This is the seventh novel featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and was first published in 1932. It is also the second novel in which Harriet Vane appears and the events in the novel are part of Wimsey's courtship to wed Miss Vane. The novel follows the events of Strong Poison, the first novel to feature Miss Vane who has still refused to marry Wimsey. The novel starts out with Vane taking a walking tour along the Southwest coast of England. After eating her lunch near the sea and taking a nap, she discovers a body of a man lying on an isolated rock who is bleeding out from having his throat cut by a razor lying close to the body. Because the blood is still wet and running, it appears that he was killed just prior to Vane's discovery of the body. Vane sees no one else in sight who could have killed him so did the man commit suicide? Lord Peter finds out about the body and rushes to the scene to start the investigation along with Harriet. So is the death really suicide? Of course, Wimsey feels otherwise but can he and Harriet prove murder?
This one was really a very convoluted murder mystery with a myriad of false clues and alibis. How could the man have been murdered if there was no one there at the time of death immediately before Harriet discovered the body? The story involves some interesting characters including the murdered man who is a Russian immigrant and was working as a dancer at a nearby hotel (the novel states that he is a gigolo because he dances with older women and in fact was engaged to one). The story also involves some mysterious letters that were written in code that may be the clue needed to solve the case. I thought this one was a little long and somewhat contrived but overall still enjoyable. I have been binge reading the Wimsey novels and I look forward to more . . . will Wimsey and Vane eventually get together?
This one was really a very convoluted murder mystery with a myriad of false clues and alibis. How could the man have been murdered if there was no one there at the time of death immediately before Harriet discovered the body? The story involves some interesting characters including the murdered man who is a Russian immigrant and was working as a dancer at a nearby hotel (the novel states that he is a gigolo because he dances with older women and in fact was engaged to one). The story also involves some mysterious letters that were written in code that may be the clue needed to solve the case. I thought this one was a little long and somewhat contrived but overall still enjoyable. I have been binge reading the Wimsey novels and I look forward to more . . . will Wimsey and Vane eventually get together?
Harriet Vane mystery. Good Sayers book, as usual.
Classic British mystery with Harriet Vane on the case. Plot twists that keeps you guessing.
The mystery writer Harriet Vane, recovering from an unhappy love affair and its aftermath, seeks solace on a barren beach - deserted bur for the body of a bearded young man with his throat cut. From the moment she photographs the corpse, which soon disappears with the tide, she is puzzled by a mystery that might have been suicide, murder, or a political plot. With the appearance of her dear friend Lord Peter Wimsey, she finds a reason for detective pursuit - as only the two of them can pursue it.
a dead man on the shore that washes into the ocean starts a pursuit for justice... a photograph is the only clue...
Enjoyable if you love Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane (and I do!), but I think there's a reason this is one of Sayers's more forgettable volumes. The language is particularly dated -- I don't think I've ever read the word "wop" so many times in my life, used over and over again in dialogue as a casually derogatory reference to the [deceased] title character, and while I'm sure it was a perfectly natural usage in its time and context, it's still jarring.
