A Presumption of Death: A Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery

This is a wartime murder mystery set in 1939-40 at Pagham, Hertfordshire, where Lord Peter Wimsey (some of the time) and his wife the novelist Harriet Vane (all the time) live in their country house, the odd, quirky Elizabethan Talboys, with their children and those of Peter's sister, Mary Parker. When "Wicked Wendy", an attractive Women's Land Army girl, is murdered during an air raid practice drill, Harriet Vane, whose husband Peter is absent for the first half of the novel, as an MI6 spy behind enemy lines, is asked by the local police to help them solve the mystery of who killed Wendy and why. The plot when the Wimseys finally unravel it, proves to be fiendishly complicated and shocking and - yes- it does involve a German spy.

I picked up an inexpensive copy of this after hearing an interview with Jill Paton Walsh about her latest Peter Wimsey book. It is a thoroughly enjoyable whodunit. The principal characters are captured well enough though the murders are a little disappointing; the first is a common assault and the second, though spectacular, is far fetched even for detective fiction. What is very well done, as was always the case with Dorothy L Sayers, is that the sense of time and place is brilliantly captured. Being in a war when nothing has really happened yet but living under a constant threat is a consistent background. Then there are the difficulties of travel, rationing, suspicion of strangers, all woven into the plot and adding substance and reality to the story

Rating is for J.P.L-s understanding how the wheels in Dorothy L. Sayers head must have clicked. That is why, that she is able to regenerate the D.L.S. prose. To achieve this, J.P.L. must have done her hard homework on Whimsey times (and as such: on D.L.S times to), and that`s why she is able to deliver a quality product. And the best of it is that Jill Paton Walsh herself IS ALSO PRESENT THERE in the texts, maybe not much more as a lingering fragrance, but I think it is a honorable thing to do: to be present. I think, the Dorothy-fans eagerly await a nearer acquaintance with her!

This novel makes interesting use of material in Dorothy Sayers's own novels, and in 'The Wimsey Papers'. It doesn't read quite like Dorothy Sayers's own writing (nor does 'Thrones and Dominations'), but the characters are faithfully drawn and recognisable, and there are some interesting additions to Dorothy Sayers's cast (e.g. 'Bungo', who appears offstage, as it were, in 'Have His Carcase'). As a lifelong Dorothy Sayers and Peter Wimsey fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

A really enjoyable book. Jill Paton has really nailed the DLS "style" and the result is absorbing, intriguing and entertaining. The reading by the inestimable Edward Petherbridge is excellent. I was sorry when I finished listening to it.