Clouds of Witness: The Classic Lord Peter Wimsey Whodunnit – A Golden Age Mystery of Family and Murder

"Clouds of Witness" was a very delightful book! In both the mystery and the characters, I thought Sayers came through brilliantly! Lord Peter Wimsey (the main character and detective) is truly a humorous, clever, thoughtful, and lovable character! He breezes through life, always seeing the amusement and humor in situations, but doesn't lack the ability to understand people and events for the gravity they may hold. Wimsey himself was a delightful enough character to hold my interest through the book, but add to this his good friend (and partner in crime-solving) Mr. Parker (adorable friends!) and Mr. Bunter (another more "proper" counterpart to Wimsey) and you have an entire book set to amuse! Oddly enough, Sayers doesn't use a lot of description. In a way it reminds a bit of Jane Austin (though the feel of the books is not similar!), in her ability to convey the characters in their uniqueness and completeness through dialogue. The mystery also is most interesting. And while I could have felt "cheated" by the ending, I didn't because of the various sub-mysteries that were occurring throughout the book. It is, in a way, three or four mysteries all revolving around one. Additionally, the mystery centers around Wimsey's own family, which adds another element to Wimsey's character, and the mystery itself. A note: the book does contain a few slightly graphic descriptions of the murder, but I stress the word slightly. I have read some Agatha Christie, and think that it's probably on par with those. I am quite the queasy reader, and I had few qualms. The only thing I regretted - if it could be called a regret - was the prevalent use of French. I can't blame or criticize Sayers on this front, only myself for not having a better grasp of the language. That said, while a times I was dismayed because I did not understand every detail or clue, for the most part everything was eventually (and in a timely manner) translated or explained. I really enjoyed this read! And am very much looking forward to picking up another Lord Peter Wimsey mystery!!

Having been castigated by his brother, the Duke of Denver, for engaging in murder investigations, Lord Peter Wimsey risks his life to prove the Duke didn't murder his sister's fiancé. There were some cumbersome scenes, introducing characters' whereabouts during the fiancé's death and attorney's monologues that drag. Sayers continues to deliver well developed character insights. The plot and setting drive the reader along and leave a thread which connects this to the third in this series.

Becoming a fan of the Golden age detective fiction, I decided to read Agatha Christie, and the woman who wrote this entertaining series ( Dorothy L Sayers), this being the second book in her well-known Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery series. It is a very entertaining read just like the first, and has a very puzzling whodunit to satisfy my curiosity. The second book begins with a court case narrative, as Lord Peter's brother Gerald (a.k.a. the Duke of Denver) stands trial for the murder of his sister's lover, a war hero named Dennis Catright. Lord Peter side his manservant/sidekick Bunter, and his police officer friend Detective Inspector Charles Parker determine to find the real culprit. The story has a very good puzzle and mysteries, no clues are hidden and all are discovered by the reader at the same time or Peter or his detective friend Inspector Parker find. There are a few twists to revealing who the murderer is, but it is very satisfying. If you like it good mystery, I would encourage check these books out. I have read the first one in the series and now this will be my second book.

I'm a devoted fan of Dorothy Sayers and was looking forward to read Clouds of Witness, which has fantastic characterizations for all of Wimsey's family. I certainly enjoyed the story, but I found myself having to fight past typos in the text that looked as if portions of the book had been typed out by a monkey using a stick on a typewriter missing a few keys. Perhaps the text had also been translated into Wingdings, then Klingon, and then back into normal(?) English. The binding looks fairly flimsy, and the lack of publication information makes me exceedingly nervous about the legality of this edition, much less getting any long term usage out of this book. Do NOT buy this edition, but do buy the story in a more legitimate printing and enjoy it to its fullest. There are some absolutely wonderful moments with the Dowager Duchess, for instance, that cannot be missed.

This was the second Dorothy Sayers' book I've read. After devouring my first introduction to her and her protagonist, Lord Peter Wimsey in Whose Body? via my kindle, I immediately downloaded this second book. Sayers' brilliance (educated at Oxford) shines in her books, and Lord Peter's wit infuses the book with joie de vivre. I can almost hear Cole Porter music in the background as I read, as Sayers is writing in the 1920's and 30's and captures the spirit of the times. My favorite aspect of her writing, as a history major, are the ironic comments of her characters, particularly Lord Peter. A favorite example of these in this book is when his sister, who is part of the landed aristocracy, goes to a Boshevik "Workers Meeting", Lord Peter quips something to the effect, "Why Mary has never worked a day in her life!" Of course, we, the readers, know the misery Bolsheviks in the form of Lenin and Stalin caused in the years ahead, so Sayers mystery gives us a vision of the naivete of her contemporaries and the age, not knowing the impending doom of the Russian Revolution, mass murder of 35 million Russians and Cold War. Mary indicates that she wants to be saved from a life of endless polo parties, garden parties, bazaars etc. and you couldn't help but think of Princess Diana who wanted to escape eventually from that fate, too, and find meaning and purpose. The plot takes place in Wimsey's brother's country estate, unlike WHOSE BODY which is centered in London. It's fun to have the change of setting and see Wimsey and his quotable mother and family in both environments. I read the books partly to hear what fresh observations come out of their mouths. If you like Sayers, or Golden Age mysteries, this is vintage Dorothy Sayers and the Golden Age at its best and most quintessential.

Dorothy Sayers is one of the great writers who shaped the mystery genre. I 'cut my teeth' on her Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, and bought a kindle copy just to have it handy for trips. As another reviewer said, the formating is awkward. But Sayers' writing remains fun and sharp to this day. More than the plot, this novel gives a picture of British post-World-War-I society in confusion. Gerald, Lord Peter's elder brother and the current Duke, is a member of the House of Lords. When he's arrested for murdering his sister's very dodgy-seeming fiance, he must be tried by a jury of his noble peers. The plot turns on the subtle and not-so-subtle expectations of class and clan that are muddied by a postwar upheaval and a mysterious death. We have the nobility behaving well and badly in the usual ways; a man ensnared by his continental (French) habits and old-fashioned English feelings; Lady Mary (Peter's sister) slumming with Bolshevists and her boyfriend, no suitable titled suitor being available, and Lord Peter outside all boxes whatever, and teaming up with Detective Inspector Charles Parker, who represents our thoroughly middle class point of view. Sayers did better in some of her other novels, but this is a great example of classic British whodunits at the best.

Lord Peter Wimsey is one of my favorite characters however in this book, having read "Gaudy Night" out of order, I was missing Harriet Vane forgetting that I was way too early in the series for her to appear. It was a nice, if brief, introduction to the family that Lord Peter grew up in, his mother, the Dowager Duchess, and his brother and sister. There was no back story on how Lord Peter met Bunter even though there was a reference to one of the soldiers he served with in World War I. I like the scenes on the moors, a terrain that I'm unfamiliar with in Southern California. I'm glad that Lord Peter and Bunter came away from Peter's Pot relatively unscathed. It offered an interesting perspective on the economics of affluent people prior to the war who had their fortunes change (usually for the worse) during the war. Forensics was pretty primitive relying on physical clues: the silver sand (from the cactus), the blood stains studiously cleaned up by the servants, hand and foot prints, missing letters (all handwritten), scrapings on a window latch, the print of a suitcase in the soft soil, audible clues (a pistol shot at a time no one could agree on), and more. Lord Peter, Bunter, and Parker did a good job of uncovering the lies and revealing the truth of what really happened that night.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ZUYPZS/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_img It's difficult to review this novel without inserting a spoiler, so I will refer to a much later novel in the series, when Lord Peter is having dinner with the faculty of a woman's college at Oxford. The conversation veers around to the morals of doing a nasty job for pleasure, when somebody has to do it and nobody really wants to. Referring to this case as an example, Lord Peter says something to this effect: "I once thought I had to choose between hanging my brother or hanging my sister for murder." The conversation continues, and Lord Peter explains what actually happened. Clouds of Witness holds the reader's attention to the very last paragraph, which is a difficult task even for a good writer. I was glad to find it available as an ebook, because my 67-year-old eyes have had one cornea transplant and are waiting for another, and print on paper is increasingly difficult to read. I hope the rest of the series shows up fairly soon. I warn new readers: Please read Whose Body first. This is the second of the series, and you need the first to create context and subtext. But it works well enough as a stand-alone to be worth reading. I loved it--sort of a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Thomas Hardy.