Strong Poison

[sawyl]

On to another Dorothy L Sayers mystery, this time Strong Poison, the book that introduces Peter Wimsey's long term love interest, Harriet Vane.

The book opens the judge summing up the evidence in the case of R. vs. Harriet Vane. Accused of murdering her lover, Philip Boyes, the prosecution have shown that Harriet had means — arsenic bought under a false name, supposedly as research for a forthcoming novel — motive — after insisting upon their cohabiting, Boyes finally deigned to propose marriage, causing Harriet to walk out on him — and opportunity — on the night of his death, Boyes had a meeting with Harriet during which she offered him a cup of coffee. But the evidence fails to convince the entire jury, resulting in a hung verdict and a retrial.

Given a month's breathing space, Wimsey sets about trying to prove Harriet's innocence. First with the help of Inspector Parker, he demonstrates that Boyes had sufficient time between leaving Harriet's flat and returning to his cousin's house to poison himself. Secondly, he sets himself on the trail of all those how might possibly have benefited from Boyes death only to uncover, with the help of the unconventional Miss Climpson and her stable of spinster-sleuths, a particularly guileful murderer.

On the whole, I rather like Strong Poison. Harriet is charmingly assertive, despite her imprisonment, and sees no good reason to accede to Wimsey's proposal — reader, she doesn't marry him — even as Wimsey's sudden thoughts of matrimony put the normally unflappable Bunter off his stride. In fact, marriage is something of a theme, with Peter brow-beating Parker into proposing to Lady Mary and Freddie Arbuthnot finally announcing his marriage to Rachel Levy, having finally settled the problem of his religion — "...the trouble was that I was a Christian - at least, I was christened and all that, though I pointed out I wasn't at all a good one..."

The mystery itself is generally rather satisfactory. Acutely aware of the ticking clock, Wimsey is less than usual urbane self particularly as some of his best avenues of investigation close themselves off. Bunter gets a decent part, in his role as lothario of the lower orders, Miss Murchison's quick-wittedness and skills with the lock picks are key to turning up some particularly damning evidence, while Miss Climpson has altogether too much fun cracking the case by pretending to be a medium.