I have to totally agree with the above review.  This book is excellently written!  It is similar to Agatha Christie's 'Hercule Poirot's Christmas' - only Heyer wrote her version about 5 years earlier.  An old man is the tyrant of his household.  When he is murdered, everything comes apart.  Georgette Heyer conveys the emotions of dispair and hopelessness and regret much better than Christie does in her version.  The murderer thought things would be better, they're not, but the old man can't be brought back to life again.  I didn't like it because I like more light hearted books - and this is not Heyer's normal light-heartedness, admittedly, but it is very well written.