Book #1: Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers

This is another one of Dorothy L. Sayers' murder mystery novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. I've got one more by her checked out from the library, and then I think I'll be done with the mysteries for a while. Have His Carcase was an interesting case where Harriet finds a dead body on the beach while wandering about England on a backpacking trip by herself, and she is obviously detained and becomes involved in solving the mystery, along with Lord Peter Wimsey, who travels down from London to help with the mystery. The case hinged on the fact that Harriet apparently found the body immediately after he had been killed, because the blood was still running freely and not clotting at all. The detectives (both professional and amateur) are all stumped because there doesn't seem to be a way the guilty parties (who they suspected) could have completed the crime at that moment. But there's a twist at the end to help make everything clear and explain how it could all have happened like it did. To me, this twist felt a little like a deus ex machina to neatly tie the knot in the story, but it all fit together in the end anyways. It was definitely an interesting mystery, and I felt like Sayers went to pains to show every little drudge-y step of the detective work, all the background digging up they have to go to and all the canvassing and inspecting and useless asking questions that is part and parcel of solving a mystery like that. I thought that was pretty interesting to see those aspects included in the story (because usually they're ignored or downplayed in books, I think). It was also interesting how Harriet Vane's experience as a murder mystery writer played into her abilities to contribute to solving this real-life mystery; I liked that interplay between fiction and reality and fiction again.

This book is placed between Strong Poison, when Harriet and Lord Peter meet (and he falls immediately in love with her for no explicable reason), and Gaudy Night, when after years and years of cajoling, they finally get engaged (sorry for the spoiler, but it was pretty obviously bound to happen!). I liked this intermediate step in their relationship and looking at how they have progressed. Lord Peter is still asking Harriet to marry him randomly throughout the book, but they have one or two serious conversations about how their relationship is affected by their shared experiences, how he's always bailing her out of trouble and she's left with nothing except to be "grateful" to him and how difficult that is for her. This same dynamic is still fully in play in Gaudy Night too. I thought it seemed very realistic and appropriate, and I enjoyed that part of the book.