Book Review: THE UNFINISHED CLUE

Title: The Unfinished Clue

Author: Georgette Heyer
Publisher: Arrow
Pages: 320
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

This book had the air of a cozy mystery.

General Sir Arthur Billington=Smith is an insufferable boor to everyone who comes in contact with him. His first wife left him and her little son, Geoffrey, behind and ran away with someone. Now he is married to Fay, a woman many years his junior, and he persists in making life miserable for her.

On one fateful weekend, he manages to annoy a houseful of guests. He disinherits his son, who had just announced his engagement with Lola De Sola, a cabaret dancer from Mexico. He gets into an argument with nephew Francis, who wants his uncle to pay his debts, and he humiliates Fay by openly flirting with Camilla Halliday, whose husband Basil resents his host and is in need of money. Then there is Stephen Guest who worships Fay and resents Arthur’s treatment of her. The final member of the party is Dinah Fawcett, Fay’s younger sister, who dislikes her brother-in-law and is disliked in turn.

The entry of the Vicar and his wife, the Chudleighs, and Mrs Twining, old friend of Arthur, adds more disagreement to the mix. There’s potential for trouble as guests speak their mind without a care for the consequences.

When Arthur is found stabbed in his study, Inspector Harding of Scotland Yard has no dearth of suspects. How will he find the killer?

The book, written in the last century, reeks of Britain’s colonialism, and is entrenched in the British empire’s innate sense of its own superiority. Even on the rare occasion when it makes fun of the English, it manages to convey that they are still far superior to everyone else.

The writing wasn’t bad, but the book takes far too long to establish the relationships between the characters and their individual eccentricities. As late as page 64, the threats mentioned on the back of the book hadn’t come about. The murder finally takes place on page 89.

As in the case of most murder mysteries involving large house parties, I didn’t bother suspecting anyone. I knew it would be a wasted effort. I guessed the full meaning of the unfinished clue, but, like Inspector Harding, I took it to the wrong conclusion.

More than the investigation, what I enjoyed were the character portraits that the author drew. The manners, foibles and character traits distinguish the characters. Most of the characters are true to their types. Stephen Guest is the strong, silent type, while Fay is the wilting lily. Lola and Camilla are self-centred. The vicar and his wife enjoy gossiping while pretending to have a holiness they do not possess.

Lola and Camilla are both engrossed in themselves and see themselves as the centre of the universe. Mrs Twining alone works as the voice of reason. Ever Dinah, whose limited PoV serves as the book’s narrator, isn’t without censure when it comes to antagonising Arthur. The only reason why she isn’t on the list of the suspects is that the author probably wants to smooth out all obstacles in the way of the romance. For this reason, she is given an obviously convenient alibi that no one questions, thereby enabling Inspector Harding to nurture his attraction towards her.

At first the romance is slow and unobtrusive, but it very quickly takes centre stage to the extent that we are not given closure on what happened subsequently to a number of the characters.

I liked Dinah’s witty repartee with everyone else, and her non-nonsense attitude, as also her bond with her sister. The author has written some of the cleverest lines for her. Fay, on the other hand, could have done with a little more spirit.

Also, it would have been nice to have a series with Inspector Harding. It was foolish of him to chuck up what might have been an entertaining career (for us), just to get married to Dinah and keep house with her.