Clouds of Witness by Dorothy Sayers

Reviewed by Sarah
Start Date: August 8th, I think. But it might have been the 7th...
Finish Date: August 9th
Star Rating: I think it earned a good solid... 7. Yes, 7 *******
"Movie" Rating: PG

“Bunter,” he said, as they walked through the streets of the old city, “is my manner really offensive, when I don't mean it to be?”
“It is possible, my lord, if your lordship will excuse my saying so, that the liveliness of your lordship's manner may be misleading to persons of limited——”
“Be careful, Bunter!”
“Limited imagination, my lord.”
“Well-bred English people never have imagination, Bunter.”
“Certainly not, my lord. I meant nothing disparaging.”
“Well, Bunter—oh, lord! there's a reporter! Hide me, quick!”

When talking about Lord Peter (in comparison to Sherlock Holmes) to my home teachers, I described him as "overly amiable" (as opposed to Sherlock's egotism). I hadn't thought much of the choice of words, but they found it both apt and amusing. "I know exactly who he is, now," they said.

Well, I hadn't exactly chosen my words extremely carefully, but looking back, I do think they describe Lord Peter rather well. Overly Amiable. Yes, thats Lord Peter.

Also, it occured to me while thinking about these books (Scarlet Pimpernel, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Sherlock Holmes) that they were written and published over overlapping time periods. According to their respective Wikipedia pages, as far as I can tell the SP novels were published from 1905-1940, LPW novels published 1923-1937, SH novels 1887-1927. So my description of Lord Peter as Sir Percy investigating crime like Sherlock Holmes seems even more appropriate to me now. It seems quite likely to me that they would have similar types of appeal.

I've never been really into WHODUNNIT? Types of books, but Lord Peters over-amiableness made this one (and Whose Body?, of course, and hopefully the books that follow, as I intend to read them) rather more entertaining than it might have been otherwise. While Lord Peter and Sherlock Holmes are neither of them flawless, I'm going to have to say that I definitely prefer Lord Peter to Sherlock Holmes. Lord Peter is funnier (and you all should know that I generally love a good laugh at whatever I'm reading). Though I guess I might as well add while I'm on the subject that Sir Percy beats them both easily.

But reviewing this book specifically. Well, I will say that I didn't really figureout WHODUNNIT. I did have suspicions that turned out in the end to be well-grounded, but there was such a tangled confusion of why who was doing what where and when that would take someone far cleverer than I (namely, Lord Peter, with Parker, Bunter, and company) to unravel the whole thing.

I'm still impatient for Harriet to show up already.