Helen J. Nicholson's 3 favorite reads in 2025

With detailed description and her characteristic wit, Georgette Heyer transports her readers to the English village of Thornden and the various characters who inhabit it, each painted in vivid yet realistic colours and engaging her readers' whole interest, if not necessarily our sympathy. The murder mystery is familiar (who shot the most unpopular man in the village?) but nonetheless baffling, and the slow, painstaking and often frustrating unravelling of the mystery by Heyer's Chief Inspector Hemmingway (a familiar figure from her earlier detective novels) makes for a most satisfactory absorbing read. As each of the respectable inhabitants of the village tries to throw doubt on the others and exonerate themselves we see the shadier aspects of these apparently respectable individuals, who from being slightly stereotypical become fully rounded personalities as the investigation progresses, and Thornden a real village with its roads and paths, houses and cottages, common and gravel-pit. This is both an excellent murder mystery and also a convincing study of people and personalities.

Bright, optimistic, witty and absorbing, this is a coming-of-age story, a doomed romance, and a school story -- but told from the point of view of the school masters rather than the students. It is packed with hilariously funny incidents, including a fire and flood caused by a pet chameleon (no, honestly, it is hilarious), and infuriating yet sympathetic characters. For example: Colin Keith, our hero, wants to be a barrister specialising in railway law but takes a job as a school master because he's worried that he's a burden on his family; Philip Winter is an expert on the works of Horace and an excellent teacher who wants to go to communist Russia but worries that the proofs of his book will get lost in the post there; Rose Birkett, the beautiful daughter of the headmaster, can't avoid saying 'yes' to every besotted young man who proposes to her, but then immediately loses interest in her latest betrothed and drives away with the next young man who has a new fast car. Virago's blurb describes the book as 'a comic delight', and I agree. Why has this book never been made into a British comedy film?

D. E. Stevenson (d. 1973) was best known for her light romantic novels, a genre in which she excelled. 'The Portrait of Saskia', however, steps into detective novel territory. At first I assumed that the plot would follow the usual well-trodden lines, but was delighted to find that it doesn't; with a deft twist, Stevenson defies expectations and takes the story in a refreshingly different direction. Light, bright, well-written, with believable well-drawn characters, this is an upbeat and delightful read. (Also in the volume are four previously unpublished short stories by Stevenson and a novella, which are not as enjoyable, although worth a look.)