Last summer, I read my first Heyer mystery, "Why Shoot a Butler," which I described as a "romp." But I have to admit that Heyer mysteries just don't have the same spark of life and liveliness as her Regency novels. Both mysteries I've now read have the same kind of broad age span and type of character as Heyer's novels. The mysteries even included romantic pairings, but neither the couples nor the concepts are memorable on the scale of her classic novels like "Venetia" or "The Grand Sophy."
The mystery is always plausible (though this time I figured out the killer quite early on) and they're never bloody, even when the victim is shot in the head, as is the case in this story of successive heirs to a fortune being murdered for reasons that aren't entirely clear. I need to avert my eyes the next time I spy one of those seductive covers on a cold gray day. They're definitely more entertaining than what's between them.
