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| Paperback edition cover of the Lord Peter Wimsey novel Murder Must Advertise (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
- I'm enjoying the "Inspector George Gently" series on Netflix & thought I'd try the books they're based on. I've read several now and I think I'll stop. Or perhaps I should skip ahead to the more recent ones; usually I will read a series from the beginning, but perhaps these get better as they go on. Not that I have anything seriously against the "Gently" books, but they are a bit thin and creakily stereotypical. Our lower/middle class very intelligent hero goes and hangs out with the rich/upper middle class/nobility and solves their murder. Careful attention paid to class differences, and also to weather. My word, what odd things these rich folks get up to. The TV series is a lot more interesting. Also, based in Durham, and I love Durham.
Sayers, D. L. (2014). Murder Must Advertise: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery. United States: Bourbon Street Books.
- One of my favourites. Always a pleasure. Miss Meteyard is my favourite character; I assume she is Sayers. Wonderful description of a cricket match. The murderer dies by (in effect) suicide, which is a bit of an easy out, but one Sayers is fond of.
- More old-fashioned than "Murder Must Advertise", by which I mean, entirely concerned with the affairs of those rich enough to hang out at the Bellona Club, or at least to have relations who do. My word these aristos drink a lot, and before lunch, too. I think this is supposed to indicate wealth - they can afford to be guzzling the best sherry/port/whiskey/whatever no matter the time of day - rather than alcoholism. I liked this one because of the moral question it posed, of the kind Sayers was fond of posing. All the men in the story had served in the trenches in WW1 and many had been severely scarred by it, in ways that those who did not serve can't possibly understand. Their faith in the goodness of life has been badly shaken by their experiences. Everyone has lost friends and relatives there. They have all come back to a severely class-ridden society; some have inherited a lot of money, some only hang out with those who do; and they have all seen enough death to perhaps not mind if they see a little more, if it will put them in a position to get some of the money that is hanging so temptingly just out of reach. And after all, is there actually a "good" that matters? Perhaps all human behaviour is biologically conditioned and those who think otherwise, who try to behave well, are just fooling themselves or being fooled by those with money to whose advantage it is that they should remain orderly ... of course Sayers comes down on the side of the existence of good; but she does it in the person of a fabulously wealthy, intelligent and engaging character who has choices many of the characters don't, and with an experience of life that includes a lot more good than many of them have. Murderer again dies by suicide. This is an escape route she doesn't ultimately renounce until "Busman's Honeymoon".
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