Reviews - Have His Carcase

318 reviews for:

Have His Carcase

Alistair Beaton

3.94 AVERAGE

alina_bernadette's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

verityw's review against another edition

5.0

The second of the Peter and Harriet series- and still wonderful everytime - although the code breaking section is tough on audiobook!

wordnerdy's review against another edition

3.25

funny mysterious slow-paced

http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2016/04/2016-book-72.html
https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2023/06/2023-book-103.html

The eighth Peter Wimsey mystery brings Harriet Vane back into the mix, as she encounters a recently dead body and the two get themselves involved in trying to solve the convoluted crime. This definitely would have benefited from some editing--it drags quite a bit, and there's an overly lengthy description of solving a cipher (and I say that as someone who likes that sort of thing!). It also just sort of ends as soon as they figure it out. I was losing steam by that point anyway, so was kind of relieved. I realize all of this sounds negative when, for the most part, this was entertaining. I really like Peter and Harriet. B.

marystevens's review against another edition

4.0

This is very well done for what it is but I didn’t enjoy it. It’s a classic puzzle mystery of the old school. A young Russian emigre, engaged to a wealthy older dowager, is found on a rock, in Cornwall I think, with his throat cut and the razor near to hand, by the mystery author Harriet Vane, Lord Peter’s enamorata. The entire book, and it’s a long one, is their various attempts to reconstruct the crime and prove it wasn’t suicide. Normally Sayers is one of my favorite authors but this was too much of a head trip and the other characters were cartoon like and not appealing.

jennybeastie's review against another edition

5.0

Enjoyed this very much on the first read, lo those many years ago.

Re-read as audio book -- quite disappointing, as it turned out to be a full cast BBC reading instead of the excellent Ian Carmichael, and I'm pretty sure it was also abridged. Still, the mystery is good, and Harriet and Peter relating to each other as humans and sleuths was delightful.

crowyhead's review against another edition

3.0

If I were going to rate this based only on the interaction between Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey, I would have to give it a 5/5 -- they are absolutely winning, and the dialogue is hilarious and fantastic. The mystery, however, leaves something to be desired, I thought. Things were drawn out to an extent that by the end of the book I found myself not really caring so much about what had happened and how it was done. So, this ended up being a flawed, but still enjoyable, venture.