Strong Poison
by Dorothy L. Sayers
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dorothy L. SayersEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1995-04-01
ISBN: 0061043508
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: HarperTorch
Book Reviews of Strong Poison
Book Review: There's nothing wrong about it at all, except that the girl's innocent
Summary: 4 Stars
A lot of women want to poison their ex-boyfriends. Only a few actually do it.
But the suspicion is enough to land a woman in the dock in "Strong Poison," the first of a string of mysteries about eccentric detective Lord Peter Wimsey and his romantic interest, crime writer/murder suspect Harriet Vane. While Peter's feelings for Harriet spring up rather suddenly, this seemingly airtight mystery is a solid race against time to discover the poisoner, with few clues about who may have done the deed -- and a lot of clues about who didn't.
Lord Peter Wimsey becomes interested in the trial of Harriet Vane, a mystery writer who lived with her boyfriend until he proposed marriage (it had all been a test). Six months later, after a brief visit, her ex dropped dead of arsenic -- and all the evidence points straight at Harriet. But Peter is sure that Harriet didn't do the crime -- and he's fallen in love -- and so becomes determined to break this watertight case against her.
And so he turns his attention to suicide, since there was plenty of motive for that. But the most promising lead turns out to be the dead man's cousin, a successful lawyer whose motives and opportunity remain unknown -- as the court tells us, the only food that the deceased ate was also eaten by the suspect. But the brilliant Wimsey knows he can find the answer, before Harriet's retrial.
"Strong Poison" probably had a special signficance for Dorothy Sayers. First, it introduced her alter-ego, Harriet. Secondly, some of the events that happened to Harriet -- living with a boyfriend, the "test" -- really happened in real life, although presumably Sayers didn't come under suspicion of having murdered her ex.
The murder itself is very intriguing, if very slow-moving and roundabout. The case against Harriet is practically foolproof, so it's intriguing to see Wimsey carefully pulling the chinks out of it, and exposing another motive for the dead man's death. But they include some funny (if too brief) moments, like Peter having tea with a hilarious lesbian couple ("Philip Boyes was always determined to be a victim, and it was very irritating of him to succeed in the end"), or the fake seance.
Not to mention some great dialogue ("Why not slap the manly thorax and say, `Peter, my dear old mangel-wurzel, I have decided to dig myself into the old family trench and be a brother to you'?"), including Sayers' needling at double standards for women ("You're bearing in mind, aren't you, that I've had a lover?" "Oh, yes. So have I, if it comes to that. In fact, several. It's the sort of thing that might happen to anybody. I can produce quite good testimonials").
Sayers does stumble by having Wimsey instantly fall for her avatar, to the point where he asks her seriously to marry him at their first meeting. But the two characters mesh well -- he's witty, brainy and very unorthodox, while she's a "fallen woman" with brains and a prickly, clever personality. And there's a slew of lovable side characters -- steadfast and clever Miss Climpson, the ever-faithful Bunter, the increasingly lovesick Parker, and the lovably bickering couple Eiluned and Sylvia.
"Strong Poison" proceeds rather slowly, but Sayers does a solid job of dissecting a seemingly foolproof case -- and introduces her less than Mary-Suish avatar at the same time.
Summary of Strong Poison
Mystery novelist Harriet Vane knew all about poisons, and when her fianc? died in the manner prescribed in one of her books, a jury of her peers had a hangman's noose in mind. But Lord Peter Wimsey was determined to find her innocent--as determined as he was to make her his wife.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Books
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