Sayers, Dorothy - Strong Poison

[oyceter]

(cross-posted to inklings_lj)

I feel rather blasphemous, but I didn't like it all that much. I can sort of see why people would like the series -- I liked what little I saw of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, but for some reason, I was expecting more character interaction and got a rather mundane mystery instead.

Of course, I say this because I'm not as big of a fan of the mystery genre as a whole, and so I don't care all that much to find out who did it and how. I think because of this, I had a very difficult time following the plot.

The few other mysteries I've read have been a handful of Mary Higgins Clark one summer (not that interesting), an Agatha Christie (scared me to death), and eight of the Stephanie Plum books, which I thought were hilarious but which got a little old after reading one every day. When I binge, I binge.

So I'm sort of wondering -- is this book rather characteristic of the Wimsey books? I do mean to read the rest of them anyway, just because everyone loves Gaudy Night so very much, but I sort of want to know what I'm getting into. I think I was expecting something with a little more character development. I loved the scenes with Peter (Lord Peter? Wimsey? How does one refer to him?) and Harriet, and particularly his nonchalant-seeming proposals and Harriet's hesitant, sad answers. Wimsey was actually a surprise for me -- I've almost been expecting someone like Lymond. I think part of it is because both authors are named Dorothy and another part is because both men have this sort of aura around them when readers talk about them. But he seemed rather sweet and rambled on a lot, and there was this small, quiet moment at the end of a chapter which totally stole my heart.

And I think I would have liked Harriet had I more time to get to know her, or so to speak. I found it rather strange that Dunnett didn't spend very much time with her, considering that she was the prime suspect and was probably going through some mental trauma, to say the least. I wanted to see more of her and Wimsey interacting. I did very much like the bits with Miss Climpson and her very enthusiastic letters, along with her struggles with her conscience.

It's a bit silly of me to resent the fact that the mystery plot takes over the book, given that it is a mystery, but I just wanted more characters to spend time with.

I watched The Princess Bride again a few days ago, and so the main reaction to how the murderer did it was, "Oo, he put iocane powder in both the glasses!" which made me snicker, but probably wasn't supposed to. And my favorite little moment is that one where Wimsey very quietly mentions suicide to himself, and then very quietly thinks that it's not time yet. It was such a contrast to his rather verbose, stumbling personality. So far, I like Peter Wimsey very much, as opposed to Lymond, who one sort of admires from a distance and knows better than to befriend.

Links:
- inklings_lj's review roundup

Comments

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

What Agatha Christie scared you?

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

*grin* that was my question too.

Oyce, I started Sayers backwards, and later.. read most of Christie before eighteen, and then started with _Gaudy Night_, and picked up the rest after.

[oyceter]

Hrm, ok. I seem to watch most things backwards, which is slightly disorienting, so for once I'm trying to read things in the right order ;). But I may skip around a bit, depending on my mood.

Backwards..

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

was not by intent.

Re: Backwards..

[oyceter]

Heh, how'd it happen?

I usually get sucked into TV series backwards because I catch a random episode on TV and then watch scattered ones (this is how I watched Buffy... very confusing!).

[oyceter]

And Then There Were None. I don't really remember most of it, but there was this one image of a guy hanging himself that scared me for some reason.