Five Red Herrings is my least favorite of the Peter Wimsey mystery novels. According to the hosts of the podcast As My Wimsey Takes Me, some fans complained about the inclusion of a romance plot with the introduction of Harriet in Strong Poison, so Dorothy got a bee in her bonnet and put together the puzzliest of puzzle novels, with more shallow character work than her more recent novels had shown, and which is the aspect of the books that I really appreciate. Some readers, like JRR Tolkien, really liked the puzzle part, but not so much the people part. I like the people parts much better. Five Red Herrings, which relies on real-life train tables and whether a person can get from point a to point b in a particular time, fell flat for me.
Still, it did have moments and passages that delighted me, though, so I’m not sorry I re-read it. But I did skim it even faster on a re-read, now that I knew who did it and didn’t have to attend to the puzzle details much at all.
I also listened to the radio dramatization. I learned how to pronounce several things I’d been mispronouncing in my head: the town is pronounced Kih COO bree, Sergeant Dalziel is pronounced dee ELL, and Strachan is stracken. But the radio play leaves out a lot of the better exchanges, as when Peter tracks down Farren, or when a young policeman thinks he’s got a solid theory. Like the book, it’s a mixed bag.
“It was a marvellous day in late August, and Wimsey’s soul purred within him as he pushed the car along. The road from Kirkcudbright to Newton-Stewart is of a varied loveliness hard to surpass, and with a sky full of bright sun and rolling cloud-banks, hedges filled with flowers, a well-made road, a lively engine and the prospect of a good corpse at the end of it, Lord Peter’s cup of happiness was full. He was a man who loved simple pleasures. (13, , Bourbon Street Books.)
The annoying passage, where Sayers withholds a detail, but says it should be obvious, but it wasn’t, to me, so I had to wait a long time for it to be revealed:
“(Here Lord Peter Wimsey told the Sergeant what he was to look for and why, but as the intelligent reader will readily supply these details for himself, they are omitted from this page.) (20)
Constable Ross has “a further hunt among the prickles” which I think would have been a splendid title. (21)
“I do not submit to force,” said Wimsey. “I prefer to believe that the man was killed about midnight. I do not believe in that painting. I do not think it is telling the truth. I know that it is absolutely impossible for Campbell to have been working her on that painting this morning.” (22)
The exchange with Farren is my favorite part, and I think there is interesting and deep character work shown in Peter’s interviews with both Mrs. and Mr. Farren. Additionally, I think there’s a pretty dim view of marriage portrayed here, and I think a case could be made for a rather dim view of women. Apparently it sold well when it was published, and then the town got overrun with literary tourists who came in search of the book details, so Sayers regretted putting one of her personal favorite places in a book.
K.J. Boldon 