I've said before that Heyer's detective novels are generally not as good as her Regency romances, and this one is no exception. That said though, I liked this one better than any the others I've read so far. The prose flows better, even if the characters are rather tiresome.
The story begins with the late night discovery of a body in the stocks on a village green. The main problem with the subsequent investigation seems to be that far too many people had substantial motives for wanting the victim dead...
I wanted something a bit less intense than the book I''d just finished and this fit the bill quite nicely. I guessed the murderer well before the end, but not until I'd been fooled by at least one red herring. Not a deathless classic by any means, but a decent entertaining read.
