A Presumption of Death

The legions of readers who regularly reread Sayers's 1930s mysteries can take heart. Jill Paton Walsh has produced a new Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane book based on notes left by Sayers. Don't let loyalty to Sayers make you resist. This, the second "Sayers" novel written by Paton Walsh, is tremendously good. It's witty, subtle, and full of WWII period detail. In fact, it's well-nigh perfect. Edward Petherbridge's BBC television role as Lord Peter Wimsey is widely regarded as the best of the best. He captured the character's nervy brilliance and his mix of fragility and strength. A narrator, of course, is called upon to make every character come alive. Petherbridge succeeds admirably, a particularly impressive feat with a story in which Lord Peter, who is off to war, hardly appears. This audiobook delights. May Jill Paton Walsh write many more. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Starred review from January 20, 2003
In her second Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane whodunit, Booker Prize finalist Walsh (Knowledge of Angels) does a far better job of honoring Sayers than she did in their first posthumous collaboration, Thrones, Dominations
(1998). Walsh's starting point here is "The Wimsey Papers," a series of letters on home front conditions, ostensibly written by various members of the Wimsey family, which ran in the Spectator
at the outset of WWII. Lord Peter himself is offstage for most of the novel, involved in some covert mission in Europe, leaving his wife to take care of their household. When a young Land Girl is found murdered during an air raid, the local superintendent enlists Harriet's aid. Harriet's traditional line of inquiry into possible spurned suitors is diverted when an eccentric and seemingly paranoid dentist discloses that the quiet, ordinary village of Paggleham is actually a nest of German spies. Despite Peter's diminished role, he remains a vital presence throughout, thanks to his place at the center of Harriet's thoughts. Should Walsh have no further original Sayers material to draw on, she seems perfectly suited to continue the series entirely on her own. (Mar. 27)Forecast:Though praised by the likes of Ruth Rendell and Joyce Carol Oates,
Thrones, Dominations received mixed notices from Sayers purists. The favorable buzz on this one from the U.K.'s Dorothy L. Sayers Society augurs well for strong sales.