Lord Peter And Harriet: Part II: Gaudy Night / Busman's Honeymoon

Lord Peter Wimsey #12,13

by Dorothy L. Sayers

You’ll be charmed by Lord Peter Wimsey’s wit, erudition and humanity, and forcibly struck by Sayers’ intellectual clarity, not to mention her ingenuity—she was the very first to use an empty syringe as a means of murder. In Gaudy Night, Harriet Vane attends her Oxford reunion, known as the “Gaudy”—but the prim academic setting is haunted by a rash of bizarre pranks: scrawled obscenities, burnt effigies and poison-pen letters—including one that says, “Ask your boyfriend with the title if he likes arsenic in his soup.” Some of the notes threaten murder; all are perfectly ghastly; yet in spite of their scurrilous nature, all are perfectly worded. And Harriet finds herself ensnared in a nightmare in the place she once felt most safe, with only the tiniest shreds of clues to aid her powers of detection—and of course, those of Lord Peter Wimsey.

Murder is hardly the best way for Lord Peter and his bride, the famous mystery writer Harriet Vane, to start their honeymoon! Busman’s Honeymoon begins when the former owner of their newly acquired estate is found quite nastily dead in the cellar. And what Lord Peter had hoped would be a very private and romantic stay in the country soon turns into a most baffling case, what with the misspelled “notise” to the milkman and the intriguing condition of the dead man—not a spot of blood on his smashed skull…and not a pence less than six hundred pounds in his pocket.

With each story, Peter and Harriet become more complex and compelling, and as fascinating as the cases they’re investigating!

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

911 pages, Hardcover

About the author

The detective stories of well-known British writer Dorothy Leigh Sayers mostly feature the amateur investigator Lord Peter Wimsey; she also translated the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri.

This renowned author and Christian humanist studied classical and modern languages.

Her best known mysteries, a series of short novels, set between World War I and World War II, feature an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. She is also known for her plays and essays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to give The Literary Life podcast a try and "Gaudy Night" is the first book they read together so I decided to read along and see if they could help me see the genius of Sayers in these books.

They did a great job helping me understand, appreciate and enjoy Dorothy Sayers and this book, but it also made me realize how unscholarly I am.

I have read "Whose Body" and "Strong Poison" so I had a bit of Wimsey background prior to this book - I wouldn't recommend reading this without having read "Strong Poison" first.

Insights via the podcast made this jump from a 3 to a 4 star book for me.


Note: I marked this edition as read but also started-never-finished and am leaving it on my unreadbookshelf until I have time to read Busman's Honeymoon.

*The Literary Life episodes 4, 5, 7, and 8

[Annette]

I had read Gaudy Night earlier, but of course I remembered so little of it that I read it again here. Then, as I came to the end of this 911 page book, you would think I'd be sick of all of it, but, once again, I'm missing living in these pages.

Her writing makes me thankful for every bit of poetry I've ever memorized and makes me wish I had memorized so much more.

"Showed all the proper consideration for my rank and refinement and other infirmities."

Like Louise Penney's Armand Gamache, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane provide us with some lovely ways of dealing with others and living our lives.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED these two books! Definitely should read the series in order but this is a beautiful installment! :)

[Nell Lyford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Busman's Honeymoon is the perfect drawing room comedy with a dash of clue-gathering tossed in to keep it a mystery.