'No sign of foul play' says Dr Carr after the post-mortem on Agatha Dawson. The case is closed. But Lord Peter Wimsey is not satisfied..
With no clues to work on, he begins his own investigation. No clues, that is until the sudden senseless murder of Agatha's maid.
Who the killer is is apparent very early in this novel. The author doesn't hide the fact because the story is more a 'howdunnit' and a 'whydunnit' rather than the usual 'whodunnit'.
From the Introduction by Minnette Walters:
Two themes predominate. Casual racism and female homosexuality. While neither is referred two in those terms, there's no doubting what Sayers was was writing about. She leaves us with little sense that she any sympathy for the prevailing prejudice against blacks, even though she uses words and phrases that will have modern readers cringing, but her views on lesbians is less clear. She refers to one partnership in and open, uncritical way while, about another, she uses Miss Climpson to voice what may have been her personal view. ' I cannot help feeling that it's more natural- more proper, in a sense- for a man and a woman to be all in all to one another than for two persons of the same sex.'
This is a good read, Wimsey isn't too 'silly' and the crimes are multiple and nasty.
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