From Library Journal
Sir Arthur Billington-Smith is not a nice person: he is arrogant, opinionated, and abusive. His verbal abuse makes life a constant misery for his hapless wife, Fay. One truly awful weekend when Fay is trying to host a house party, Arthur's son and heir, Geoffrey, brings home Lola de Silva, a Mexican cabaret dancer who is wonderfully obtuse, vastly colorful, and totally unsuitable as a future Lady Billington-Smith. Arthur is absolutely incensed and takes his rage out on everyone. Therefore, when he is found stabbed to death in his study later in the day, all those in the house become suspects. The characters are all rather one-dimensional: a scheming female foreigner, an idiot son, the married couple from hell, and a strong, silent lover. In spite of this, however, multiple red herrings in the plot are cleverly designed to keep the listener guessing until the last chapter. Narrator Clifford Norgate does a very nice job of vocally "typing" each character, so it is easy to visualize the speakers and keep all the suspects separate. The audiocassette is in a flimsy cardboard box and will require sturdier packaging for library circulation. Recommended for larger public libraries where the works of Heyer are popular. Barbara Rhodes, Northeast Texas Lib. Syst., GarlandCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Narrator Clifford Norgate depicts the victim in this story, Sir Arthur Billington-Smith, or "The General," as the man everyone loves to hate, and with good reason. With a houseful of murder suspects to draw from in this English country house mystery, Inspector John Harding of Scotland Yard questions each one at length and, not surprisingly, learns the victim was disliked by all. Norgate excels in the necessary variety of English accents and genders and captures a broad spectrum of English society with language, vocal tone, and pitch. The sifting of suspects and clues is as methodical as one would expect, and the ending is ultimately satisfying for the lover of "the cozy" mystery. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Book Description
The stabbing of irascible General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith fails to stir up grief in anyone - least of all his family, which is no wonder considering the way he has treated them all during the fateful weekend. He had disinherited his son, humiliated his wife, refused to help his financially stricken nephew and made no secret of his loathing for his son's fiancée, a cabaret dancer. Inspector Harding picks his way through a mass of familial discontent to find the culprit - and find much more besides.

About the Author
Georgette Heyer, born in London in 1902, had her first novel published when she was nineteen years old and continued to write novels of many genres for more than fifty years. During that time she never made a public appearance or granted an interview. The great majority of her books are historical romances set in Regency England, such as Devil's Cub (1934), Regency Buck (1935) and Faro's Daughter (1941). They are admired to this day for the meticulous research and profusion of essential ingredients - arranged marriages, murder, fashion, upper classes, sarcasm and humour. Indeed, Heyer set the tone for this entire genre. She was also one of the first of the female mystery authors - the group that includes Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and Ngaio Marsh. When she died in 1974 she had fifty-one titles in print, legal translations of her work in ten languages and pirate editions in several others.