![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
superborb(Side note: REALLY enjoy being able to search all public entries on DW for bookblogs about books I've read. It tends to complement the stuff that gets mentioned in more formal book reviews well.)
These are part of a longer series of mostly murder mysteries, published and set in the Interwar period. I assume that most people have heard of them already ^^; In Strong Poison, the protag for most of the series, Peter Wimsey, meets Harriet Vane, a novelist on trial for murdering her ex-lover. Inconveniently, her latest story is about arsenic poisoning and well, guess how her ex was murdered? Peter must figure out the real murderer (or if it was suicide) in time to acquit her. Also, Peter falls in love with her immediately, but she turns him down.
Gaudy Night is a bit further along the timeline, skipping a few books, where Harriet returns to her alma mater. There have been harassing messages etc left about, and in order to keep the reputation of the college, Harriet is asked to investigate on the down low. Busman's Holiday immediately follows, wherein they are on their honeymoon and find the dead body of the former owner of the house they've bought. (It started out life as a play and you can tell in its high and sometimes confusing reliance on dialog.)
I read this in quite the wrong order, doing Gaudy Night, then 'accidentally' falling into Busman's Honeymoon and Strong Poison. (The first bit of Busman's Honeymoon was at the end of my copy of Gaudy Night and it was gossipy epistolary in the way that really WORKS for me, so I couldn't help myself. Thenx_los said how this was the end of the romance and it didn't make much sense without the beginning so I ended up reading Strong Poison too.)
One of the novels' real strengths is the sense of place; Sayers pays attention to what was then contemporary life so well that they have the vibe of historical fiction. (Possibly this goes the other way round, and the vibe of historical fiction is influenced by this type of novel.) Side characters aren't always as fleshed out, but what you get is very interesting; it's not cardboard cutout side characters, but just irrelevant to the plot so you don't get to dive deep into their interesting bits.
The mysteries themselves are kind of whatever. The conclusions come a bit pat, and it's definitely not what made it fun for me.
Of the three, Gaudy Night is probably my favorite. I love women's college settings, I REALLY did not like that a murder mystery in this era inevitably ends in the hanging of the murderer. I like that Sayers doesn't flinch from that, but to me, it strays quite close to manpain in execution.x_los said that Sayers is the only one in this genre/time that is really struggling about these issues with the aftermath of the war and the death penalty. Even without that wider context, it's obvious that SOMETHING's going on in the novels about those topics, it's just that it tends to come through (to me) as Peter being slightly annoyingly jangly instead of interestingly jangly.
These are part of a longer series of mostly murder mysteries, published and set in the Interwar period. I assume that most people have heard of them already ^^; In Strong Poison, the protag for most of the series, Peter Wimsey, meets Harriet Vane, a novelist on trial for murdering her ex-lover. Inconveniently, her latest story is about arsenic poisoning and well, guess how her ex was murdered? Peter must figure out the real murderer (or if it was suicide) in time to acquit her. Also, Peter falls in love with her immediately, but she turns him down.
Gaudy Night is a bit further along the timeline, skipping a few books, where Harriet returns to her alma mater. There have been harassing messages etc left about, and in order to keep the reputation of the college, Harriet is asked to investigate on the down low. Busman's Holiday immediately follows, wherein they are on their honeymoon and find the dead body of the former owner of the house they've bought. (It started out life as a play and you can tell in its high and sometimes confusing reliance on dialog.)
I read this in quite the wrong order, doing Gaudy Night, then 'accidentally' falling into Busman's Honeymoon and Strong Poison. (The first bit of Busman's Honeymoon was at the end of my copy of Gaudy Night and it was gossipy epistolary in the way that really WORKS for me, so I couldn't help myself. Then
x_los said how this was the end of the romance and it didn't make much sense without the beginning so I ended up reading Strong Poison too.)One of the novels' real strengths is the sense of place; Sayers pays attention to what was then contemporary life so well that they have the vibe of historical fiction. (Possibly this goes the other way round, and the vibe of historical fiction is influenced by this type of novel.) Side characters aren't always as fleshed out, but what you get is very interesting; it's not cardboard cutout side characters, but just irrelevant to the plot so you don't get to dive deep into their interesting bits.
The mysteries themselves are kind of whatever. The conclusions come a bit pat, and it's definitely not what made it fun for me.
Of the three, Gaudy Night is probably my favorite. I love women's college settings, I REALLY did not like that a murder mystery in this era inevitably ends in the hanging of the murderer. I like that Sayers doesn't flinch from that, but to me, it strays quite close to manpain in execution.
x_los said that Sayers is the only one in this genre/time that is really struggling about these issues with the aftermath of the war and the death penalty. Even without that wider context, it's obvious that SOMETHING's going on in the novels about those topics, it's just that it tends to come through (to me) as Peter being slightly annoyingly jangly instead of interestingly jangly.Anyway, fast and fun reads. I'd more rec them if you'd like the sense of Interwar Britain than anything else?
no subject
Date: 2021-11-11 18:31 (UTC)If you enjoy the sense of place in these I think you'd like Nine Tailors as well. It doesn't have Harriet, but its set in the fens, and is full of the details of the place.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-11 18:46 (UTC)Are you planning to read Have His Carcase? The mystery in there is a little overlong and complicated, but there are some nice character sketches and a terrific argument scene. Also if you like well drawn settings Murder Must Advertise is inspired by Sayers time working in an advertising agency.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-11 19:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-11 19:26 (UTC)If you like the setting-heavy books particularly, I think Murder Must Advertise -- set in, you guessed it, an advertising agency -- is a potential winner!
no subject
Date: 2021-11-11 19:29 (UTC)Thanks for the recs! I'll probably take a break from mysteries for a while, but will keep them in mind for when I'm more in the mood for them.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-11 19:33 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-13 01:24 (UTC)I would love to know how to do this!
I enjoyed reading your views, and I also love Gaudy Night. Agree with other commenters that if you like the sense of place in Sayers, you will enjoy Murder Must Advertise, which is just...a really good workplace novel aside from the mystery part. (It also has a slightly different take on the inevitable fate of the murderer, which may bother you even more than the others along the same lines, or not?).
no subject
Date: 2021-11-14 03:00 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-14 05:04 (UTC)