Georgette Heyer is more widely known for her forty-five Regency romances than for her dozen novels of mystery. However, the twelve mysteries remain in print; and though they vary greatly in quality, they are, with one exception, a blend of comedy and romance with the conventions of Golden Age detective fiction as employed in the 1930s and 1940s. Heyer's favorite author was Jane Austen, and her Regency romances are evidence of her admiration. When she wrote her mysteries, she did not abandon the romantic formulas she had developed from Austen. These and her comedy are her only distinctive additions to the British detective novel; otherwise, her work is conventional in structure, setting, characters, style, and mysteries to be solved.

One of the most reclusive of writers, Heyer maintained that her books provided all her readers needed to know about her, and so biographical information is scant. Her entry...