Georgette Heyer is considered the doyen of Regency romances and only held in slightly less awe than Jane Austen herself. I have been a long-time owner of all Heyer's Georgian and Regency romances and re-read them often. However, her mysteries, written as contemporaries mainly in the 1920's, are dated and have all the giddy vocabulary of the day. The mystery often gets buried in high jinks. When I happened to read a review of Penhallow it sounded worth a second glance. It's a "serious" mystery novel, a cosy centered around the family of a bedridden tyrant who insists on manipulating his children. He forces them to his will through controlling their income derived mainly from the estates' horse breeding program. Something was about to happen as his 60th birthday celebration, mandatory attendance, loomed on the horizon. Readers who insist on a happy ending won't like this one. Wonderful writing, strong characters, great ambiance, but it has a sad sense of inevitability, rather like Wuthering Heights.