Dorothy L. Sayers’ Unnatural Death Part 1

Spoilers ahead for Part 1 of the third Peter Wimsey book, Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers, first published in 1927.

Before we begin I suggest you skip the fictional Biographical Note by Peter’s uncle. It contains spoilers for future books, most notably Strong Poison. It was not part of the early editions of the book, and was added in 1935 to the Gollancz editions forward.

The beginning of this third book, at Part 1, chapter 1 The Medical Problem, has a steadier, brisker pace than its predecessors. I didn’t want to put down the book, as I was tempted to do with Whose Body?, which had the lengthy back and forth about what might have happened, and Clouds of Witness, which opened with an inquest.

Peter and Charles are discussing a famous case of poisoning, which Sayers points to with the epigraph. “‘All the same,’ urged the nondescript young man, dubiously extracting a bubbling-hot Helix Pomatia from its shell, and eyeing it nervously before putting it into his mouth, ‘surely it’s a clear case of a public duty to voice one’s suspicions.'”

Excuse me, is the excruciatingly polite Charles talking with his mouth full?

Their chat is overheard by a doctor who lost his practice for voicing his suspicions. He lays before them his tale of woe about Agatha Dawson, who died under slightly suspicious circumstances. The doctor thinks Dawson’s niece, Mary Whittaker, is to blame. Charles is not convinced, but Peter is. In an amusing episode, Peter brings Charles to meet a new woman in his life. Charles is embarrassed; he thinks he’s being introduced to Peter’s mistress.

Instead, he meets the loquacious and exuberant Miss Climpson, who speaks (and writes letters) emphatically. Peter noticed a surplus of single women after the war, and decided to hire them to do paperwork and investigation. It’s his own version of the Baker Street Irregulars. Peter dispatches Climpson to find out more about the death. At the end of chapter 3,

Mr. Parker thoughtfully boarded a westward-bound bus and was rolled away to do some routine questioning, on his own account, among the female population of Notting Dale. it did not appear to him to be a milieu in which the talents of Miss Climpson could be usefully employed.

p. 29, HarperCollins

I looked up Notting Dale and found it’s very near the posh Notting Hill. I checked the Peschel Press annotations: nothing. The Lord Peter Wimsey Companion notes it is “densely populated” and has a lot of “social housing.”

Excuse me. Is Charles going to visit sex workers? Or to question them in relation to another case? Both the book and the annotations feel rather coy and obfuscating .

Miss Climpson becomes a spy embedded in Leahampton to find more about Mary Whittaker. Charles still thinks it isn’t a case while Peter insists, “It has a nasty flavour.” (49) A body turns up, a former maid to Agatha Dawson.

Nearby, they find a ham sandwich, which Peter notes is “not an ordinary one…Observe the hard texture, the deep brownish tint of the lean; the rich fat…the dark spot where the black treacle cure has soaked in, to make a dish fit to lure Zeus from Olympus.” (60)

That a ham sandwich was a clue, and the quality of the ham so striking, delighted me to no end. And then? A comment upon the corpse: “there had certainly been weasels.” This page made me laugh; Sayers humor and details delighted me.

Peter and Charles investigate interview a Mrs. Forrest in London, from whom Peter steals a glass, embarrassing Charles yet again and then Peter impersonates an expecting father and pretends to be a member of the Dawson/Whittaker family to question one of Dawson’s former nurses. By the end of section one, Peter thinks there has been a murder and that Mary Whittaker did it, but doesn’t yet have much to show for it.

If you are reading along, how did you find the pace of this book, and its balance of puzzle to character?

Next week, Part 2, The Legal Problem.