Clouds of Witness: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery

This is the second Dorothy L. Sayers detective story, which was originally published in 1927. Sayers is a master creator of this genre. Her hero is Lord Peter Wimsey; a cross between Fred Astaire and Bertie Wooster. He is aided in his sleuthing by Detective Parker who is featured in many of the Wimsey stories. Sayers’ stories are very light reading and totally charming. They are not so much whodunits but rather delightful unravelings. In this volume, Wimsey’s own brother, the Duke of Denver, is the accused. Rather than aid Wimsey’s search for the true murderer, the Duke sticks to his unlikely story in the dense manner of a peer of the realm. Wimsey’s sister is also implicated by her likewise inconsistent and unbelievable story. Mary Wimsey’s finance, Denis Cathcart, is the corpse in this case, found in the conservatory, shot to death. He had argued with the Duke of Denver that evening when the Duke confronted him over Cathcart’s reported cheating at cards. Faced with his brother’s unbelievable and unchanging story, Wimsey must seek the truth unaided by the accused. Some of the fun of reading these stories is the names that are given to the characters such as Old Mr. Murbles and Mr. Pettigrew-Robinson. One doesn’t have to be an anglophile to love these stories.