Duplicate Death (Inspector Hemingway Book 3) by Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer, famous for her Regencies, wrote quite a few mysteries that have stood the test of time. The Characters are quite charming-very posh and have hidden secrets. The time-frame warrants both "bounders" and debutantes with hard as nails Mama's not to mention our likeable Kane's who featured in a previous book. What more could you ask of a teaser of a mystery?


Mr. Timothy Kane has taken a decided interest in Miss Beulah Birtley, secretary to Mrs. Haddington. She is dark, and has some sort of mystery as well as a large chip on her shoulder. Mr. Kane's Mama has sent his big Brother down to check everything out- only to wander into a murder. The mystery has a lot of interesting characters...very English and clues are thrown out with increasing regularity as Inspector Hemingway has to dig into each story. His faithful sidekick, Inspector Grant, has an endearing way of sprinkling his sentences with Gaelic.

But will this be the only murder Hemingway has to deal with? I fund this Mystery quite wonderful in its period expressions and details to clothes, drawing-rooms and even a nod to the wild and frivolous lifestyle of the rich. Published in 1951 it has all the background of the 1930's which is when many of the other mysteries were published. If you like this Golden Age Period or Heyer's writing you will certainly want to read this. I gave it five stars.

Blurb:


An elegant card party turns deadly...

Inspector Hemingway has his work cut out for him when a seemingly civilized game of Duplicate Bridge leads to a double murder. The crimes seem identical, but were they carried out by the same hand? Things become even more complicated when the fiancée of the inspector's young friend Timothy Kane becomes Hemingway's prime suspect. Kane is determined to prove the lady's innocence-but when he begins digging into her past, he finds it's more than a little bit shady...