Will I love Envious Casca?

Can I make this list and not include a golden-age detective story set in a country house at Christmas? This one has all the ingredients required for an afternoon by the fire, looking out at the wintry weather—a locked room, an appealing detective, and a cast of people compelled, rather unwisely, to spend Christmas in each other’s company. "If you ask me, there very likely wouldn’t have been a murder at all if it hadn’t been for him getting ideas about peace and goodwill, and assembling all these highly uncongenial people under the same roof at the same time.… show more.

I first fell in love with Georgette Heyer's books when I found her rightly famous Regency novels, but I don’t think her mysteries get enough acclaim. They have the same elements that make the Regencies so fun: great characters, pitch-perfect settings, and in the case of the mysteries, a fun puzzle to explore. 

Envious Casca is a locked room mystery with an ingenious ending and a touch of romance that doesn’t make you blush. It also has Inspector Hemingway, who appears in some of her other mysteries. It is always fun to follow him as he untangles the murder. This… show more.