Murder by Death

Ugh.  First off, the narrator was awful.  She sounded like an android reading this book, with weird pauses in the middle of the sentences and almost no inflection.  Her voice is lovely, but she did a hatchet job on the narration.  It did improve by the end, but too late to make me forget how painful the first half of the book was.

Additionally, Amberley is an ass.  Perhaps back in the day he came across witty and insouciant but I just got ass.  He felt like a slightly older Bright Young Thing.  He didn't try to hide his contempt for the local constabulary (who were all, admittedly, written as idiots) or his perceived superiority over just about everybody.

Amberley is on his way to his uncle's house when he comes across a car pulled over on the side of a dark road, the driver shot dead in his seat and a young woman standing in the road beside him.  She won't tell him anything but convinces him to let her go.  When he reports the crime he chooses not to tell the police about her presence.  The murder victim is revealed to be the butler for the estate next door and the constabulary enlist his help in investigating what they believe to be an unsolvable crime.  He proceeds to rub their noses in his superiority, while constantly haranguing the young woman to Reveal All. 

The final nail in the coffin was the ending:

I quite liked Footsteps in the Dark as it had at least an air of farce to it, not to mention a "ghost" story, and I loved The Grand Sophy.  I knew from previous reviews that Heyer could be hit or miss, so I'm not surprised I hit on a low one.  But I won't be trying any more of her mysteries on audio, as it seems every one of them are narrated by the same woman.