I first read Envious Casca, a 1941 contemporary closed-room murder mystery, in 2010. I just finished a reread, not because I loved the book but because the GoodReads TrueBookTalk group was reading it this December and joining in for a reread would 1) enable me to participate with a group I enjoy but have been woefully absent from this year, 2) enable me to rack up another Back to the Classics book for the 2022 challenge, which I have been woefully neglectful of this year, and 3) enable me to inch closer to completing my GoodReads goal of 55 books in 2022.
Envious Casca is also published under the title A Christmas Party, which I think is a better title--more appealing and less esoteric, and I am always looking for good, non-schmaltzy holiday books for December reading.
The setting is pure Agatha Christie--a collection of people, some related, some not, but most are ill-tempered and chock full of motives for murdering the poor rich guy who ends up murdered in a locked room. I was about one-quarter into the book and not remembering it at all before I had a pretty good idea of who did the murder but not how. Even by the time I reached the end and the various clues starting falling into place I didn't recall exactly how the murder was done, which is always a plus.
This is a great book for book lovers as...spoiler alert...a book does play a major role in the solving of the mystery.
It's not the best mystery out there, nor the best Christmas-themed book around, and I think Georgette Heyer was much better at Regency Romances than Christie-esque murder mysteries, but it was a fun 3-star read.
I hereby designate Envious Casca (aka A Christmas Party) by Georgette Heyer as my Wild Card book for the 2022 Back to the Classics Challenge. That puts me at only five for the year, but I am working on Winds of War by Herman Wouk and might finish it by December 31 at midnight! Wish me luck. I also have a bird puzzle to finish (with only white pieces left), a book on weaving to study so that I can start using the tabletop loom I got for Christmas, and zillion other odds and ends that need to be done before we ring in the New Year.
Happy New Year, friends, and stay warm/cool and safe, and happy reading!
