Search - Duplicate Death

Another nice foray into Georgette Heyer's mystery collection. I enjoyed the return of two characters from one of Heyer's earlier books: Jim Kane and "Terrible Timothy" Harte. Timothy, an impish 14 year old in "They Found Him Dead", is now all grown up, has seen action in WWII, and is now a young up and coming attorney in love with what his family believes is "the wrong sort of girl". Her name is Beulah (BEULAH!!) Birtley, and she's the personal assistant/secretary to the waspish socialite Mrs. Haddington. When Timothy is invited to Mrs. Haddington's home for a duplicate bridge party, his most pressing desire is to be near Beulah. However, the strangulation murder of one of the guests puts Timothy and Beulah in the spotlight of Scotland Yard's Inspector Hemingway, who remembers Timothy from 12 years previously.

The murder investigation takes Hemingway to some bleak places: cocaine smuggling, drug abuse, blackmail, illicit affairs, and hidden family secrets. I felt in places that she added too many characters with not enough background to differentiate them to the reader. Too often I had to refer back to earlier chapters to figure out who was who in the scheme of things.

Duplicate Death is certainly not Heyer's worst mystery, but I did miss the punches of light frivolity that her pre-War mysteries had.