacked up against him.

Things become even more complicated when Miss Beulah Birtley, the fiancée of the inspector's young friend Timothy Kane, becomes Hemingway's prime suspect. Kane is determined to prove the lady's innocence-but when he begins digging into her past, he finds it's more than a little bit shady... That morning, Miss Beulah bought the weapon. Before supper, she had spit out her hatred for the victim in poisonous--and public--words. And at the party, she was the last to see him alive. They found him slumped in a chair-his handsome head lolling forward on his well-cut dinner jacket--his florid face hideously distorted. A horrible death, observed the Inspector. But very simple for a young lady like Beulah to arrange... Mrs. Haddington, the second victim, is found strangled in the exact same spot where one of her daughter's many suitors had also been strangled. Fortunately, the first-rate detective doesn’t miss a trick.

According to Fantastic Fiction, this is the order of Heyer's crime novels:

Inspector Hannasyde
1. Death in the Stocks (1935)
aka Merely Murder
2. Behold, Here's Poison (1936)
3. They Found Him Dead (1937)
4. A Blunt Instrument (1938)

Inspector Hemingway
1. No Wind of Blame (1939)
2. Envious Casca (1941)
aka A Christmas Party
3. Duplicate Death (1951)
4. Detection Unlimited (1953)

Two of the characters in this novel, Stephen and Timothy Hart, appeared in 'They Found Him Dead,'

Feel free to post spoilers in this thread.

Stephen is Jim Kane in my version and indeed in the paperback copy I had as a child. Is this a difference between UK and US editions?

This is one of my favourite of the GH detective stories, which are of distinctly variable quality. I love the romance arc - Timothy is funny and Beulah is less smug and obnoxious than some GH heroines. It's nice to see one with some trouble in her past as they are often nauseatingly innocent ingenues.

I also like the plotting with is more simple and better thought-out than some of them. I absolutely buy Mrs Haddington as a person and the fact that her one weakness is her love for her daughter. It makes the motive for the first murder far more convincing than in many of these books. I'm slightly less convinced by Lance Guisborough, who just seems to be an excuse for some heavy-handed satire on Communism, but I can live with it.

Annabel wrote: "Stephen is Jim Kane in my version and indeed in the paperback copy I had as a child. Is this a difference between UK and US editions?"

He's Jim in 'They Found Him Dead', too, so I'd guess this is an error.

I think Judy just got the name wrong. Too many books, too many characters :)

Looks as if the name is wrong in the Amazon/Goodreads blurb which is included in the first post of this thread. Sorry, I got it wrong in one of my earlier posts, in the other thread, when I checked it either here or on the Amazon page.

I also think there is a character called Stephen who is very similar to Jim and Timothy in one of the other Heyer books!

Annabel wrote: "I also like the plotting with is more simple and better thought-out than some of them. I absolutely buy Mrs Haddington as a person and the fact that her one weakness is her love for her daughter.h..."

I thought it was a bit too obvious that the missing powder compact was a key clue, but I didn't realise that the seamstress's chatter was too!

I didn't really like the drug plot - a bit grim for a light murder mystery like this - and I agree about the whole Lance Guisborough story being an excuse for some heavy-handed satire on communism. All in all I wasn't a bit fan of this book, though there were some amusing lines as always with Heyer.

Judy wrote: "Looks as if the name is wrong in the Amazon/Goodreads blurb which is included in the first post of this thread. Sorry, I got it wrong in one of my earlier posts, in the other thread, when I checked..."

There's a Stephen in Envious Casca which I'm now on- have been hit by a sudden hunger for rereading Heyer. He's not at all like Timothy or Jim though - he's variously described as dark, saturnine, grim, sardonic, etc. More like Raymond in Penhallow.

It's also making me realise the difference in quality between these books. The humour and general setting of Envious Casca is very heavy-handed, with the emphasis on the absurdity of this ill-mixed family trying to have a lovely old-fashioned Christmas laid on with a trowel. Agatha Christie's The Hollow does a similar thing far more successfully but also DD is far more subtle and witty, as shown by the excerpts about Cynthia quoted further up the thread.

I disagree that the drug plot was too dark for this book. It was treated lightly with the victims getting intervention treatment. What I found grim was imagining strangulation with picture wire.

I found the anti-Communist propaganda very heavy handed but probably indicative of the times.

I agree on both points with Sandy but to see the disasters of Communism as ' the more displeasing activities of an Asiatic race' is a bit much in the 1950s.

Because of Heyer's prejudices, we all got to know who the second murderer was much before Hemingway. A Communist Lord!

Yes, the picture wire was pretty grim too, I agree - but then the murder methods in these mysteries quite often are!

I think I may have come across a Communist Lord somewhere else, but I can't remember where.

Did anyone else feel completely convinced when they read this book that Cynthia was responsible for her mother's death? Every time I read it I think that is the case. I think Heyer was very clever hiding the clue to the truth in the seamstress' inconsequential chatter.

Judy wrote: "Yes, the picture wire was pretty grim too, I agree - but then the murder methods in these mysteries quite often are!

I think I may have come across a Communist Lord somewhere else, but I can't rem..."

I am sure that there must have been some Communist Peer. It is just that Heyer found the idea abhorrent.

Jemima wrote: "Did anyone else feel completely convinced when they read this book that Cynthia was responsible for her mother's death? Every time I read it I think that is the case. I think Heyer was very clever ..."

I was at a loss to be honest - I didn't see Cynthia as having enough brains to be a killer! Heyer totally bamboozled me in this one and I did not guess either of the culprits.

I didn't know who it was going to be, but also thought Cynthia wasn't smart enough to be the killer.

I did not guess the first murderer but the moment 'a little woman who comes to me' starts nattering about how she knew Lord Guisborough's mother it started becoming clear.

Jackie wrote: "I didn't know who it was going to be, but also thought Cynthia wasn't smart enough to be the killer."

I'm with you here, Jackie. To be honest, I thought both of them were a bit implausible. This wasn't the best of her mysteries that I've read, but I still enjoyed her writing.

Tania, that is the point, isn't it? The quality of her writing is quite special. Hence, my decision to try out some of her Regency novels.

Bicky wrote: "Tania, that is the point, isn't it? The quality of her writing is quite special. Hence, my decision to try out some of her Regency novels."

I absolutely agree her writing is special. even the books I didn't like on first read grow on me as I age. for me, that's the mysteries.

Yes, I have enjoyed bother her mysteries and regency Novels in the past. I think she excels at characterisation rather than mystery plots, so I don't mind the implausible solutions.

I like this one, I am very fond of Inspector Hemmingway, he is a delightful character, great sense of humour and very down to earth. Not improbably posh like the detectives of some of Heyer's contemporaries. Envious Casca is my favourite Hemmingway story I think, but Duplicate Death is very good too.

Hemmingway is my favorite character in all the mysteries, when I read one with Hannaside I find him a bit dull by comparison.

Jackie wrote: "Hemmingway is my favorite character in all the mysteries, when I read one with Hannaside I find him a bit dull by comparison."

I find him dull as well. I wish she had made Hemmingway the main detective in the earlier books.