Hilary Tamar: Difference between revisions

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The Hilary Tamar books are a series of witty first-person mystery novels by Sarah Caudwell, whose eponymous protagonist is probably one of the laziest detectives in literary history.

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Julia and Selena, complete with the obligatory continuous [[Mistaken for Gay]].

* [[I Have Many Names]]: Discussed with reference to Greek places in ''The Shortest Way to Hades'':

* [[I Have This Friend]]: In ''The Shortest Way To Hades'', Lucian and Lucinda try this on Hilary, who doesn't buy it.

* [[Intoxication Ensues]]: In ''The Shortest Way To Hades'', the fudge that Julia and Selena eat while at Rupert Galloway's party/orgy is spiked, leading them to "cast off all conventional restraints and devote [themselves] without shame to the pleasures of the moment." In Selena's case, this means reading a copy of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' while ignoring anyone who tries to talk to her; in Julia's case, it means explaining the effect of Section 478 of the Taxes Act to anyone who's willing to listen.

* [[Never Suicide]]: Deirdre's death in ''The Shortest Way To Hades'' is initially ruled a suicide.

* [[No Except Yes]]:

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Everything involving Cantrip and Julia's past relationship seems to fall into this category. There's one April Fool's Day incident involving spiders, something else that happened right after Julia won a case about goldfish, and so on.

* [[No Sense of Direction]]: Julia gets lost constantly; this is an important plot point in ''Thus Was Adonis Murdered''.

* [[Oop North]]: Geoffrey Bolton in ''The Sybil In Her Grave'' is a bank director with a prominent accent of this sort. {{spoiler|It turns out that he's exaggerating the accent -- and the stereotypes associated with it -- to mess with a co-worker he doesn't like.}}

* [[A Party - Also Known as an Orgy]]: Julia and Selena accidentally end up at one in ''The Shortest Way to Hades''.

* [[Red Herring]]: Quite a few elaborate ones. In particular, ''The Sybil In Her Grave'', {{spoiler|all the mysterious deaths turn out to be entirely unrelated to the insider trading problem that initially attracts Hilary's attention to them.}}

* [[Sorry, I'm Gay]]: Julia deliberately makes Malvoisin think she's a lesbian in ''The Sirens Sang of Murder'' in an attempt to make it easier to turn down his advances without ruining their business relationship.