Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Pub 1927
The third in the Wimsey series, and by far my favourite so far, the eccentric Lord Peter takes on a pseudo-murder investigation, almost on a whim, thus setting in motion a series of additional crimes and murders that ultimately lead to the capture of the killer. Sayers is brave for her time, introducing several characters that are clearly lesbians, even if not called that directly. There is also much dated, period language about race, with associated attitudes that Sayers goes some way to countering in the story. This story was different from the previous novels in that the murderer is pretty clearly identified early on in the book, and the rest of the story is about the efforts to prove that. I found the convoluted legal timings (the murder needed to happen before a new law came into effect) and the improbably method of murder to be a bit unbelievable, but certainly forgivable amidst this well told story. Best was the introduction of a new (hopefully regular) character in Miss Climpson, an elderly but spry spinster who does exceptional undercover field work for Wimsey. I hope to see more of her in upcoming books.
Fate: I am tempted to give this to the little book library, but some of the language may not be suitable for the streets. Also, I suspect that with literary sanitization these days, it will be increasingly difficult to find originals of older books in the future, so I may hang on to it.
1 – a book with a murder
3 – published before 1939
8 – female author
28 – old favourite author (at least she’s getting to be)
36 – part of a series
rclr 