I Am Completely Serious

Penhallow is another one in the vein of Civil Contract (which, according to the essay I read in my copy, was written during a period when everything in Heyer's life had absolutely gone to hell, and she couldn't muster the frothy fun fantasy that characterizes most of her books). Except Penhallow is a murder mystery, not a romance, and it's quite depressing. I liked it, though. Although I'm glad most of her books aren't like that, it proved that she could do something besides fluff when she wanted to--she presumably just didn't want to, most of the time.

I think of Heyer the same way I think of Stout--most of their work is unashamedly genre formula, without much depth. What makes them worth reading is the excellence with which they execute their own personal formulas; they both have style and flair and an ear for dialogue and prose. (And, as I've commented before, I appreciate the variety of character types in Heyer's protagonists. She uses tropes across a reasonably broad spectrum--it's not all cookie-cutter characters in every book. How often do you see a romance novel male protagonist like Freddie? In most books--and in most of Heyer's books, too, I should add--he'd never be more than a supporting character.)