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A review by mcfoster
Have His Carcase: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery with Harriet Vane by Dorothy L. Sayers
5.0
I have read this so many times but I don't get tired of it - and I even read the cipher section with delight the first time round (I'll confess to skipping it now).
Here, DLS shifts her focus from Wimsey to Harriet Vane, the accused in Strong Poison. She is the protagonist here, as she is in Gaudy Night, and she is off on a walking holiday when she discovers the body of a young Russian dancer on a lonely rock with his throat cut. It looks like suicide, except for a few small details...
The developing relationship between Peter and Harriet is anything but boring - and it's cleverly written so that the reader can see that Harriet has feelings for Peter but her past bad experiences and self-esteem issues get in the way. The scene where Harriet eyes him up on the beach and when riding a horse are fun.
It's rather interesting to approach this (on the umpteenth reading) as a social commentary on feminism in the 1930s, though this theme is less obvious than it is in Gaudy Night. I've noticed a pattern that all the rich old ladies in DSL's books violate social norms for women in one way or another, whether it's Lady Dormer in Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club defying her family and eloping or Mrs Weldon in this book wanting to marry a much younger man.
I still have questions about the solution and would love to talk to a doctor about it; however, it was probably based on the best forensics of the day, so I can forgive any glitches.
Here, DLS shifts her focus from Wimsey to Harriet Vane, the accused in Strong Poison. She is the protagonist here, as she is in Gaudy Night, and she is off on a walking holiday when she discovers the body of a young Russian dancer on a lonely rock with his throat cut. It looks like suicide, except for a few small details...
The developing relationship between Peter and Harriet is anything but boring - and it's cleverly written so that the reader can see that Harriet has feelings for Peter but her past bad experiences and self-esteem issues get in the way. The scene where Harriet eyes him up on the beach and when riding a horse are fun.
It's rather interesting to approach this (on the umpteenth reading) as a social commentary on feminism in the 1930s, though this theme is less obvious than it is in Gaudy Night. I've noticed a pattern that all the rich old ladies in DSL's books violate social norms for women in one way or another, whether it's Lady Dormer in Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club defying her family and eloping or Mrs Weldon in this book wanting to marry a much younger man.
I still have questions about the solution and would love to talk to a doctor about it; however, it was probably based on the best forensics of the day, so I can forgive any glitches.