Reviewed By Liz

ISBN 0060810513

I hate to admit it, but I’ve had it up to here (gesture) with Lord Peter Wimsey. Oh, he was admirable at first… but he’s just so perfect. So intelligent. So well educated. So sensitive… a true metrosexual from the year 1930. Wimsey’s manners are perfect, his noble background above reproach. He has the skills of a concert pianist and the soul of a poet, combined with the dogged perseverance of a bloodhound. If his facial features are a bit foolish-looking, he takes an inordinate pride in the beauty of his elegant hands. All this… combined with just a touch of post-traumatic stress syndrome to make us realize he agonizes over the hanging death of every murderer he convicts.

“Strong Poison” sets the stage for the development of Sayers’s entire series, since it introduces the love of Peter’s life, Harriet Vane. Unfortunately, Harriet is in the dock, charged with the murder of her lover, Philip Boyes. And the evidence of murder by poison is overwhelming. If somehow Peter can find the real murderer, and produce enough evidence to free Harriet… not just from the capital charges, but from all suspicion that might blight her life.

The details of Lord Peter’s stratagems, of the assistance of the indefatigable Miss Murchison, and even the courtship of Peter’s sister Mary, make up the substance of the book, and it’s classic Sayers. It seems silly to give away the ending intentionally, but of course Peter is successful… of course Harriet is freed without a stain upon her character (well, maybe a minor one).

The only real purpose in recommending Strong Poison is to encourage you to skip directly to Gaudy Night (1935)… and avoid the foolishness of the intervening books. Dorothy Sayers is an acquired taste, and requires a bit of a classical education. For most folks, though, these two books are more than enough.

DW

Mystery Book Reviews by DW at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

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