Gaudy Night
Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers.
Series: Lord Peter Wimsey
Paperback: 544 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks;(October 16, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0062196537
From the Back Cover
When Harriet Vane attends her Oxford reunion, known as the Gaudy, the prim academic setting is haunted by a rash of bizarre pranks: scrawled obscenities, burnt effigies, and poison-pen letters, including one that says, "Ask your boyfriend with the title if he likes arsenic in his soup." Some of the notes threaten murder; all are perfectly ghastly; yet in spite of their scurrilous nature, all are perfectly worded. And Harriet finds herself ensnared in a nightmare of romance and terror, with only the tiniest shreds of clues to challenge her powers of detection, and those of her paramour, Lord Peter Wimsey.
Basically we have a mystery at Oxford, seemingly based around the dons. (all women).
I easily admit I am not the brightest bulb in the pack and it took me a while to get into this book. A good part of the first half of the book was beginning to feel like it was overwritten.. a lot to do about not a big deal. But the second half of the book perked up, especially when Lord Peter Wimsey entered the story.
It seemed to be a number of minor stories going on and so I found myself lost a number of times. But in the end I have to say I did enjoy the book. I like the character of Wimsey, and I think I would have liked Harriet more had I read other books by Sayers.
Of course the ending is one you didn't really see coming... but then that's what a good mystery is about.. not knowing the ending before it happens!
Another moment to admit that Oxford would not have been for me! lol. Brilliance abounds with the dons but I really didn't feel that "doing what they loved" made them happy people... I found that odd.
So.. onward and upward to another good book... I hope!
posted by DesLily | 9:02 AM
3 Comments:
I put a hold on this book from the library a few days ago! I actually have a copy, but the darn print is so small I found my tired bedtime eyes couldn't read it, so I checked to see if the library had a copy in large print...dang, do I feel old! :P
It's definitely a slow-burner this one and yep, perhaps it might have helped if you'd read a couple of the other ones that Harriet is in. Really I don't think it matter too much though. I couldn't remember who was who either and I *have* read 3 or 4 of the others. LOL! Glad you ended up liking it though. Made a change I thought to have a mystery story with no dead bodies strewn all over the place. LOL
I enjoyed this one too - and I got lost a few times too. It's a complex novel, with many characters, some of whom I found difficult to visualise and so I couldn't remember who they were, but it didn't seem to matter. I had no idea who the writer of the poison pen letters etc could be and I was completely absorbed in the mystery.
I think it does help to read some of the other Harriet books - at the moment I'm reading Have His Carcase, the book before Gaudy Night - it's just as complex and completely mystifying, but I am enjoying it immensely. These books are not quick reads!
Post a Comment
<< Home