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A review by rebeccacider
Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers
I remembered virtually nothing about this book other than the instrument of murder; certainly I'd forgotten (or never noticed?) it was lesbians all the way down.
I think Unnatural Death is Sayers' first attempt at more of a noir/suspense plot, and it's not particularly to my taste. That said, there is some thoughtful exploration of gender roles as a counterpoint to ruthless murder lesbians, including a portrayal of a happy same-sex relationship and the introduction of the inimitable Miss Climpton, who despite her social conservatism is wistful not just because she is a woman of no importance, but because she ought to have been a lawyer. I was also tickled when Sayers suggests police detectives be replaced with middle-aged spinsters, which is surely police reform we can all get behind.
Race, inheritance laws, and social class are also explored in this book; Sayers asks some really interesting questions about who deserves to be counted as family or given access to economic and social power, and how legislation is used to enforce social norms. Unfortunately Sayers can't talk about race without reproducing her characters' truly cringeworthy attitudes; she may be critiquing them, but they're still our heroes, and the racial slurs and cavalier attitude toward racist policing do not make for fun reading in 2020.
Equally unfortunate is that all of this interesting subtext is a backdrop for a deeply boring murderer who has something of the theatricality of a Sherlock Holmes villain, but none of the psychological nuance. I liked the medical aspects of the mystery, but at the end of the day the murder plot felt like a lot of trope-y, homophobic silliness. It's Sayers, so it's still a decent time, but this is definitely not a novel that's aged well.
I think Unnatural Death is Sayers' first attempt at more of a noir/suspense plot, and it's not particularly to my taste. That said, there is some thoughtful exploration of gender roles as a counterpoint to ruthless murder lesbians, including a portrayal of a happy same-sex relationship and the introduction of the inimitable Miss Climpton, who despite her social conservatism is wistful not just because she is a woman of no importance, but because she ought to have been a lawyer. I was also tickled when Sayers suggests police detectives be replaced with middle-aged spinsters, which is surely police reform we can all get behind.
Race, inheritance laws, and social class are also explored in this book; Sayers asks some really interesting questions about who deserves to be counted as family or given access to economic and social power, and how legislation is used to enforce social norms. Unfortunately Sayers can't talk about race without reproducing her characters' truly cringeworthy attitudes; she may be critiquing them, but they're still our heroes, and the racial slurs and cavalier attitude toward racist policing do not make for fun reading in 2020.
Equally unfortunate is that all of this interesting subtext is a backdrop for a deeply boring murderer who has something of the theatricality of a Sherlock Holmes villain, but none of the psychological nuance. I liked the medical aspects of the mystery, but at the end of the day the murder plot felt like a lot of trope-y, homophobic silliness. It's Sayers, so it's still a decent time, but this is definitely not a novel that's aged well.