Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers
May. 8th, 2008 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmoore The third Wimsey mystery has Wimsey and his friend, Parker, being told of a strange death by a doctor while having dinner. Apparently, a patient of the doctor's died recently, and despite her health, the doctor was suspicious of her death, but was driven out of town when he questioned the woman's great niece, making the locals very unhappy with him. Wimsey investigates and soon determines that the woman did murder her great aunt, he just has to figure out why.
For whatever reason, this book didn't work as well for me as the first two did. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but I wasn't as caught up in it as with Whose Body? and Clouds of Witness. I blame the fact that Peter's family was nowhere to be seen. Or even mentioned. Come to think of it, I don't think Bunter was around as much, either. We do get Miss Climpson, a busybody who makes inquiries for Wimsey, but I'm not quite sure what I think of her yet.
Also, is it just me, or does Sayers seem to work in a lot of lesbian implications? The murder victim here seems to have been "companions" with a woman for some years, just like the "companions" in Christie's A Murder is Announced, and I remember thinking in Clouds of Witness that one of Mary's friends seemed to have much morethan friendly feelings for her. I ask because it interests me, and it's not the sort of thing I usually hear about with Sayers's(or Christie's) books, so I wonder if I'm just reading too much into it or what.
Anyway, a good book, but not as good(for me at least) as the first two Wimsey mysteries.
*I use my Syaoran icon because apparently the latest chapter has the entire fandom going insane and it amuses me to use it. But remember, spoilers make little Kurogane remember his Mommy's death. No one wants him to go there again.*
For whatever reason, this book didn't work as well for me as the first two did. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but I wasn't as caught up in it as with Whose Body? and Clouds of Witness. I blame the fact that Peter's family was nowhere to be seen. Or even mentioned. Come to think of it, I don't think Bunter was around as much, either. We do get Miss Climpson, a busybody who makes inquiries for Wimsey, but I'm not quite sure what I think of her yet.
One interesting thing, though, is that in this book, the murderer kills at least one other person, frames another, and almost kills Miss Climpson, all because Wimsey decides to investigate. Had he not investigated, it would have been left with the murder of an old lady who would have died soon anyway. Naturally, even that type of murder shouldn't go unpunished, but I wouldn't mind seeing it revisited that, had he not investigated, no one else would have died. Rather like how, had the doctor not said anything, he wouldn't have been chased out of town.
Also, is it just me, or does Sayers seem to work in a lot of lesbian implications? The murder victim here seems to have been "companions" with a woman for some years, just like the "companions" in Christie's A Murder is Announced, and I remember thinking in Clouds of Witness that one of Mary's friends seemed to have much morethan friendly feelings for her. I ask because it interests me, and it's not the sort of thing I usually hear about with Sayers's(or Christie's) books, so I wonder if I'm just reading too much into it or what.
Anyway, a good book, but not as good(for me at least) as the first two Wimsey mysteries.
*I use my Syaoran icon because apparently the latest chapter has the entire fandom going insane and it amuses me to use it. But remember, spoilers make little Kurogane remember his Mommy's death. No one wants him to go there again.*