The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy L Sayers

I'm continuing to read Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books, though I'm only up to #4, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club.

90-year-old General Fendman was definitely dead, but no one knew exactly when he had died -- and the time of death was the determining factor in a half-million-pound inheritance.Lord Peter Wimsey would need every bit of his amazing skills to unravel the mysteries of why the General's lapel was without a red poppy on Armistice Day, how the club's telephone was fixed without a repairman, and, most puzzling of all, why the great man's knee swung freely when the rest of him was stiff with rigor mortis.

Really good, I liked it very much. A B+.

As always with Sayers, the mystery itself is interesting, but not the most enjoyable or intriguing element in the book. Here I even guessed quite soon what had happened to the body, though this turned out not to be the real mystery. The other one, who had actually killed the guy, I never did guess, but it wasn't what kept me reading.

The best thing were the characters and their dialogues and relationships. I was especially interested in what was shown about the consequences of WWI. This was in no way a psychobabble tract, or anything. It was very understated, and all the more effective for it. Certain things really hit me hard, like the scene where it's said that the older men were scandalized, but the younger had seen to much to be shocked. It doesn't sound like much told like this... you have to read it to feel the whole effect, I guess.

Something else I found especially remarkable was Peter's reaction to Ann Dorland. She'd been maligned by all before they met, even by sympathetic characters, so I was feeling a bit sorry for her. It was a nice suprise to see that Peter liked her and was very nice to her. I hadn't before seen him in his lover-boy incarnation, but it was surprisingly effective. Let's see how he does with Harriet Vane. I believe she's introduced in the next book.