Reading the Detectives discussion

A Christmas Party/Envious Casca

First published in 1941, this is the second mystery to feature Inspector Hemingway as the leading sleuth (the first being, “No Wind of Blame). Published under the title, “Envious Casca,” this is also known as, “A Christmas Party,” and involves the typical country house setting, so beloved of Golden Age mysteries. We have a family and a Christmas party, but without much goodwill to all men – or family members. For the volatile mix of family, and guests, will lead to murder and a locked room mystery…

Please refrain from posting spoilers in this thread. Thank you.

I have just started this, and found it seemed very familiar and that I was sure I'd read it before, fairly recently!

I checked back and lo and behold, I actually read it last Christmas - I'd listed it on GR under the title of 'A Christmas Party' and picked up a copy this year from the library with the original 'Envious Casca' title! Can't believe I let myself get muddled up even though I knew perfectly well that the book has 2 titles.

But anyway I will read it again and enjoy Heyer's witty style. Who else is reading this one?

Nathaniel is an enjoyably Scrooge-like character - loved this comment:

“Joseph, having lived for so many years abroad, hankered wistfully after a real English Christmas. Nathaniel, regarding him with a contemptuous eye, said that a real English Christmas meant, in his experience, a series of quarrels between inimical persons bound to one another only by the accident of relationship, and thrown together by a worn-out convention which decreed that at Christmas families should forgather.”

Yes, I liked Nathaniel too, and I did feel for him - having his house invaded at Christmas :) Joseph is SO annoying as a character.

You know, it took a while before I got irritated by Joseph - I started off feeling sorry for him as his family Christmas started collapsing around him...

As in No Wind of Blame, Heyer is excellent at creating horrible characters who I'd loathe in real life but enjoy reading about.

I'm going to try to fit this one into my reading. I bought it last year but didn't read it.

RC, you are SO right. Her characters really shouldn't work, but they somehow do.

I was interested to see Maud mention that she used to know "a very touching poem about a man who died of thirst on the Llano Estacado" - just googled this and found a very melodramatic lyric to a traditional cowboy song, which seems to be the poem she is referring to:

https://www.elyrics.net/read/t/tom-ru...

I think I liked Maud best, without any doubt.

Quarter of the way into this book , and can honestly say the members of this group appear to be most unlikeable. Which means anyone could be murdered and not missed.

Ha ha! Very true, Jill.

Joseph observes 'Eheu fugaces...' a couple of times.

In case anyone else was wondering, I looked it up, and found:
"Eheu fugaces labuntur anni... : alas! the fleeting years slip by" from an ode by Horace.

Thank you for the translation of 'Eheu fugaces', Doris - I recognised 'eheu' as it is one of about 3 words I still remember from Latin at school, but didn't get the rest of it!

Again, an example of how earlier authors expect more from us... My kindle will not translate Latin, but luckily both my boys studied/are studying Latin at school, so can generally help with basic translation :)

I love the scene with the inspector interviewing the Butler. He's absolutely what I expect a butler to be.

Tania wrote: "I love the scene with the inspector interviewing the Butler. He's absolutely what I expect a butler to be."

He was not at all impressed, and very impressive, wasn't he, Tania?

I've just reached the murder and haven't 'met' the Inspector yet.

I sympathized with Nathaniel having his house invaded, except I expect he could stop the party if he really wanted to. Thus, Joe is right and he does enjoy fighting with his family. I feel sorry for Joe in the book, but would find him so annoying in real life.

The play reading was amusing.

Continuing on and enjoying the characters and the dialogue. I found myself laughing aloud a couple of times. Valarie's mother is a hoot. I'm sure Stephan already knows he's made a serious error in choosing Valarie but, if not, the mother should give him fair warning of his future.

I was wondering about the original title so googled Casca and envy, came up with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and was quite embarrassed as I just saw the play a couple of weeks ago. Now, how does it fit ....??

You wonder how Stephen got pushed into proposing as he so obviously does not really like Valerie at all, as far as I could tell anyway. I felt sorry for Valerie - she doesn't seem to like Stephen much either.

I agree Valerie's mother is hilarious, Sandy. I remember there was a couple quite similar to Stephen and Valerie in a previous Heyer book we read here, Death in the Stocks.

I think I know the who, but not the how.

I think in a different thread, someone was saying that Heyer was better at characters and Christie was better with plots. It's the character that leads me to suspect the murderer.

Susan wrote: "You wonder how Stephen got pushed into proposing as he so obviously does not really like Valerie at all, as far as I could tell anyway. I felt sorry for Valerie - she doesn't seem to like Stephen m..."

I would have really liked to know how Valerie's mother worked that. She must have played on his quick temper as he isn't someone to be cajoled. And I only feel sorry for Valerie because of her mother.

With a mother like hers , it was no wonder she had grown up as she was. Didn't they used to say years ago "If you want to know what sort of wife she will be, take a look at her mother"

Jill wrote: "With a mother like hers , it was no wonder she had grown up as she was. Didn't they used to say years ago "If you want to know what sort of wife she will be, take a look at her mother""

Does the same work for husbands and fathers, I wonder, Jill?

What does anyone think of Stephen? He's very annoying, but quite amusing. If Valerie might grow up to be like her mother, I suppose he might grow up to be like his relative (I can't think if he is his grandfather or great-uncle?) Nathaniel. Somehow I think there is little danger of him ever being like Joe.

I quite liked Stephen, to be honest. I had a lot of sympathy with him.

Stephen definitely came over as being the best of the younger generation in the family. I did get the feeling Tilda was quite a bit older than the others, if not in years , then in maturity

Nathaniel is his uncle, of course - sorry about that!

It's funny, I hadn't really remembered Inspector Hemingway in this from my first read last year, but I'm enjoying him this time around. I think he is quite a character here, with his humorous comments and passion for amateur dramatics! He makes more of an impact in this one than in No Wind of Blame.

P.S., a lot of theatre in this one, with Hemingway being an am dram fan, Joe as a retired actor, frustrated actress Paula and her dramatist friend!