# 13

I thought I'd read every Dorothy Sayers book long ago and even when I picked it up from the library discard shelves recently, I thought I was getting a book that I'd probably read long ago-to reread. Surprise! Unless my memory is really failing me, this was a new book for me. It was fun to learn more about these characters I knew so well, but I was a little disappointed. This is not one of the better Dorothy Sayers' books.

Unfortunately, and I suppose typical of the period (1937) there are disturbing prejudicial references, both to African-Americans and Jews. Also many, many references to poems and books that are unknown to me--so I miss the implication entirely. Several quotes in French that, although I took French in high school, I can't translate. I watched one or two of this series in film and disliked the characters, and I guess hoped, having seen an endorsement of the books, that I would like the books more. It's difficult to see the fawning servants, police officers and townspeople in relation to the main characters. I find I can't relate to them at all. The main character also tends to be paternalistic, also a characteristic of the times. It's hard to understand the appeal of these books.

Wonderful mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers first published in 1937. The book begins with the wedding of detective Lord Peter Whimsey and Harriet Vane, two very literary forty-somethings. Part of the great fun of the book, besides solving the mystery, is that they're constantly quoting from the classics to enhance almost every situation, and a few of the other characters join them in this truly entertaining pastime. Peter is like Sherlock Holmes - a flawed character (shy, shell-shocked from the war) but inherently good and very appealing.