Recent reading: Dorothy L. Sayers edition

Earlier this month, I continued my Dorothy L. Sayers re-read with Gaudy Night, which falls into one of my favorite story niches: weird stuff happens at an all-girls school/women's college. In this case, the weird stuff is a series of poison pen letters and acts of sabotage at Harriet Vane's alma mater, which she is asked to investigate. It's kind of an odd book out among the Peter Wimsey novels— for one, it's not a murder mystery, and two, it's very much Harriet's story; Peter just happens to show up in time to figure out whodunnit and wrap up their three-book courtship arc. It's also just kind of odd, full stop, in ways that are mostly a result of the fact it was published in 1935, the past is a different country, etc.

Re-read Murder Must Advertise— one of my favorites of Sayers', featuring Wimsey juggling two simultaneous undercover investigations and the delightfully specific setting of a 1930s advertising agency. I continue to suspect that cricket is a practical joke played by the British on the rest of the world that just got wildly out of hand.

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