This mystery just didn't quite cut it for me. The characters were over-the-top stereotypes on the surface and all identical underneath, which made remembering who was who rather trying. The sleuth was surprisingly hard to identify -- the book jacket indicates that the novel is going to feature Inspector Hannasyde, but he isn't actually the character that solves the mystery, and his perspective is shown quite rarely. Meanwhile, the character who does solve the mystery is privy to inside information, information that is never given to the reader, so the mystery seemed a little unfair. The writing was fairly enjoyable, and the mystery reads quickly, and as I've enjoyed one of Heyer's other novels (a romance) I may pick up another of her mysteries sometime, but this one left me underwhelmed.

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