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Saturday, April 16, 2011
Because Bev from My Reader's Block is a
Why Shoot a Butler?
by Georgette Heyer
The lawyer and sometime detective Frank Amberley is off to visit his aunt, uncle, and cousin (the Matthews) in the country. Due to his cousin's inaccurate directions, Amberley finds himself late for dinner and on a deserted road. Well, it was deserted until he came upon a young woman standing by a car. Despite her unfriendliness (and his own pique) Amberley stops and discovers that there is a dead man in the car, who has been shot through the chest. The young woman begs him not to say anything about her presences but also refuses to let him drive her home.
It turns out that the man in the car was the butler to the Matthews' neighbors, the Fountains. (On a totally unrelated note, the younger half sister of Mr. Fountain is Joan Fountain and I had a devil of a time not reading "Joan Fontaine" each time). Amberley somewhat reluctantly agrees to get involved, though he is convinced that the murder of the butler is only one (fairly uninteresting) link in a (much more interesting) melodrama. He's right of course, but he's still utterly obnoxious to the police, and terribly stingy with clues. As the investigation progresses two more characters die and the Matthews' house is burgled twice.
Overall, I had a really good time reading this book. Occasionally, I got annoyed with Amberley because he was unnecessarily rude; he positively seemed to enjoy hurting people's feelings. I was much more in sympathy with his aunt, Lady Matthews. She was definitely a high point of the book for me. Possessed with sangfroid and intelligence, her rather incomplete way of structuring sentences reminds me of Miss Marple. I did resent that we were not really given all the clues, but the chase was great fun.
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