I consider myself a fan of Georgette Heyer.  Her Regency romances are pretty much the best out there – they’re painstakingly-researched, historically-accurate novels full of life and humour, that are well-written and don’t depend on smut but story – and her crime novels are light, amusing tales. I own a number of her books, in both genres.

So why is it that when her romances are so popular, her crime fiction – written at the same time as Agatha Christie and other big names were penning their enduring works – are nowhere near as well read?

1. The speech patterns of her  characters are full of mannerisms and expressions from the 1930s that can alienate the reader.  While the speech patterns are authentic – Georgette Heyer wrote her crime novels during the era in which they are set – combined with other factors (see below) they prevent the reader from becoming fully-absorbed in the story, particularly in the case of some of the more obscure or puzzling expressions.
2. The characters are caricatures.  Agatha Christie was writing at the same time as Georgette Heyer, but her characters have a depth and a psychological realism that makes them as accesible today as when they were first written. Heyer’s characters, by contrast, are two-dimensional stereotypes; in a time when these stereotypes no longer exist in they same form as they did in the 1930s, it is hard for the reader to identify with them.
3. The style of writing that Heyer uses had since fallen out of favour.  Today’s crime novels tend towards being suspenseful thrillers; Heyer’s are not. Her characters patter from one startling event to another; while their circumstances are grim, the light-hearted way in which those circumstances are handled is far from it. Moreover, the crimes that take place are hardly given vital importance; at times you almost wonder if the characters even notice the gravity of the situation they are in, so preoccupied are they with trivial matters. It’s not very suspenseful.
4. Because of the lack of depth, there isn’t any real feel for the character’s psyche.  While Heyer gives her characters motive and means, her characters lack the dimension that would make their decisions and reasons convincing. Today’s crime novels, on the other hand, are big on giving everyone appropriate psychological profiles.
5. She has a fondness for turning her crime novels into romances at the same time.  While a romantic subplot often works well in a crime novel – romantic crime novel is a successful sub-genre all its own – that’s only the case as long as it doesn’t detract from the main thread of the story or divert attention from it. Sadly, Heyer sometimes tried to write a sort of ‘romantic thriller’ that didn’t quite work, either as a thrilling crime novel or as an emotionally-based one.