Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer

Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer ISBN-13: 9781402217975 Trade Paperback: 314 pages Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Released: 1935; October 2009

Source: Bought through Half.com.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
In the dead of the night, a man in an evening dress is found murdered, locked in the stocks on the village green. Unfortunately for Superintendent Hannasyde, the deceased is Andrew Vereker, a man hated by nearly everyone. Even his eccentric family doesn't mourn his death. It will take all Hannasyde's skill at detection to determine who's telling the truth, and who is pointing him in the wrong direction.


My Review:
Death in the Stocks is a historical cozy mystery set in 1930's England. (It was written as a contemporary mystery.)

Though a detective is involved, we mostly followed the lives of the prime suspects--an eccentric family. They were odd and sometimes thoughtless about other people's feelings, but they weren't trying to be cruel. They treated the crime as an intellectual game and logically (as a group) tried to figure out how various people with motives--including each other--could have pulled it off. Their eccentric behavior regarding the crime was the basis for most of the funny scenes.

This was a clue-based puzzle mystery, and you could guess whodunit before the big reveal. I correctly guessed whodunit fairly early on, but it was mostly based on my knowledge of the author's writing style. I wasn't actually certain based on the clues until closer to the end. I enjoyed trying to decide if I really had the correct whodunit.

There was no sex. There was a fair amount of explicit bad language (mostly of the God-reference variety). Overall, I'd recommend this silly novel to fans of Heyer's mysteries.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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