D.G. ~Shameless Reader~

This book was a thoroughly enjoyable entry in the Lord Peter Wimsey series. The mystery was adequate, mostly about proving that a murder had been committed instead of finding out the killer, which was known. I didn't know how the murder was accomplished - frightfully simple and clever - but the twist at the end wasn't a surprised at all. Lord Peter shouldn't have been taken in.

It was also interesting to see that Dorothy Sayers had a character like Miss Marple before the first Miss Marple book was published - to be fair though, Miss Marple was inspired on Caroline Sheppard, another character from a book Mrs. Christie published in 1926, a year before this. You wonder who was inspired by whom or if they just came by the idea at separately.

But as I mentioned in previous reviews, I don't read this series for the mysteries but because Lord Peter is so funny. I almost burst a lung laughing throughout the whole book. He's so witty and has such a way of expressing himself.

"I sleuth, you know. For a hobby. Harmless outlet for natural inquisitiveness, don't you see, which might otherwise strike inward and produce introspection and suicide."

"I did hope I was gong to vindicate him and have him played home by the village band under a triumphal arch with "Welcome, Champion of Truth!" picked out in red-white-and-blue electric bulbs."

"In fact - as gasp here, and a lowering of the voice - he had turned Papist and become - a monk! (Had he become a murderer, apparently, he could hardly have done worse.)"

Ian Carmichael is masterful in the narration. I don't think all these things would strike me as funny reading them on my own. He just has this sense of the ridiculous that brings wonderful qualities to the narration.

Hopefully Audible gets the rest of the series soon so I can continue listening!