troisoiseaux (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
troisoiseaux) wrote2022-03-19 03:08 pm
troisoiseaux) wrote2022-03-19 03:08 pm
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Strong Poison - Dorothy L. Sayers
Strong Poison was the first Dorothy L. Sayers mystery I read, a few years back, but I remembered very little of it, plot-wise, so it was fun to revisit with almost entirely fresh eyes. A collection of very miscellaneous thoughts below the cut!
One thing that struck me was that, although Peter sets the lines of investigation in motion, he's not necessarily the one doing most of the work? In fact, his spinster assistants get some of the most fun, detective-y scenes— Miss Murchison goes undercover in a crooked lawyer's office and finds not one but two of the key clues; Miss Climpson holds a fake séance to track down a missing will.
I was also amused to notice a trend of, like— in Have His Carcase, there was a chapter where Peter and Harriet work out a cipher step-by-step, and in this one, there's a really detailed scene about learning to pick locks. I think in Nine Tailors, she goes into a lot of detail about bell-ringing? I like to think that Sayers was like, "I did this research and you are ALL GOING TO APPRECIATE IT" when she wrote those bits.
One of the things that I like about Sayers is that she acknowledges the 'legal consequences' side of things in a way that, e.g., Christie does not. This one starts and ends with a courtroom scene; Harriet, though innocent, spends most of the book in prison and under the threat of a possible conviction and likely death sentence; and at one point, Peter muses about how he likes solving mysteries but not the "damnable" business of "getting people hanged." This is also comes up in her other books— most vividly, the end of Busman's Honeymoon.
(I was also newly curious about the courtroom scene at the beginning of the novel for the way it illustrates a difference between the US and UK legal systems— apparently, in British trials, the judge "sums up" the evidence for the jury before they begin deliberation?? This is very much not a thing in the US.)
It's been a few years since I read this series, and to be honest, I'd forgotten about the whole "Peter was traumatized by WWI" thing. (Oops.) The line from this book that is going to haunt me for a while is when he was working through whether the victim's death was a murder or suicide and thinks "when I blow my brains out—" and then has this record-scratch moment of what did I just say??? "I hope I shan't want to." Oh, hon :(
This book has a fun cast of eccentric characters - the guests at the bohemian house party, the hymn-singing born-again former safecracker, the nurse with pretensions to spiritualism - and I was particularly delighted by Eiluned Price and Sylvia Marriott. (Harold.......)
Sayers apparently based the murder victim off of her own ex-boyfriend, which is a power move.
One thing that struck me was that, although Peter sets the lines of investigation in motion, he's not necessarily the one doing most of the work? In fact, his spinster assistants get some of the most fun, detective-y scenes— Miss Murchison goes undercover in a crooked lawyer's office and finds not one but two of the key clues; Miss Climpson holds a fake séance to track down a missing will.
I was also amused to notice a trend of, like— in Have His Carcase, there was a chapter where Peter and Harriet work out a cipher step-by-step, and in this one, there's a really detailed scene about learning to pick locks. I think in Nine Tailors, she goes into a lot of detail about bell-ringing? I like to think that Sayers was like, "I did this research and you are ALL GOING TO APPRECIATE IT" when she wrote those bits.
One of the things that I like about Sayers is that she acknowledges the 'legal consequences' side of things in a way that, e.g., Christie does not. This one starts and ends with a courtroom scene; Harriet, though innocent, spends most of the book in prison and under the threat of a possible conviction and likely death sentence; and at one point, Peter muses about how he likes solving mysteries but not the "damnable" business of "getting people hanged." This is also comes up in her other books— most vividly, the end of Busman's Honeymoon.
(I was also newly curious about the courtroom scene at the beginning of the novel for the way it illustrates a difference between the US and UK legal systems— apparently, in British trials, the judge "sums up" the evidence for the jury before they begin deliberation?? This is very much not a thing in the US.)
It's been a few years since I read this series, and to be honest, I'd forgotten about the whole "Peter was traumatized by WWI" thing. (Oops.) The line from this book that is going to haunt me for a while is when he was working through whether the victim's death was a murder or suicide and thinks "when I blow my brains out—" and then has this record-scratch moment of what did I just say??? "I hope I shan't want to." Oh, hon :(
This book has a fun cast of eccentric characters - the guests at the bohemian house party, the hymn-singing born-again former safecracker, the nurse with pretensions to spiritualism - and I was particularly delighted by Eiluned Price and Sylvia Marriott. (Harold.......)
Sayers apparently based the murder victim off of her own ex-boyfriend, which is a power move.
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Marjorie's also in The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club and I was very glad to see her again in Strong Poison.
P.
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I
When I reread them, which do perhaps much too often, I frequently intend just to read the four Harriet Vane books but then end up doing all the rest. I often skip Five Red Herrings, though. I like the artists, but it hasn't actually got very much Wimsey in it.
P.
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I have to confess that mostly I don't even read mysteries for the mystery. I read them for the discovery and analysis of character, to enter into the milieu of the community affected. Mysteries do these things more than many books allegedly dedicated to them.
I often find the mystery parts an annoying distraction.
One thing I like about Gaudy Night is that the central mystery doesn't feel like that, it feels integral.
P.
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Speaking of Golden Age murder mystery crossovers: I would read about a Miss Climpson, Miss Marple, and Miss Silver sewing (and crime-solving) circle.
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There are bad boyfriends and there are BAD BOYFRIENDS and just wow.
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It does at least like some kind of justice that the only reason anyone reads anything by Cournos now is to get more insight into Dorothy Sayers. His revenge plan blew up in his face!