![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
happy birthday, omnia_mutantur!
Jan. 17th, 2009 08:26 amA special birthday wish to my oldest friend. May the troubles you're facing now seem like a distant bad dream in another year. Lots of hugs and healing to you.
Jan. 17th, 2009
Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers
Jan. 17th, 2009 09:25 amTitle: Strong Poison
Series: Lord Peter Wimsey
Author: Dorothy Sayers
Genre: Mystery, historical fiction
Pages: 261
Copyright Date: 1930
Cover: Mostly white with text, the author's name is prominent. A small picture towards the bottom shows a corpse lying in bed with a bottle apparently hovering over him. If the word "poison" in the title was not enough of a clue for you, the bottle has a skull and crossbones on it. To the right, a tiny courtroom scene in which the judge is banging his gavel. To the left, two men are enjoying either hashish or Black Caravan, based on the shape of the golden object in the center of the table.
First Line: "There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood."
Best part: So very funny.
Worst part: There are many characters to keep track of. Wimsey's friends are numerous and all seem to have long, complicated histories with him.
Grade: A
Recommended for: Any fan of the mystery genre who has not read Sayers before.
This is a rare occurence for me - I started a mystery series in the middle. Yes, it's really true. I was reading an article about Sayers, and it mentioned the first book in her Lord Peter Wimsey series, and then said that if you found that one too pretentious, you might want to start the series at the point of Strong Poison, in which the female lead of following books, Harriet Vane, is introduced. I tried reading the first few pages of the really-first book at a used bookstore, and it made me want to throw the book. Of course, I did not do so, and would not have even if the book had belonged to me. Some things just aren't right.
Lord Peter Wimsey is watching a trial he finds fascinating. His friend and employee Miss Climpson is one of the jurors. The charge is murder by poisoning. The accused is a woman who was "living in sin" with the deceased, and left him angrily when he proposed marriage to her. Wimsey is certain that she didn't commit the murder, but who did?
( A quote from the first fifty pages, in which LPW proposes marriage to someone he has just met. )
This book made me laugh out loud, a lot. I thought that Kate Ross was the last word in historical mysteries, although she only wrote three of her terrific Julian Kestral novels before she passed away. But I was wrong. Sayers has her beat cold. Great mystery read, and I will definitely be looking up the rest of these. This is easily the year's best read so far. Grade of A.
Series: Lord Peter Wimsey
Author: Dorothy Sayers
Genre: Mystery, historical fiction
Pages: 261
Copyright Date: 1930
Cover: Mostly white with text, the author's name is prominent. A small picture towards the bottom shows a corpse lying in bed with a bottle apparently hovering over him. If the word "poison" in the title was not enough of a clue for you, the bottle has a skull and crossbones on it. To the right, a tiny courtroom scene in which the judge is banging his gavel. To the left, two men are enjoying either hashish or Black Caravan, based on the shape of the golden object in the center of the table.
First Line: "There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood."
Best part: So very funny.
Worst part: There are many characters to keep track of. Wimsey's friends are numerous and all seem to have long, complicated histories with him.
Grade: A
Recommended for: Any fan of the mystery genre who has not read Sayers before.
This is a rare occurence for me - I started a mystery series in the middle. Yes, it's really true. I was reading an article about Sayers, and it mentioned the first book in her Lord Peter Wimsey series, and then said that if you found that one too pretentious, you might want to start the series at the point of Strong Poison, in which the female lead of following books, Harriet Vane, is introduced. I tried reading the first few pages of the really-first book at a used bookstore, and it made me want to throw the book. Of course, I did not do so, and would not have even if the book had belonged to me. Some things just aren't right.
Lord Peter Wimsey is watching a trial he finds fascinating. His friend and employee Miss Climpson is one of the jurors. The charge is murder by poisoning. The accused is a woman who was "living in sin" with the deceased, and left him angrily when he proposed marriage to her. Wimsey is certain that she didn't commit the murder, but who did?
( A quote from the first fifty pages, in which LPW proposes marriage to someone he has just met. )
This book made me laugh out loud, a lot. I thought that Kate Ross was the last word in historical mysteries, although she only wrote three of her terrific Julian Kestral novels before she passed away. But I was wrong. Sayers has her beat cold. Great mystery read, and I will definitely be looking up the rest of these. This is easily the year's best read so far. Grade of A.