Editing Georgette Heyer (section)

==Thrillers==
[[File:William I, Lichfield Cathedral.jpg|thumbnail|180px|[[William the Conqueror]], depicted in this statue on the West Front of [[Lichfield Cathedral]], was featured in Heyer's first novel of [[historical fiction]].]]
''[[The Conqueror (Heyer novel)|The Conqueror]]'' (1931) was Heyer's first novel of historical fiction to give a fictionalized account of real historical events. She researched the life of [[William the Conqueror]] thoroughly, even travelling the route that William took when crossing into England.<ref>Hodge (1984), p. 31.</ref> The following year, Heyer's writing took an even more drastic departure from her early historical romances when her first thriller, ''Footsteps in the Dark'' was published. The novel's appearance coincided with the birth of her only child, [[Richard George Rougier]], whom she called her "most notable (indeed peerless) work".<ref name="hodge35">Hodge (1984), p. 35.</ref> Later in her life, Heyer requested that her publishers refrain from reprinting ''Footsteps in the Dark'', saying "This work, published simultaneously with my son&nbsp;... was the first of my thrillers and was perpetuated while I was, as any Regency character would have said, increasing. One husband and two ribald brothers all had fingers in it, and I do not claim it as a Major Work."<ref>Hodge (1984), p. 102.</ref>

For the next several years Heyer published one romance novel and one thriller each year. The romances were far more popular: they usually sold 115,000&nbsp;copies, while her thrillers sold 16,000&nbsp;copies.<ref>Hodge (1984), p. 38.</ref> According to her son, Heyer "regarded the writing of mystery stories rather as we would regard tackling a crossword puzzle – an intellectual diversion before the harder tasks of life have to be faced".<ref name=devlin361>Devlin (1984), p. 361.</ref> Heyer's husband was involved in much of her writing. He often read the proofs of her historical romances to catch any errors that she might have missed, and served as a collaborator for her thrillers. He provided the plots of the detective stories, describing the actions of characters "A" and "B".<ref name="hodge40">Hodge (1984), p. 40.</ref> Heyer would then create the characters and the relationships between them and bring the plot points to life. She found it difficult at times to rely on someone else's plots; on at least one occasion, before writing the last chapter of a book, she asked Rougier to explain once again how the murder was really committed.<ref name="hodge40"/>

Her detective stories, which, according to critic Earl F. Bargainnier, "specialize[d] in upper-class family murders", were known primarily for their comedy, melodrama, and romance.<ref>Bargainnier (1982), pp. 342, 343.</ref> The comedy derived not from the action but from the personalities and dialogue of the characters.<ref>Bargainnier (1982), p. 352.</ref> In most of these novels, all set in the time they were written,<ref>Devlin (1984), p. 360.</ref> the focus relied primarily on the hero, with a lesser role for the heroine.<ref>Bargainnier (1982), p. 350.</ref> Her early mystery novels often featured athletic heroes; once Heyer's husband began pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a [[barrister]], the novels began to feature solicitors and barristers in lead roles.<ref>Hodge (1984), p. 36.</ref>

In 1935, Heyer's thrillers began following a pair of detectives named Superintendent Hannasyde and Sergeant (later Inspector) Hemingway. The two were never as popular as other contemporary fictional detectives such as [[Agatha Christie]]'s [[Hercule Poirot]] and [[Dorothy L. Sayers]]'s [[Lord Peter Wimsey]].<ref>Hodge (1984), p. 42.</ref> One of the books featuring Heyer's characters, ''Death in the Stocks'', was dramatized in New York City in 1937 as ''Merely Murder''. The play focused on the comedy rather than the mystery,<ref>Devlin (1984), p. 371.</ref> and although it had a good cast, including [[Edward Fielding]] as Hannasyde, it closed after three nights.<ref name="hodge43">Hodge (1984), p. 43.</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Lachman|first=Marvin|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/903807427|title=The Villainous Stage: Crime Plays on Broadway and in the West End|date=2014|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-9534-4|oclc=903807427}}</ref>

According to critic Nancy Wingate, Heyer's detective novels, the last written in 1953,<ref>Wingate (1976), p. 311.</ref> often featured unoriginal methods, motives, and characters, with seven of them using inheritance as the motive.<ref name=wingate307/> The novels were always set in London, a small village, or at a houseparty.<ref name=wingate308>Wingate (1976), p. 308.</ref> Critic Erik Routley labelled many of her characters clichés, including the uneducated policeman, an exotic Spanish dancer, and a country [[vicar]] with a neurotic wife. In one of her novels, the characters' surnames were even in alphabetical order according to the order they were introduced.<ref name=routley>Routley (1972), pp. 286–287.</ref> According to Wingate, Heyer's detective stories, like many of the others of the time, exhibited a distinct snobbery towards foreigners and the lower classes.<ref>Wingate (1976), p. 309.</ref> Her middle-class men were often crude and stupid, while the women were either incredibly practical or exhibited poor judgement, usually using poor grammar that could become vicious.<ref name=robinson3301331>Robinson (1978), pp. 330–331.</ref> Despite the stereotypes, however, Routley maintains that Heyer had "a quite remarkable gift for reproducing the brittle and ironic conversation of the upper middle class Englishwoman of that age (immediately before 1940)".<ref name=routley/><!--Note, the (immediately before 1940) part was in the original quotation --> Wingate further mentions that Heyer's thrillers were known "for their wit and comedy as well as for their well-woven plots".<ref name=wingate307/>