Published 1931 this edition from New English Library 1975
284 pages
ISBN 450 02667-1
Genre: crime
Key words: Peter Wimsey, Galloway, artists, painters, trains, train schedules,
Grade 4/5
I love Dorothy Sayers’s books with Lord Peter Wimsey; but this one I like less than the others. Peter is off to Galloway with Bunter; he is known in the village and part of the vacation view of the area. All the other people are artists and fishermen or both. Campbell is one of the painter artists, he is not liked at all, quarrels and fights physically especially if he is drunk. The other artists are Farren, Ferguson, Waters, Strachan, Graham, Gowan. Campbell was found dead as if he had fallen down a cliff while painting. Peter inserts himself in the investigation.
It is in this book that the bad guy eats breakfast twice to establish an alibi.
What I do not like in this book is that the Scottish people speak Scottish, as English is my second language I found it difficult to understand (I have yet to visit Scotland; having only been to a medical conference in Glasgow, I did not have to deal with that language barrier). Second, I got completely lost in the train schedules; I gave up even trying to understand who went where and when. Therefore, I thought the plot extremely complicated, I understood it only at the end when Peter did his reconstruction of the things in proper English. I learned that in 1931 the trains in UK ran on time and were apparently comfortable.
I think it unfair that on page 22, something is left out, ‘the intelligent reader readily knows,’ well I did not get it until much later when Peter explained what was missing; what was missing I believe only painter artists would be aware of. I felt cheated.
It is interesting that The Detection Club was established in 1930 by prominent crime writers including Dorothy L Sayers and they agreed to adhere to the ten Knox commandments in order to give readers a fair chance to guess who is guilty; number 8 of the commandments states that the detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover; well Sayers did not do that here! This book was published a year later; so, I wonder did she not agree with the commandments?!
When I read the Peter Wimsey books, I enjoy so much his babbling or how he piffles along on anything and everything, in particular his literary quotes; in this book he does not speak nonsense, I really missed that, so for me it is not a real Peter Wimsey book.
I read this book last time in 1975 and have had it on my shelf ever since, now I have read it again and from my notes I see that I have not changed my opinion on this book, the other books in the series I absolutely love!
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