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Title: Envious Casca: Inspector Hemingway Series, Book 2
Author: Georgette Heyer
Narrator: Ulli Birvé
Format: Unabridged
Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
Language: English
Release date: 12-19-14
Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 280 votes
Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:
A holiday party takes on a sinister aspect when the colourful assortment of guests discovers there is a killer in their midst. The owner of the substantial estate, that old Scrooge Nathaniel Herriard, is found stabbed in the back. While the delicate matter of inheritance could be the key to this crime, the real conundrum is how any of the suspects could have entered a locked room to commit the foul deed.
For Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard, the investigation is complicated by the fact that every guest is hiding something, throwing all of their testimonies into question and casting suspicion far and wide.
This clever and daring crime will mystify listeners, although the answer is in plain sight the whole time.

Critic Reviews:
"The wittiest of detective writers." (The Daily Mail)
"Georgette Heyer is second to none in her ability to make detective stories entertaining." (The Sunday Times)
"Miss Heyer's characters are an abiding delight to me." (Dorothy L Sayers)

Members Reviews:
Disappointing Peformance of a Really Good Book
For a number of years only two of Georgette Heyer's dozen or so murder mysteries were available on Audible, and those were reissues of weak audiocassette recordings. So I was pleased when the first of these Bolinda productions appeared. But I wasn't keen on the samples of Ulli Birve's narration I listened to, so held off getting any of them.
Enter "Envious Casca," my vote for the best of Heyer's mysteries. "Envious Casca" is an exceptionally clever and well conceived mystery with an unexpected twist, interesting if not particularly lovable characters, and great dialogue full of wry British wit and plenty of humor. And it's set in the midst of a country house "Christmas jollification," so I decided in the spirit of the season to give Ulli a try.
Unfortunately my reservations about the narration turned out to be justified. Although Ms. Birve handles dialogue and character differentiation passably well, she reads narrative prose in a jerky, irritating style--pausing after what seems like every third word and breaking phrases into chunks that decimate the flow of the prose. Worse, she either doesn't recognize the humor in what she's reading or she's simply incapable of anything resembling comic timing or nuance. It's a disservice to what should have been a delightful "old school" mystery.

Heyer's Christmas Mystery
This novel was one of Heyer's "modern" works, set during the 1930's about when it was written. Now it has become a period piece. Being an American, I can't speak to how well Ulli Birve pronounces the English of the 1930's, but I love how she captures the personality of the characters. I enjoyed listening to this novel very much, and hope that Ulli continues with her reading of Heyer's mysteries, she has most of them available on Audible now.
This specific book is set during an "old fashioned English Christmas", a setting that has been used by mystery authors from Agatha Christie to Rhys Bowen. I read it most Decembers, and enjoy it. This year, it is pleasant to let Ulli Birve do the reading for me. While there are Heyer novels I enjoy more, this one is a fun title.
I do wish that Audible and Amazon would make more of Heyer's works "wispersync" capable.