Blunt Instrument (Inspector Hannasyde, #4)

by Georgette Heyer

[wyvernfriend]

I was right!! During the last third of the book I had a sudden conviction of who was the murderer, and I was right.I feel rather chuffed about that, pleased with myself over it.
 
And I will spend the next few days thinking, writing and speaking in early 20th Century English. Some authors do that to one.
 
Ernest Fletcher (and yes, the Murder She Wrote theme music was a regular feature of my reading of this) is found bludgeoned to death. Most of the people around him describe him as well-liked but this is on the surface only.  When he's found dead and there doesn't appear to be a very long window of opportunity Superintendent Hannasyde has to investigate, helped and hindered by his bible thumping Constable Glass and the indolent nephew of the deceased Neville.  As the layers begin to be scraped off the stories a lot of suspects begin to mount up and things get more and more complicated. Then a second body turns up...
 
I enjoyed it, inter-war fiction is some of my favourite reads and this was a good example, yes the characters behave in strange-to-a-modern-reader manners but I just let the story flow and enjoy.  While I did work out the murderer it was still interesting to see what would happen with the main characters.  I found it enjoyable.
 
This could fall into Terrifying women and Murder most foul and I've used those.