A New Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery (Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mysteries Book 2)

I loved Lord Peter when I first discovered himin the basement of the public library. I read all of them. And now, at last, I Know that "happily ever after" had some bumps and some wit and charm and some twists. Three cheers for JPWalsh who carries on with great panache.

Using Dorothy Sayers' wartime Wimsey letters for background and context, Jill Paton Walsh weaves a satisying tale developing Harriet Vane's character, sharing the heroic side of Lord Peter, vividly painting village life in WWII England complete with rationing and uncertainty, and telling an engrossing mystery complete with the philosophical meditations on the nature of love, marriage, and relationships which distinguish Sayers' telling of the Harriet Vane/Lord Peter Wimsey mysteryies. Highly recommended.

A Presumption of Death: A New Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery
This is not Sayers and certainly not Lord Peter. Social relations are modeled on the year 2000, not 1940.

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I bought this book without getting a sample because I was leaving the country and needed to load up on books for my trip. What a mistake as the book turned out to be unreadable due to all kinds of random punctuation marks and other formatting errors. I never got past the first few pages.

I often see errors on Kindle that I wonder about -- were they in the print version, too? But this time I feel pretty sure the problems came with the transition to digital.

Hey, the store, how about cleaning up messes like this?

Lovely story and satisfying to fans of Sayers' Wimsey. Look forward to seeing more. The characters are true to the original, the style is brisk and witty, and the background is authentic. I enjoyed to book cover to cover.

Sadly, the language isn't on par with original Sayers. Unfortunate lack of wit. The ubiquitous and traditional use of quotations at the start of each chapter are facile and banal, not the bright, sparkling ones seen in the original stories.

The outbreak of Second World War finds Lord Peter Wimsey's family -- his wife Harriet Vane and their two toddler sons -- and Lord Peter's nieces and nephew moved from London to the relative security of the village of Paggleham in Hertfordshire.

Lord Peter has moonlighted as a pseudo-diplomat for Her Majesty's Home Office in several of the novels, but, with the outbreak of the Second World War, he spends more time on the Continent than he does in England. So it is Harriet (now more often called Lady Peter) who bears the brunt of the investigation into the murder of a promiscuous Land Girl named Wendy Percival. The girl's tarty ways had led to her being called "Wicked Wendy" behind her back, but who would want to kill her?

Harriet, asking on the official request of police Superintendent Kirk, begins questioning Wicked Wendy's fellow Land Girls and her flock of would-be suitors. However, the mentally suspect retired dentist Mrs. Spright insists that the sleepy village of Paggleham provides a superb hiding place for a nest of German spies; he blames them for Wendy Percival's death. Could this far-fetched claim be true? Or have the pressures of war pushed Mrs. Spright into paranoid delusion?

Author Jill Paton Walsh crafted "A Presumption of Death" from a series by Dorothy L. Sayers that ran in the "Spectator" during three months in the winter of 1939-40 purporting to be letters written by one Wimsey family member to another family member or to a character from one of the novels. The "letters" -- termed "The Wimsey Papers" -- were the standard morale-boosting fare popular in the Allied press, and they dwell on everyday life, as such letters would in real life: rationing, black-outs, air raid practices, and the exodus of young men; however, the letters also allowed Sayers to opine on the execution of the war and on other political matters. Walsh skillfully uses these threads to weave a most excellent mystery -- rather better than Thrones, Dominations, in my opinion. In addition, I loved the glimpse into the Home Front during the so-called Phony War. I also appreciated that Walsh introduces more twists than Sayers usually did in her Lord Peter Wimsey novels -- although readers will see one of them coming long before Harriet does.

Some readers decry that Lord Peter comes into the novel so late; however, I loved seeing Harriet practice what she has so long studied for writing her Robert Templeton mystery novels and what she learned working with her husband. Ms. Walsh, don't listen to the naysayers. We want more Harriet Vane, not less!

This is the first independent “Wimsy” novel by Jill Paton Walsh. The previous book was partially written by Dorothy L Sayers and ‘finished’ by Walsh. This duet though wasn’t blended very well and parts of that book (“Thrones, Domination”) read like it was written by a committee (which usually ends up with a Camel when trying to design a horse).

In 1939/1940 Sayers wrote a series of (what today would be op-ed) pieces for one of the major London papers. They were more “buck-up” pieces using her ‘Wimsy’ characters to discuss what was going on in England as a response to what the Germans were doing on the Continent. They were also meant to help those on the British Isles to get ready for what they all expected…invasion. Walsh has taken the information from (what is now referred to as) the ‘Wimsy Papers’ and extended it into this novel.

From the Papers, we know that Peter was working undercover for the Foreign Office on the Continent (along with Bunter), and that his nephew St. George (known as Jerry, and the heir to the Denver Dukedom) had become a Spitfire pilot with the RAF. Lady Peter (Harriet Vane) had taken her two boys (the third was not born yet) along with Peter’s sister Lady Mary’s children to live in the country at Talboys in East Hertfordshire.
After there is a murder in the Town (its’ name is never mentioned), the local police Superintendent asks for Harriet’s help in finding the murderer since she has experience as a mystery writer and a Lord Peter’s wife. Strangely enough, she turns out to be good at being a ‘sleuth’, and when Lord Peter and Bunter return from their mission, she has already gotten all the pieces squared away. With the help of Lord Peter everything is put to right.

As in all of Sayer’s Lord Peter books, there is a sense of a gentle air of satire and Peter and Harriet do a great deal of repartee between themselves. Harriet is able to work out a way for Bunter’s wife Hope and him to settle at Talboys (with their son Peter) in their own small bungalow just as they had in London. All together a ‘good show’ don’t you know.

Zeb Kantrowitz
zworstblog.blogspot.com

Certain long-running series of stories featuring noteworthy protagonists seem to become a lure to other writers to continue the hero's adventures. The most prominent example, of course, is Sherlock Holmes. And most of the many attempts to write additional tales featuring the Great Detective have been pretty weak. (These days, there's the phenomenon known as "fan fiction," but that's almost always amateur stuff and no one expects it to be better than mediocre.) Paton Walsh, however, was already an author of some note, writing both children's books and detective stories, and, in addition to receiving a number of awards for her work, she was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She was also a deep admirer of Lord Peter Wimsey and when she approached the family of Dorothy Sayers (who died in 1957) for permission to use the characters, they paid attention. In fact, they gave her Sayers's outline and notes for a projected but never written novel and out of them Paton Walsh produced _Thrones, Dominations_ in 1998. I had my doubts about it (based on the indignities visited on Holmes), but it turned out to be an amazingly good story, with not only a very Sayers-like plot but filled with dialogue and detail from and about Peter and Harriet such that it was nearly impossible to tell the difference from the original. And I enjoyed it very much.

This time, the author cuts her story from whole cloth. The first "continuation" was set in 1936; now it's 1939, the war with Germany is just under way, and Lord Peter is off somewhere in Europe doing undercover intelligence work. In fact, he only makes an appearance late in the book, though his presence is always felt, watching over his wife's shoulder. Harriet (now "Lady Peter") has closed up the London house and taken her two young sons down to their farmhouse in the country, along with the three slightly older children of DCI Parker and Peter's sister, Lady Mary. (When you have to manage two small children, she says, three more hardly make a difference.) Now she's involving herself in the life of the village where she grew up as it tries to cope with the home-front aspects of the war -- figuring out how to deal with rationing, and the blackout, and stocking an air raid shelter, and pig-slaughtering licenses, and the sudden invasion of Polish refugees and "land girls" helping out on the farms. And then one of the new girls is suddenly and brutally murdered right in the middle of the street during an air raid drill. The local police superintendent (who plays the literary quotation game almost as well as Peter and Harriet) is dreadfully shorthanded -- all his coppers keep resigning so they can enlist -- and so Harriet volunteers to help out in the investigation. She's helped out Peter in the past, of course -- but this is the first time she has attempted such a thing on her own and it makes her husband's absence even more difficult to bear. (In fact, her worries for his safety and her loneliness even when surrounded by others are major themes throughout the book and they're very well handled.) The investigation leads her even deeper into the affairs of the villagers as they look for ways to get around government regulations in order to continue living, as far as possible, as they always have. And then another body turns up in the form of a wounded and recovering RAF officer -- only he isn't. Are the two murders connected? The Superintendent doesn't believe in coincidences on that scale, and nor does Harriet.

The plotting is generally well done, though we're never explicitly told how the land girl came to be murdered in the first place -- though enough hints are dropped that the reader (and Harriet) are well able to work out what probably happened. And while the second murder is solved, the killer isn't brought to justice in the way one might expect. This is wartime, after all, and there are higher priorities. That sort of resolution of the story is rather a calculated risk on the author's part but it works, mostly. But her picture of life in rural England at the beginning of World War II is extremely well detailed and very affecting -- especially for readers for whom the war isn't entirely "history."

Jill Walsh has given us a fine book capturing Lady Peter Wimsey in the midst of the dreadful period in 1940 when the Western European continent was on the verge of being completely swallowed by Hitler and England was on the brink of entering the hellstorm of the Great Blitz. Life is still make-believe peaceful in the village in which she now lived without Lord Peter and Bunter who were somewhere on the Continent resuming their duty to the Crown begun on the killing fields of the First Great War. Now they were soldiers without uniforms, sure death if captured. That there is murder, into which Lady Peter is drawn by the local constabulary, is secondary to the life of a wife constantly nagged by her fear for her husband while trying to do her part in defense of the realm.
The murder itself, while not of central concern, draws the reader into the moral dilemmas posed by the conflict of peacetime civility and the demands imposed by the need to wage war to win regardless of cost.
Lady Peter and her wartime household, with its daily routines and linkage to other villagers, is well drawn, Lord Peter remains a shadowy presence throughout.
I found the book quite an interesting and touching affair. To what extent younger readers to whom the War is History may miss the active participation of Lord Peter, I cannot say.

Jill Walsh, the actual author of this book, has cleverly used bits from mock letters from members of the Lord Peter Wimsey family written in 1939 by Dorothy L Sayers. Lord Peter Wimsey, of course, is Saylors' famous detective. Walsh's story starts by using the letters to tell us that Peter is on a secret assignment abroad. His wife,Harriet, their two children, and his sister's brood are situated supposedly out of harms way in their country estate called "Talboys." Sayers' style is closely followed by Walsh who has Harriet called upon to use her problem solving skills to solve the murder of a Land Army girl and an RAF pilot. Even as the British pull together to face the enemy, Harriet asks herself, "can a spy, a 'sleeper' be in their midst?"

Walsh gives readers vivid details about village "homefront" life in Britain in the years 1939 - 40. Norway has just fallen and fears of a land invasion and bombings are high. Air raid shelters are built, an army base is situated nearby, food, now rationed, is getting scare, children sent down from London to stay in the country are crowded into village homes. Other norms are changing too as young people see an uncertain future before them, women take on new responsibilities, and class lines are blurred.

Thank you, Jill Paton Walsh, for continuing the Lord Peter Wimsey series so beautifully and lovely. I enjoyed this story tremendously, the sleuthing, the background, the loving relationship between Mylord and Mylady, the children, the family, the neighbours... it was wonderful to read and I am happy there are more of my favorite suspense series even though Dorothy L. Sayers is gone. You did great, thank you again!

In 1940, as war looms over Europe and England, writer and amateur detective, Harriet Vane, now Lady Peter Wimsey, has taken her children and those of her sister-in-law, to the safety of the country for the duration. Hre husband, Lord Peter Wimsey, is off on one of his regular secret missions for the government, leaving her to cope alone. When a Land Army girl is murdered in the village, during air raid practice, the local bobby asks her for help as his staff have been seconded to the military, and he is aware of her experience in solving criminal matters. A nice touch of comedy is introduced by some of the more eccentric of the locals who are convinced that there are nazi spies around every corner and, for once, are proven right. It's a well woven story done by Jill Paton Walsh, using notes made by the late, great detective story writer, Dorothy L. Sayers, keeping to her same style and making her usual characters live for one last time.

still an enjoyable visit with old friends.

It is the early days of WWII, Harriet Vane has evacuated her London household, plus her niece and nephew to Talboys, her country house. Lord Peter and Bunter are away on an assignment for the foreign office. Harriet is busy coping with the war time rationing of food and clothing as well as learning the subtle nuances of village life when she is asked to assist the village constable with a murder investigation.

Many of the characters introduced in Sayers original novels return, including the Wimsey clan and several of the villagers. Walsh has stayed true to the original characters but she is not Sayers. There are inconsistencies in the details of the family, (a 'missing' child, the wrong age for another) and the village residents no longer speak in dialects. There are also editing errors (the Ruddles are chapel one minute and church the next, names are changed, people are two places at once etc). Also Walsh's style is different than Sayers, not as detailed or as witty. The mystery is not quite as intricrately plotted as Sayers.

Despite these shortcomings it is still a worthly successor to the original series and a throughly enjoyable read.

A PRESUMPTION OF DEATH by Jill Paton Walsh takes the Dorothy L. Sayers husband and wife protagonists Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane on to the opening year of the Second World War. With two young sons (Bredon and Paul - ages 3 and 1), Harriet is looking after nieces, nephews and other youngsters of the family on a farm in Hertfordshire while Wimsey attempts to get back into intelligence work in Europe. Unexplained deaths and tensions of war involving the RAF and battles in the sky over Britain spill into the countryside and finally bring Lord Peter and Harriet back into the resolving of mysteries. This is a most enjoyable, fast read and valiant attempt extend the family saga of Lord Peter and Harriet on into a new era.

In 1940, as war looms over Europe and England, writer and amateur detective, Harriet Vane, now Lady Peter Wimsey, has taken her children and those of her sister-in-law, to the safety of the country for the duration. Hre husband, Lord Peter Wimsey, is off on one of his regular secret missions for the government, leaving her to cope alone. When a Land Army girl is murdered in the village, during air raid practice, the local bobby asks her for help as his staff have been seconded to the military, and he is aware of her experience in solving criminal matters. A nice touch of comedy is introduced by some of the more eccentric of the locals who are convinced that there are nazi spies around every corner and, for once, are proven right. It's a well woven story done by Jill Paton Walsh, using notes made by the late, great detective story writer, Dorothy L. Sayers, keeping to her same style and making her usual characters live for one last time.

After reading "Thrones, Dominations", I was curious enough to purchase this book to see how Jill Paton Walsh's writing would do with less guidance from Dorothy Sayers.

As noted by others, Lord Peter is missing from the story, so it's hardly a Lord Peter Wimsey story.

I can't put my finger on what it is, but the tale was just.... missing something. It just didn't "feel" right. I find Dorothy Sayers' stories to be very re-readable, but I don't know that I'll return to this one.

Presumption of Death may not be by Sayers, but its an almost. I like Paton Walsh's style. The story hangs together such that you barely think about it; you're too involved in the events of the story. It a wonderful collage of what I've thought life was like in Britain before we (the US) finally found out who our friends are. The clues are all there as with a Sayers novel. A real puzzle. I found myself thinking, but talking, yelling at Harriet, in my mind on some of the clues. On Mrs. Spight; she said, in effect "You know he's a spy every time he opens his mouth." HARRIET, find out about this! And Wendy's last words, "What are you doing here...?". HARRIET, she knew him! I loved it.
I read the printed version and rate it highly.

This book takes place mainly in a small village in the countryside of England. The time, Wartime England, covering the end of 1939 through early 1940. While the village has its first air-raid practice, a crime is committed. They return to the streets to find a young lady murdered.

Lord Peter Wimbsy is off on a Secret Mission for his country. Leaving the short-handed police to turn to his wife for assistance, Writer and amateur detective Lady Peter Wimsey, known before her marriage as Harriet Vane.

We follow Harriet as she tries to solve this mystery. The story is well woven and just when we figure out who did it, we are thrown a curious twist. The cast of characters in the village makes for a fun read. We are also given a good look at life in England during the early part of World War II.

As a fan of Sayers' Peter Wimsey books, disappointed that there were no more, I was delighted to find this book. Harriet is the main character, as Peter is away on a mysterious spy mission during most of the book. But I always liked Harriet and I thought she and other favorite characters (Bunter, Miss Twitterton, etc.) were well realized and authentic (despite the criticisms of other readers of what I think are minor details). The mystery part was rather slight but I thought the solution was ingenious, unexpected but plausible.

One thing bothered me. When Peter's brother's wife, Helen, the Duchess of Denver's son, Jerry, is away on dangerous flying missions, Helen is depicted as concerned about whether Peter's and Harriet's son would succeed to the title and if so, that he should be properly educated. In that situation, I think that the succession would be the least of even Helen's concerns.

In summary, I really enjoyed this book. Sayers fans should relax and enjoy it and not worry about minor anachronisms, etc.

In 1940,the siren testing the warning system goes off in a remote English village. Except for the Methodists, everyone including Harriet Vane, better known as Lady Peter Wimsey, enter the cave used as the air raid shelter. After a long time, the siren finally ends signifying all clear. Everyone leaves the cave only to find the corpse of a Land Girl, "Wicked" Wendy Percival, lying in the street.
Knowing he is already shorthanded due to the war effort and her experience as a crime novelist, Superintendent Kirk asks Harriet to investigate the murder that is clearly not the work of a Nazi. He wants her to perform the role of her spouse Lord Peter, overseas on government work, to make inquiries and report back to him, but not take risks. Reluctantly Harriet begins her investigation starting with the other eight Land Girls, but quickly she finds reality much more complex and stranger than fiction.
Using fictional letters that the late great Dorothy L. Sayers wrote in support of the English World war II efforts, Jill Paton Walsh paints a powerful amateur sleuth tale that fans of the Wimsey tales will enjoy and will appreciate the cleverness of the endeavor. The story line insures that the regulars remain true to their known personalities while WW II in a remote village is used to provide the background of a strong who-done-it. Still, this tale belongs to the cast especially Harriet who provides a fine time for series fans and historical mystery readers.
Harriet Klausner

This book takes place mainly in a small village in the countryside of England. The time, Wartime England, covering the end of 1939 through early 1940. While the village has its first air-raid practice, a crime is committed. They return to the streets to find a young lady murdered.

Lord Peter Wimbsy is off on a Secret Mission for his country. Leaving the short-handed police to turn to his wife for assistance, Writer and amateur detective Lady Peter Wimsey, known before her marriage as Harriet Vane.

We follow Harriet as she tries to solve this mystery. The story is well woven and just when we figure out who did it, we are thrown a curious twist. The cast of characters in the village makes for a fun read. We are also given a good look at life in England during the early part of World War II.

And the Trustees of Anthony Fleming should be suing to demand a retraction and reissue.
Jill Paton Walsh does quite a competent job with character and setting, which is why I'm giving four stars to something whose final manifestation appalled me.
Her plot is less complex than the genuine Sayers article, and I felt the relative absence of introspective musing common to Sayers' later work, but given the shortness of the book I think both were in proportion.
I disagree with the reviewer who says Lady Peter would not have cared for the exhausted Bunter's physical needs; Lady Mary might have hesitated but it was entirely in keeping with Harriet's impatience with convention. I do agree that she would not have invited people to call her "Harriet"; she faced the fact that she would have to put up with being "Lady Peter" (socially -- continuing professionally as "Miss Vane" is quite appropriate) in "Busman's Honeymoon."
However.
SMM went to all the expense of paying for the rights, the author, the production, the publicity and the distribution. Anybody could have explained that the market for this book comprises people likely to read carefully. It is unconscionable that the budget did not offer a good copy editor enough time to read the text, in context.
I'll overlook the sentence fragments, although I'm convinced Sayers would not have permitted them.
There are errors of spelling: Fighters "bale" out of airplanes in practically every chapter.
There are errors of idiom: Harriet says, "Well, I have done," when Sayers' Harriet would have stopped at "Well, I have." Anachronistically, characters begin statements with "Only," sounding like visitors from Harry Potter.
There are errors of continuity: We establish that the Ruddles are Chapel (as Sayers told us in Busman's Honeymoon), not Church, and unwilling to shelter under the Crown. Come the air-raid drill, we find Mrs. Ruddle and her son Bert under the Crown -- and, what's more, cracking wise about the Chapel folk.
Although Jerry Wimsey appears in the shelter scene, Fred Lugg later says he saw Jerry turn away instead of entering the Crown.
Roger Birdlap becomes, suddenly, John Birdlap.
Paul, who is Peter and Harriet's third son in Sayers' story "Talboys," and who was born in 1941 according to "Thrones, Dominations," appears in 1939 with only one elder brother.
That's just a casual look at the first 80 pages; I got too discouraged to continue the catalog.
But the most frustrating error, also repeated endlessly, is one no copy editor with time to do more than run a spell-check would let through, even without reviewing the other books: Jerry Wimsey of the RAF is Charlie Parker's mother's brother's son. Charlie calls him "Uncle Jerry." Paul Wimsey is Jerry Wimsey's father's brother's son. Jerry takes "his nephew Paul into his arms."
If the Fleming trustees don't sue for a reissue, perhaps Paton Walsh should. She did her job, and with perhaps another thousand or two spent on editing might have found a demand to continue the franchise, instead of looking, before a critical public, like a fool.

Jill Paton Walsh should stop trying to continue the Lord Peter Wimsey series.

As I read this novel, I was annoyed by the anachronisms and by the constant references to events from previous novels. It was all too clearly written as a historical novel, with heavy-handed attempts to insert period detail, but without sufficient attention to accuracy. I was prepared to list examples, but I now see that other reviewers share my opinions, so I feel I can add my voice to theirs without having to repeat evidence and arguments.

I did notice that some of the letters were rather well done, so it did not suprise me to learn (from other reviews) that the letters were from the Wimsey Papers and therefore were written by Sayers herself. I should think any Wimsey fan would want to read those, but my advice is to get the book from the library. I would hate for this book to be a financial success that might tempt Walsh to try again. Because I have read Sayers' books many times, to the point where I almost feel I know Peter and Harriet, it disturbs me to read of people with their names acting so unlike them. Also, the mystery plot itself was quite weak, so I wouldn't recommend this book even to someone with no previous attachment to the characters.

The plot of A PRESUMPTION OF DEATH is relatively simple. The time is 1939 and England is at war. Lord Peter Wimsey is off doing his duty while his wife Harriet Vane --- mother, mystery writer and involved citizen --- has fled to the English countryside with her children and their cousins. After a practice air raid drill, a young woman of questionable virtue is found dead. Superintendent Kirk of the local constabulary calls upon Harriett to help solve the murder. Lord Peter usually undertakes this kind of investigation, but he is unavailable and a dead girl's killer must be found. "I don't know which way to turn, Lady Peter, and that's the truth," says Kirk, when he proposes that Harriet help him. She reluctantly agrees to step in: "It isn't easy � [s]tanding in for Peter", but this is "� in various ways what I seem to be for, at the moment."
That particular murder is the epicenter around which Jill Paton Walsh builds her tale. She uses the "Wimsey Papers", a collection of works that Dorothy L. Sayers had published in The Spectator in the 1930s and 1940s. These papers comprise a series of letters written by the Wimsey family to each other and to friends. They become the voices of the characters, both familiar and new, that Sayers wrote about. Walsh comments: "In A PRESUMPTION OF DEATH all I had to use were propaganda letters, and so I had a completely free hand with the plot."
To recreate Harriet Vane in A PRESUMPTION OF DEATH, Walsh says, " � [Sayers] didn't exactly promote Harriet, who is not, by any means, an idealized character. Just compare her with Peter. Look how grumpy she is, how bad-tempered, how sometimes cool she is. She's not beautiful, and has a hard, chilly-eyed view of life. And that's what gives her [a] convincing quality." She is bored with "just" being Lady Peter and, while she adores her children, she yearns for the freedom she had before motherhood and the war imposed their restrictions upon her. Readers and fans will have to decide for themselves how they feel about these issues, but the truth is they do not detract from an otherwise well-told story.
Agatha Christie and many other writers kill off their central characters in order to preserve their place in the canon. Sayers did not do this and, clearly, she left the "Wimsey Papers" for someone to "keep alive" with her/his ideas. The challenge for Walsh is to decide whether or not she wants to "adopt" the Wimsey clan with all of their eccentricities, lordly ways, manners and humor, or if she will decide that two is enough. When asked if she would consider this proposition, she said, "I would be fascinated, but I would be increasingly careful. Each step you take away from an authentic piece of work the harder it's going to be to maintain authenticity and I would need to think really hard. I mean Lord Peter and Harriet are lovely fun, they're awfully entertaining to write about, and I can think of loads of books about them that I'd love to write --- that's not the problem. I would need to be sure I could do it well. And by well, I mean really consistent with Sayers's work."
Jill Paton Walsh is a writer in her own right. She is the author of several children's books and six adult novels. She was invited to complete a Sayers manuscript (THRONES, DOMINATIONS): I "� had a lot of fun doing it" and she was applauded for her efforts. For this second book she had the "papers" to help bolster and frame her story. A PRESUMPTION OF DEATH is a good read. Fans will find that it is faithful to the personalities Dorothy L. Sayers created and the plot is one that certainly resembles the original Wimsey/Vane pattern.
--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

In this continuing story of the Wimsey family, we find WWII upon us. Ration books, gas masks, shelters, and a war mobilization effort of an entire country frame this tale. The Wimsey family have left London for their country house, Talboys, and we are once more in the village life of Harriet's youth. The Wimseys are now an established family. At the moment, they are also an extended family, having brought the Parker children from London while Chief Inspector Charles Parker and his wife Mary attend to their wartime duties. Once again, the underlying themes are as much fun to pick out as the murder clues are to work out. We see the backbone of England, the Village, in its day-to-day life and its response to the extraordinary times. Peter is abroad on a dangerous secret mission and his safe return is doubtful. This leaves Harriet to manage the home front, as many other women did during WWII. Helen, Duchess of Denver, makes her usual tactless and high-handed attempts to run the family and brings home the point that Harriet may become the head of the Wimsey family and have to carry on without her husband. As usual, we get a murder, possibly two murders, but at least two corpses and lots of suspects.

I have been avidly reading and rereading Dorothy L

Sayers for for over 15 years after having been introduced to her writing by my mother just before I went off to college at Oxford. I thus approached Jill Paton Walsh's continuation of the Peter Wimsey series with a certain skepticism. In fact even after enjoying her first book "Thrones and Dominations" I tended to give all of the credit for the quality of that book to the notes Sayers had apparently left for the story. Having now finished Walsh's second book in the series, "A Presumption of Death", I have to give credit where credit is due. The book is wonderful and I really enjoyed reading it. Walsh is not Sayers and there are differences,(I think Walsh is a bit softer on people) but the original characters shine through and "A Presumption of Death" is well written with a well crafted mystery. In particular I enjoyed the way that this book, like Sayers' original mysteries, explores the moral questions of what drives a person to kill, and how society should best respond to that act, and the way the act affects all of the people connected to it, the people connected both to the victim and to the perpetrator. In addition, there is much delight to be found in the setting for this mystery. I found myself immersed in a believable English village coming to terms with the realities of being on the homefront during the early part of the Second World War.

One specific criticism: Walsh seems to have mixed up the Wimsey children Roger and Paul: in Sayers' story Talboys, set after this book, Bredon is six, Roger is four, and Paul is only briefly mentioned and strongly implied to be the youngest. Then somehow in Presumption of Death, Harriet has a three-year-old Bredon and . . . Paul. Harriet introduces him as "her second son" and Roger seems to have been completely skipped. I really don't understand how Walsh could clearly have done so much research and mimicked Sayers style so skillfully, yet overlooked something as basic as keeping her characters straight.

Those who love Dorothy Sayers should enjoy this book. Jill Paton Walsh is a good steward of Sayer's legacy, and the further adventures of Peter, Harriet, and Bunter are as satisfying as anyone has a right to expect.

I sincerely hope a third Wimsey book will follow soon.

Even if you are unfamiliar with Dorothy L. Sayers works, this mystery is worth giving a read. The richness of detail and historical connections give this book a true underlying worth.

As for those who complain about the changes between this and Sayers finished work, I really enjoy this book as a stand alone, enough that I wouldn't see it as a disgrace. It also is nice to see the characters that are so fascinating continued.

I have been reading and re-reading the entire Sayers/Wimsey body of work for more than 35 years. Jill Walsh has done all the Wimsey fans a great service in continuing the Wimsey chronicles. Even if there is no further material available from the collected Sayers papers, Jill Walsh appears to have excellent credentials to continue on her own recognizance. I bought this one in hardcover and will order the next one gleefully.

Fan fiction that did not need to be published. Sayers wrote a lot of books and short stories, and there is no reason to pretend she's whispering in your ear giving you these 'insights'. Make up your own characters.

Harriet carries the ball until mid-novel when Peter arrives, but does it with style, and in character. The country-side WWII evacuation environment as a setting is historically informative, and the mysterious death of ______ compliments the war intrigue and paranoia of the time. I'll read Jill Paton Walsh again.

Jill Patton Walsh once again adds to Agatha Christi's Lord Peter Whimsey/Harriet Vane series. She has done a better job on this book. If you have read "Busmans Honeymoon" you will meet a lot of familar characters.

This story is set in the beginning of WWII, and Harriet has retreated to Talboys, the house where Peter and Harriet spent thier honeymoon. Ms. Walsh not only does a good job of expanding on the village residents introduced in "Busmans Honeymoon" she captures Ms Christi's style a lot better than in "Thrones, Dominations". She also does a good job of capturing the feeling of England at this very difficult time.

Lord Peter does not appear until almost half way through, but Harriet keeps you attention until then.

Despite what could be a very heavy setting, this story is lighted hearted where it is not inapprioate.

Well worth buying. I hope Jill Patton Walsh does another story soon.

i have read all the Dorothy Sayers mysteries. Some are about average - Clouds of Witness for example. This is dreadful. About twenty pages of story dragged out to nearly 400 pages. Badly written, poor characterisation. Not worth picking up from the library.

Jill Patton Walsh's most recent attempt to add to the "Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane" collection might have been acceptable if one wasn't well acquainted with the original Dorothy Sayers works.

The dialogue is awkward. Ms Walsh hasn't captured the British speech patterns of those times and, instead, also uses phrases that are of a more contemporary nature.

"From November 1939 to January 1940 Dorothy L. Sayers made a series of contributions to the Spectator magazine, consisting of mock letters to and from various members of the Wimsey family, about war-time conditions like black-out, evacuation, rationing, and the need for the public to take personal responsibility: "They must not continually ask for leadership - they must lead themselves." (1)

These mock letters became part of "The Wimsey Papers", and provide Jill Paton Walsh with inspiration that, when fitted around a murder plot, becomes the novel "A Presumption of Death." Chronologically, this Wimsey/Vane story sets the fine pair, now parents of two small sons, at the dawn of WWII. Lord Peter is abroad working for British Intelligence, accompanied by the indomitable Bunter, who is now himself a husband and father. Harriet has closed the London home and moved the household to Talboys, set in Hertfordshire. The Dowager Duchess of Denver and the rest of Peter's family appear as well as characters introduced in "Busman's Honeymoon."

Social frameworks are in upheaval as the British expect bombings -- especially in the cities, so families send their children to rural villages, which are also boarding military men stationed in the newly-built air fields and army bases. As sons leave farms, young women from the cities and foreign refugees replace them as "Land workers." This tumult is laid bare when a Land Worker is found murdered in the village center as the "all clear" sounds the night the residents hold their first practice air raid drill. Everyone is accounted for so "whodunit?" A second murder will add to the suspicion and conflict burdening the villagers.

The police ask Harriet to assist them with her expertise. Her efforts give us a view of civilians living under conditions of total war. She cares for her own children and their young cousins, her staff have new job choices thanks to the war, everything from food to soap is in short supply and writing fiction seems silly to her now in a world living in terrible truths. Worst of all, her husband is far away, in grave danger and incommunicado. The loneliness, anxiety and sacrifice grinding Harriet down is pierced by a visit from a mysterious man requiring her to immediately decipher a message that may save Peter's life. Then in London, she finds Bunter collapsed, spent beyond his formidable resources, lost to Peter's whereabouts.

Walsh's fiction takes me into a frightening reality of war and what it demands of civilians more than the actual experience of my own household in this American decade of war on terror. Paton speaks Sayer's literary tone well and casts the same clear eye on class mores, politics and world events. The relationship between Harriet and Peter shines, whether separated or together; their love is absolute, multi-faceted, complicated, demanding, modern and riveting.

I like this book, will re-read it and recommend it.
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(1) Quote from Author's Note, "Presumption of Death" by Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L. Sayers