Georgette Heyer: Death in the Stocks

• ISBN-13: 9781402217975
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
• Publication date: 10/1/2009
• Pages: 314

 A moonlit night, a sleeping village, and an unaccountable murder....
 In the dead of night, a man in evening dress is found murdered, locked in the stocks on the village green. Unfortunately for Superintendent Hannasyde, the deceased is Arnold Vereker, a man hated by nearly everyone, especially his odd and unhelpful family members. The Verekers are as eccentric as they are corrupt, and 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. The question is: who in this family is clever enough to get away with murder? 

Georgette Heyer does it again. I don't think I've run across a Heyer novel that I don't like, although some occasionally stray into TMI territory. Not TMI in a bad way, just too detailed and a little boring. But she always pulls it out. What makes her detective/mystery novels so great are not necessarily the intricacy or originality of the plotlines, but rather that which always makes Heyer stand out - her great characters. She creates characters that are humorous and sympathetic, and she does not disappoint in this entry in her canon.
 When Arnold Vereker is murdered, suspicion turns to his immediate relatives and those close to them, a development they seem in no hurry to avert. Rather, Kenneth courts suspicion and seems to take great pleasure in foiling the police and seeing how far he can push them, while discussing how he would theoretically murder his half-brother with his sister, Antonia, the other half of the suspected Vereker pair.They continue to play this cat and mouse game to the dismay of their counsel, and cousin, Giles Carrington. As the story progresses, suspicion turns from one sibling to the other, then to their respective fiancés, and they continue to speculate on how they each could have committed the murder. Not that they did, of course. 
 It's almost amusing how ineffectual Hanasyde is in this novel. Normally he's right there, solving the cases, but this time he seems to just be sort of helplessly swept along by the force of Giles' investigation and the Vereker's personalities. You sort of feel sorry for him, really. The end is a little surprising, purely because you knew that the culprit was going to be one of the cast of characters as that is how Heyer operates - she doesn't pin the murder on a random passerby that isn't introduced to the novel until the final chapters. But that is all I will say on the matter. Scouts honor.
 Overall: A-
 The mystery wasn't there as much as it has been in previous books. The investigation seemed to loose its steam several times along the way, although the reader was suitably distracted by the developing relationships, so they didn't feel the loss of a cogent plot.