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Unnatural Death (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries)

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I found this book to be probably the best of all of Dorothy Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. The plotting is tight and all the threads are pulled together for the reader. A nice touch is that neither Lord Peter nor Parker are superhuman detectives who miraculously discern the truth at every step. Instead, they are allowed to make mistakes and even be a bit slow sometimes in getting to the truth, which makes them completely believeable. But the best part of the book was the great atmosphere - Ms Sayers brings 1920's England vividly to life so much so you feel you are actually there. I liked the way the story shifts back and forth between London and the countryside. Also, what fun to be introduced to Mr. Murbles and Miss Climpson - surely some of the most entertaining characters ever created in detective fiction! I read all the mysteries written subsequently and was a little disappointed that their characters are not more fully developed in later books - both appear in other novels but not to the extent I would have wished. All in all, it's an unputdownable mystery - try it and you will be hooked!

Dorothy Sayers, a.k.a. Dorothy Leigh Sayers Fleming, one of the first women to ever be granted a degree from Oxford University, created one of the leading figures in, and indeed in so doing helped to create the genre of, the British mystery novels. Lord Peter Wimsey, an elegant, refined London-based aristocrat with a taste for books and a penchant for the piano, is again here the leading figure, in Unnatural Death, also published as The Dawson Pedigree.

Wimsey is an old Etonian, Balliol Oxford (of course), served with distinction in His Majesty's forces during the War (this book having been written in 1927, I shall leave it to your good services to deduce which War), who resides both town and country somewhat fashionably, and takes great pride in the ancient family history (by the time one gets to be the fifteenth Duke of anything, the family can be easily considered ancient). Wimsey has a vocation as criminologist, not out of necessity, surely, and not by training either (for such training did not formally exist, but, as an Oxford Arts man, he was trained for most anything intellectual, or at least, that is what an Oxford Arts man would tell you). An interesting addition to the beginning of the book is a short biographical sketch of the fictional Wimsey by his equally-fictional uncle.

All of this, of course, is but preamble to the latest mystery to come calling upon Lord Wimsey. There are the requisite features: a dead woman, Agatha Dawson, wealthy and having left a will that might not be a will, but rather a sham (a delirious woman whose nurse insists that there was no possible way of having made a will during the last month, yet oddly there is a document, complete with a witness who claims that dear old Agatha Dawson wanted nothing to do with the signing -- ah, the plot thickens here).

Of course, to most of the world, Wimsey is, well, following a whimsey of his own. The woman was after all elderly and in poor health; surely his investigations are misplaced. The doctor (not the one who tended Miss Dawson's death, to be sure, but an earlier doctor, suspicious of Dawson's sole heir, her niece) was accused of having blackened the name of Miss Whittaker, the niece, unnecessarily, particularly as no evidence of mischief had been uncovered. Wimsey with the assistance of Inspector Parker are able to rectify the situation vis-a-vis the doctor, but there is still the mystery.

Then, more death. This time the maid. To lose one woman may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two women... (well, you can fill in the rest yourself).

Of course I won't spoil it for you; perhaps others will do that for you, but I sincerely hope not. Suffice it to say, Wimsey proves himself a consummate actor in which the truth comes out (in London, and in style!).

One of the glories of Sayers work is the intricacies of her plots. She tends to get a huge number of people involved (the number of people who seemed to have trouped through the ill woman's bedchamber is in itself surprising, given the era) each with subplots and agenda that nonetheless get neatly resolved in the end. Sayers' development of character (even of the already dead ones!) is done with style and subtlety; while Wimsey is developed over several novels, one doesn't feel him a stranger by reading this one alone. The other characters fit their parts admirably (had Sayers not been a writer, she may well have made a good career as a casting director in Hollywood), in physical and personality attributes.

Her descriptions of the milieu, both in town (London) and in the country (the village and surroundings, in this case, of Hampshire, are interesting reading. Sayers is very much the cosmopolitan, and somewhat condescending toward the countryfolk. However, that is not a heavy element, and perhaps can be written off to her attempt to make Wimsey even more the worldly character he turns out to be over the course of her novels.

In all, an excellent read, a great diversion, and well worth musing over while sipping tea on a Regency-style sofa in one's dressing gown.

Dorothy Sayers, a.k.a. Dorothy Leigh Sayers Fleming, one of the first women to ever be granted a degree from Oxford University, created one of the leading figures in, and indeed in so doing helped to create the genre of, the British mystery novels. Lord Peter Wimsey, an elegant, refined London-based aristocrat with a taste for books and a penchant for the piano, is again here the leading figure, in Unnatural Death, also published as The Dawson Pedigree.

Wimsey is an old Etonian, Balliol Oxford (of course), served with distinction in His Majesty's forces during the War (this book having been written in 1927, I shall leave it to your good services to deduce which War), who resides both town and country somewhat fashionably, and takes great pride in the ancient family history (by the time one gets to be the fifteenth Duke of anything, the family can be easily considered ancient). Wimsey has a vocation as criminologist, not out of necessity, surely, and not by training either (for such training did not formally exist, but, as an Oxford Arts man, he was trained for most anything intellectual, or at least, that is what an Oxford Arts man would tell you). An interesting addition to the beginning of the book is a short biographical sketch of the fictional Wimsey by his equally-fictional uncle.

All of this, of course, is but preamble to the latest mystery to come calling upon Lord Wimsey. There are the requisite features: a dead woman, Agatha Dawson, wealthy and having left a will that might not be a will, but rather a sham (a delirious woman whose nurse insists that there was no possible way of having made a will during the last month, yet oddly there is a document, complete with a witness who claims that dear old Agatha Dawson wanted nothing to do with the signing -- ah, the plot thickens here).

Of course, to most of the world, Wimsey is, well, following a whimsey of his own. The woman was after all elderly and in poor health; surely his investigations are misplaced. The doctor (not the one who tended Miss Dawson's death, to be sure, but an earlier doctor, suspicious of Dawson's sole heir, her niece) was accused of having blackened the name of Miss Whittaker, the niece, unnecessarily, particularly as no evidence of mischief had been uncovered. Wimsey with the assistance of Inspector Parker are able to rectify the situation vis-a-vis the doctor, but there is still the mystery.

Then, more death. This time the maid. To lose one woman may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two women... (well, you can fill in the rest yourself).

Of course I won't spoil it for you; perhaps my tag-team reviewers will do that for you, but I sincerely hope not. Suffice it to say, Wimsey proves himself a consummate actor in which the truth comes out (in London, and in style!).

One of the glories of Sayers work is the intricacies of her plots. She tends to get a huge number of people involved (the number of people who seemed to have trouped through the ill woman's bedchamber is in itself surprising, given the era) each with subplots and agenda that nonetheless get neatly resolved in the end. Sayers' development of character (even of the already dead ones!) is done with style and subtlety; while Wimsey is developed over several novels, one doesn't feel him a stranger by reading this one alone. The other characters fit their parts admirably (had Sayers not been a writer, she may well have made a good career as a casting director in Hollywood), in physical and personality attributes.

Her descriptions of the milieu, both in town (London) and in the country (the village and surroundings, in this case, of Hampshire, are interesting reading. Sayers is very much the cosmopolitan, and somewhat condescending toward the countryfolk. However, that is not a heavy element, and perhaps can be written off to her attempt to make Wimsey even more the worldly character he turns out to be over the course of her novels.

In all, an excellent read, a great diversion, and well worth musing over while sipping tea on a Regency-style sofa in one's dressing gown.

I had a lot of fun reading this story.. And thats the point! Its not just about complicated stories, or even about keeping the reader guessing till the end. This is a book for people who really love a good story of detection.

Even though I prefer crime-novels where the question is 'who did it?' to those where it is 'how did they do it?' I did enjoy this one very much, a good and solid mystery with some twists and interesting characters. Except for Miss Climpson whom I found somewhat annoying. She somehow seemed more like the parody of the typical 1920s old lady than a typical 1920s old lady if that makes sense (and her letters *ugh* frequent italics and multiple exclamation marks...that somehow annoyed me a lot, too).
And also: During the book Wimsey suddenly questions if it's really a bad thing to kill somebody who is already very ill and certain not to survive his illness. That is a good question, especially considering that this book was written in the 20s where asking such questions certainly caused even more controversy than today. However: The first time Wimsey asks this question we already have a second body and the strong suspicion that that person (who was perfectly healthy) was killed to cover up the first murder, the second time he wonders about it again we have already learned that the old lady was killed for financial gain and Mary Whittacker had tried to kill two more healthy people (one of which was Wimsey himself). So it feels a bit weird because even if it's right that the old lady was spared some suffering that was certainly not her niece's main intend, so giving so much room to this question just seems a bit silly.

01/07 No Sign Of Foul Play
The start of a new mystery for Lord Peter Wimsey, beginning with a nurse and an old lady.

02/07 Death In Epping Forest
With another senseless murder, Lord Peter Wimsey's investigation leads to an evasive would-be divorcee.

03/07 The Will
There's more for Lord Peter to investigate - especially when one of his suspects takes a shine to him.

04/07 Hallelujah
Lord Peter's case continues, and clues come in the form of illegitimate heirs and property acts.

05/07 The Property Act
Lord Peter asks more questions, and gets unlikely answers about property law.

06/07 Vera Findlater
Lord Peter and co wind up decamping to the seaside on the trail of the killer - and make a gruesome discovery.

07/07 Miss Climpson Investigates
Evidence against Mary Whitaker is mounting, but none of it proves murder.

In einem Café lernt Dr. Carr Lord Peter Wimsey kennen und erzählt ihm eine interessante Geschichte. Dr. Carr war Landarzt in Leahampton mit dem speziellen Steckenpferd der Krebsbehandlung. Er behandelte die reiche alte Jungfer Miss Agatha Dawson, die an Krebs erkrankt war. Eine erste OP war erfolgreich, dann kehrte der Krebs jedoch zurück. Er gab ihr noch bis März, sie starb jedoch bereits im November. Eine Autopsie ergab nichts, ruinierte aber den Ruf des Arztes, des seine Praxis aufgeben musste, weil er von den Bewohnern von Leahampton boykottiert wurde. Lord Peter Wimsey hegt Verdacht gegen Mary Whittaker, die als einzige vom Ableben ihrer Großtante Nutzen ziehen konnte. Wie jedoch und warum hat sie diese umgebracht, so sie ohnehin geerbt hätte?
Lord Peter Wimsey setzt Alexandra Catherine Climpson, eine ältere, pensionierte Dame auf Mary Whittaker und die Bewohner Leahamptons an und schon bald pflastern weitere Leichen die Ermittlungen dieses Falls.

1975 produzierte die BBC dieses Hörspiel mit Ian Carmichael als Lord Peter und Peter Jones als Bunter. Ein wenig hört man dem Hörspiel sein Alter schon an. Der Kontrast der Interpretation des Lord Peter zwischen diesem BBC Hörspiel und einigen deutschen Hörspielen ist überraschend. In den deutschen Hörspielen ist Lord Peter meist ein distinguierter, adeliger, englischer Detektiv, beim BBC erinnert er stark an Bertie Wooster von PG Woodhouse, nur nicht so trottelig, aber genauso affektiert mit dem Slang der 1920er Jahre und einem Buttler namens Bunter. Die Sprecher sind durchweg ausgezeichnet, die Soundkulisse passend und unterstützend, Musik wird nur sehr sparsam bis nie eingesetzt.
Der Fall an sich ist sehr gut aufgebaut und sauber, von verschiedenen Blickwinkeln ermittelt. Man kann miträtseln, nichts wird verschwiegen. Lustig ist vor allem, dass ein Teil der Ermittlung durch eine ältere Dame übernommen wird, die sich in Leahampton als Rentier einmietet und auf der Ebene des Klatsch und Tratsch ermittelt und so Dinge in Erfahrung bringt, die ein normaler Ermittler nie erfahren würde. Dieser Fall hat durch seine Mordmethode Geschichte geschrieben und wird seitdem immer wieder (indirekt) zitiert.

Fazit: Schon seltsam, dass diese englischen Krimis in Deutschland so unbekannt sind. Ich finde sie fast besser als jene von Agatha Christie, zumindest was die saubere Ermittlung angeht. Lord Peter ist ein original und seine Methoden wirksam, wenn auch teilweise unorthodox.

This one did it for me.

Dorothy Sayers had such a brilliant mind, to dream up this one. There is a brooding and tense atmosphere to this novel that is unrelenting and in every sense horrifying. You get the feeling that your worst thoughts about what is happening are actually being confirmed. Wimsey certainly finds himself in some very eerie territory here.

The characters, the plot, the tension, the humor and the pace are all fabulous.

What more can I say. Pick it up right NOW!

This is a very fun book to read, especially in order of the series. The more we find out about Lord Peter, the more interesting he becomes.

The character development of the secondary characters in this work is superior to Sayers' two previous books, and the plot is more intricate. Overall a very enjoyable experience. The more I read of Dorothy Sayers' work, the more willing I am to highly recommend her books!