Envious Casca

Envious Casca (1941) Georgette Heyer (Inspector Hemingway #2)

Joseph Herriard has decided to force Christmas upon his brother, their family, and acquaintances.

Nathaniel, regarding him with a contemptuous eye, said that a real English Christmas meant, in his experience, a series of quarrels between inimical persons bound to one another only by the accident of relationship, and thrown together by a worn-out convention.

No one, except Joseph, wants this, but as Nathaniel is rich, everyone comes.

And almost much everyone is awful.

Who cares about Elizabeth of Austria, anyway?’ asked Paula impatiently.

‘It’s history, dear,’ explained Maud.

‘Well, I hate history. I live in the present.’

She continued in this strain for several minutes, leaving the Inspector with the impression that the household contained few, if any, persons who would have been unwilling to have murdered Nathaniel.

‘Well, if it wasn’t for being frightfully rich, I don’t think I would marry Stephen,’ said Valerie, in a burst of frankness.

Except perhaps Maud.

‘I know those cheap theatrical lodging-houses, none better!’

‘It is not a theatrical lodging-house!’ said Roydon, goaded to madness. ‘It is, as you will shortly perceive, a bawdy lodging-house!’

Maud’s placid voice broke the stunned silence. ‘I expect they’re just as dirty,’ she said.

And Mathilda.

‘I always go to church on Christmas Day,’ replied Maud. ‘And on Sundays, too.’

‘One had not realised that there were still people who did!’ said Roydon, with the air of one interested in the habits of aborigines.

This was felt to be an observation in such bad taste that Mathilda at once offered to accompany Maud, and Stephen – although not going to these lengths – ranged himself on Maud’s side by telling the dramatist to shut up.

The murder itself was interesting (even if I’m not quite sure I believed it) but almost all the characters were horrible. It was obvious that Mathilda and Stephen were the romance, but Stephen was so utterly unlikable I wanted Mathilda to find someone not in the story at all to fall in love with.

Characters: Nathaniel Herriard, Joseph Herriard, Maud Herriard, Paula Herriard, Stephen Herriard, Mathilda Clare, Edgar Mottisfont, Valerie Dean, Willoughby Roydon, Albert Reginald Sturry, Ford, Maggie, Mrs Fratton, Esher, John Blyth, Inspector Colwall, Detective-Superintendent Hannasyde, Sergeant Ware, Inspector Hemingway, Major Bolton, Mrs Dean

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Rating: 6/10

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