This is, I think, my favorite mystery of Georgette Heyer's. It is a quite charming story with her usual humor. The setting is an old house that was at one time part of a monastery and the ruins of the priory are near by. Celia and Margaret, along with their brother Peter inherit the house from an uncle who had inherited it from a great-aunt. Margaret and Celia adore the house. Peter adores the trout stream nearby. Charles, Celia's husband, is not particularly enchanted with the house. It isn't too far from London, but there is no electricity and no phone. There are also rumors the house is haunted which he finds frustrating becuase Celia is rather spooky about such things. And, as he tells his relatives, "if you had had to pack up and leave as many nice places as I have because Celia 'had a feeling'..." So he is not enamoured of the idea to begin with. They have their aunt, Mrs. Bosanquet also staying with them. She is a very practical lady who is rather deaf, so doesn't always hear what is said. They hear strange, groaning sounds from under the house and Peter and Charles go in search of the cause. They run into a stranger (whose name is Michael Strange) near the house, claiming he has lost the way to the path that runs by the house towards the village. Peter and Charles are instantly suspicious of him - feeling he might have something to do with the "haunting". But Margaret does not think so, for some reason she trusts him. Peter and Charles go to the local policeman and then to the county police with their suspicions. The local policeman rather suspects Mr. Tidmarsh of something nefarious. Mr Tidmarsh is a rather absent-minded gentleman who is fascinated by entymology, particular moths, and spends a good part of each night out hunting for them. He does not particularly pay attention to where the moths are, just goes after them. There is also a mysterious "commercial" salesman at the Bell Inn whom Charles and Peter overhear talking to Strange. Mr Fripp sounds like a burglar, using thieves cant.There is also Duval, a French artist living in a rundown cottage who seems obsessed with the 'Monk' who is said to be haunting the house. All of these characters add to twists and turns that that get pretty tangled before the mystery is solved.
Footsteps in the Dark is a very welcome return to Georgette Heyer's usual breezy, comic mystery style--far removed from the dark and brooding Penhallow which I just recently finished.In this one, Peter, Margaret and Celia inherit a rambling, run-down old house from their uncle. Despite its lack of modern conveniences, they think it has a certain charm. At least they do until the locals start telling them stories of The Monk who is supposed to haunt the ancient priory mansion. And then they start hearing uneartly groaning in the cellars and find skeletons in the most unlikely places. Is it a real ghost or is someone just trying to scare them away for nefarious reasons? There are also all sorts of suspicious characters lurking about...from the French painter Duvall to the late-night moth hunter to the strange man named Strange who haunts their garden at midnight. And what about the commercial salesman who doesn't seem to be able to sell a thing? There are plenty spooky happenings and plenty of suspects. There are priest's holes and secret passages. But what is at the bottom of it all?This is a fun little 1930s romp. Not quite a true country house mystery. In those, you have a set cast of characters all trapped in the house due to storm or snow or what-have-you. In Footsteps it seems that anybody and everybody can pop in and out of the house at will. There is plenty of witty by-play between the three heirs and Celia's husband, Charles. Lots of hearty English village types who make you want to say "What ho" and "I say." A bumbling country bobby who means well, but just can't quite manage to get a handle on a real criminal. And, of course, it wouldn't be complete without an attempt to contact the spirit world via the planchette board. Just good clean fun from the Golden Age of mysteries. Not the most intricate of detective novels--I spotted the culprit fairly early, but given Heyer's adept handling of the characters and atmosphere that didn't spoil it at all. Three and a half stars.This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
What do You think about Footsteps In The Dark (2007)?
I am sorry to say I am giving up on this. I gave it a good go (185 pages) but I'm just not feeling it, basically, well, its torture. I know! Don't hate me! It may just be the mood I'm in (I am a firm believer in "last book dictates present mood" but it may just not be my style of writing. Cest la vie.A side note: The print size is rather HUGE in these GH mysteries. A strange complaint probably but I find it very awkward reading larger type, it makes my eyes bug. I think if the font was smaller I would have made myself finish it. (My eyes like to "sweep in a paragraph" and large print makes me read line by line. That sounds weird, I know).Anyway! Have no fear! I will try another GH (just not at the moment) because its probably fluke that I didn't like this one. So! Another day!
—Dorcas
If you're going to move into the big, cold house you've inherited from a distant aunt, you're going to want it to have as many secret passages as possible. And you'll definitely want it to be rumored to be haunted as well.Georgette Heyer of course knows this. She places an upperclass English family in their new home which has no telephones or electricity but plenty of excitement by way of rappings on the walls, skeletons in hidden cupboards and monks who scare people in the dark before melting into the walls.Or is their ghost actually a cover for something else? Let's just say, a clever plot is uncovered. And the monk would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling aristocrats. Iow, great fun in a fun time period.
—Sistermagpie
Georgette Heyer suppressed some of her early books, presumably because she wasn't happy with them. These include Simon the Coldheart ( deadly dull) The Great Roxhythe (unintentionally very funny!) & her "contemporaries" (Helen was so terrible I feel no desire to seek out the other three!) I believe GH also suppressed this one for a time, so I approached this read with some trepidation. But I need not have worried. This book certainly isn't a masterpiece & some of the writing is very "jolly hockey sticks" http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dicti... but it is still an enjoyable romp, albeit with a lot of filler & a few plot holes, most notably (view spoiler)[ a stranger makes an offer on the house to the family's solicitor, but the solicitor makes no attempt to contact the family. Would that really have been the case in 1930s England? (hide spoiler)]
—☆ Ｃａｒｏｌ ☆
