Seriously? Has “On Such a Night” really just been The Talisman Ring this whole time?

Maddening.

I applied myself to some simple deduction, in order to figure out which of the novels it could possibly be, going back through the Women’s Weekly’s enormous Heyer-based output.

Death in the Stocks was printed, in an abridged form, as a “book-length novel” in the Women’s Weekly in June of 1935, and The Unfinished Clue received the same treatment in August of that same year. Those would both tally with the 1935 sale date of this so-called On Such a Night – but Heyer’s notes, according to Jen, had said “serial rights,” and neither of those were serialized.

Behold, Here’s Poison! was, however, printed in instalments from November 23, 1940 – February 1, 1941, having been published in book-form in 1936, which would kind of fit in with all the available dates – might Heyer might have pre-sold the rights to that novel to the Weekly in 1935, and then changed the title before the book’s publication? (“No,” said Jen. “The Shakespearean allusion of the title was always very important to that book.”)

And the question must be asked: does “On Such a Night” even work with that novel, as a title? And can the novel we know as Behold, Here’s Poison! really be classed as a “romantic thriller”?

Looking at what the Women’s Weekly had to say about the serials when they published them, they stigmatized Behold, Here’s Poison as merely a “mystery serial”, while The Talisman Ring, which was serialized in the magazine from December 5, 1936 – February 13, 1937, is variously called “our thrilling new serial”, “our brilliant serial of romance and adventure in an old-world setting” (catchy!), “our romantic serial of love and adventure” and “our splendid adventure-romance serial.”

Although, An Infamous Army, also advertised as “thrilling”, was likewise serialised in the Weekly, beginning January 22, 1938, just a week after this alleged On Such a Night concluded, but since it was not published until 1937, it seems a stretch that even so clever a rights-seller as Heyer could have meant that when she referred to the 1935 sale.

Unless she made a mistake with the sale date, as well.

What is so frustrating about this is that, announcing the change to their programming that came about on Wednesday, November 17, the day “On Such a Night” began to air, the Weekly makes a big deal about the new 2:45pm “Homemaker” segment, hosted by one Mrs. Eve Gye, but annoyingly off-handedly mentions “another new feature will be a serial” and mentions the time, but nothing about the title chosen for this first-time honour.

Months later, Pride and Prejudice gets namechecked. But Heyer, who at this point had had no fewer than four short stories – “Runaway Match,” “Lady, Your Pardon” (aka “Pharaoh’s Daughter”), “Love is a Hazard” (aka “Hazard”) and “Pursuit” – published in the Weekly, had had three of her novels serialized and two others published in full (if abridged) form, barely rates a mention.