“Strong Poison” by Dorothy L. Sayers

Lord Peter Wimsey falls in love. The woman he is in love with doesn’t belong to aristocracy, but this is not what bothers Lord Peter, and he doesn’t care what his family might say. The trouble is, she is suspected of poisoning her ex-lover, and the case is watertight. She is saved by a miracle: the jury fails to agree upon an apparently obvious verdict, but the second trial is to take place in a month. The miracle won’t happen twice.

Lord Peter is sure of her innocence though and undertakes to prove it. He has exactly 31 days to do it, but he doesn’t even know where to start. And if he fails, he will lose the woman he so desires: she will die upon the scaffold.

Lord Peter’s chief suspect had no opportunity to poison Philip Boyes, and apparently, no motive. There are nobody else to suspect. Lord Peter tries to prove a suicide case, but fails. He has to resort to very unorthodox methods to prove that the man in question did have a motive alright – and even an opportunity, however fantastic it might sound. One of Lord Peter’s helpers has to learn how to pick locks; the other – completely against her religious views – becomes a spirit medium and stages a séance (all faked) – to get him the proof he needs. At last, they succeed, and the unfortunate victim of circumstances – Harriet Vane – is released at the next trial. Unfortunately, she refuses to marry Lord Peter. For now.

The book is written quite cheerfully; I most enjoyed the part in which that cheeky Miss Climpson fakes her ability to talk to spirits. This lady could have been a great sleuth herself, without any help from Lord Peter, I daresay.

Harriet Vane has my sympathy – I can’t stand it when people are wrongly accused of the crime they never committed – but the way she treats Lord Peter meets my strong disapproval. He is a decent fellow – why not give him at least some hope? Okay, the fact that he is a lord is not in his favour, for sure, but he is not a stereotype lord. I was glad to learn from Wikipedia that the silly girl saw the light later and married this lovely person. Any woman with a brain should be happy to.

Weirdly, I feel sorry for Philip Boyes too. He belongs to the type of men I particularly hate, but he doesn’t seem bad enough to deserve such a dreadful death. Dorothy Sayers obviously tried her best to portray him as a nasty person, but she didn’t quite succeed. Perhaps, she thought that the word “atheist” would mainly do the job – but not to me… no… not to me. Incidentally, I happen to share his views in this regard, though I disapprove of men who expect one-way devotion from their women, even if they are really geniuses (and I don’t think Philip Boyes is one). I wish he hadn’t died, but someone has to die in detective stories.

I’d love to read all the rest of the Lord Peter Wimsey series, but it can wait. There are other books on my list, many of them with a higher level of priority. And though I enjoyed “Strong Poison”, I don’t think I’ll want to re-read it soon.