Well done! My firm suspicion of who-done-it was incorrect, too. The Mexican as exotic foreigner business was a trifle icky (although I thought Lola herself was charming but probably would have been exhausting in real life). Probably true to the times though.

Plucky heroine, ridiculous (humorous) characters & a touch of romance. Everyone seems to have a motive for killing Sir Arthur, the question is how to eliminate suspects to find the real murderer. I always enjoy a mystery that surprises me with the ending.

It was good, and came within a hairs breadth of being quite good.

This is just a bit of fun. I feel like it Agatha Christie and Jane Austen had a literary baby, it would be this book. So if you like either of those two, even just a little, you'll enjoy this I bet.

Couldn't have happened to a better chap. I was thoroughly delighted when the victim was murdered. Excellent. Made everyone's lives better all round.

I really enjoy Heyer's mysteries. I prefer them to Christie's. The characters and conversations seem more real, and writing is more fluid. None of that, "And he said...then she said....then he said....then she said" stuff you get in some Christie novels ie And Then There Were None. Some of the characters are hilarious. Lola was brilliant, though I wouldn't want to be anywhere near her in real life.

I felt sure I had figured out the murderer quite early on but I was very very wrong, and was so shocked that I literally gasped out loud, put the book down, and stared into the distance for a while. Ha! It's so delightful when I predict the wrong murderer.

As always loved the premise and the motley crew but didn't like the actual whodunnit revelation. It could have been another character who had the personality and the motive.

I personally would've loved for it to be yet another character but then that would've ruined a subplot.

Another buddy read with Sophie!


I love Georgette Heyer. She is a great writer! When Sophie suggested we tackle one of her mysteries I got excited because I had never done so on my own. I have read her romances (which are always a joy because she doesn't add sex) and loved them dearly. So I agreed and we selected The Unfinished Clue - a standalone and not part of detective series.

This book is like Clue the film, only a deeper character study. You have a group of people who all are brought together for a weekend by the utterly awful Sir Arthur. Some are friends, some are not. But they all must get along. Heyer builds up who they are and immediately by their interactions you know who likes who, who puts up with who.

Then Sir Arthur gets murdered and you're left with a group of people who suspect one another.

The only person you don't suspect is Dinah. Our little cheeky, no-nonsense, kick ass female (think Jessica Brown Findlay) and her trying to manage the nerves of Sir Arthur' widow, her sister Fay (think Lily James).

Then you meet Inspector Harding, who has come from Scotland Yard to take care of this since it has become a bit complicated for local authorities. He has to meet this group of people and find out who is the killer.

The reason I rated this book down one star is - here we go - Mrs. Heyer's dislike? stereotyping? period accurate sense of entitlement? of focusing on people of Jewish descent. Like in The Grand Sophy, where you had a character that was focused on (and was) a moneylender, she made sure to really ramp up the stereotype. Here, a character that you hardly see in the rest of the book shows up and the first thing one of the characters' says is 'Oh the Jew is here'. The fuck? Then there is a huge comparison to a moneylender/Jewish person (in Heyer's eyes gold teeth, oily/greesy looks/rolling in money)... As I read with Sophie, I couldn't seem to figure out if the character was Jewish or Heyer was just stereotyping him based on stereotype of a Jewish person. Nevertheless it was bizarre and the dude was pretty harmless and an stage-agent/entertainment agent to another character.

While the paragraph is short, it was enough to knock that down a star. Also, the hook up between two characters was pretty fast and was kind of crazy that they were to be married after the ordeal.

Still, it was a good read and I enjoyed it immensely. If you haven't read one of her mysteries, I do recommend starting with this one.

A nice story, a good mystery where everyone is a good suspect until the end.