"Have His Carcase" by Dorothy L. Sayers

You may have noticed, but I go on reading trends. I'll read a lot of fantasy for a few months, then a lot of historical fiction the next, and then a mystery novel trend, which is what I'm stuck on currently. For the past several years, I've listened to a wonderful dramatization of DLS's "Gaudy Night" (my personal favorite novel of hers!) in October as Halloween mood preperation. So I've listened to that, I'm in the middle of an audiobook of "Strong Poison" and I've just finished "Have His Carcase." And I may have just checked out three more books by her. That's the kind of reader I am!

Today's review is of "Have His Carcase."

My (somewhat weathered) copy of "Have His Carcase",  from Harper and Row Publishers, Perennial Library

Summary (from the back of the book): "The mystery writer Harriet Vane, recovering from an unhappy love affair and its aftermath, seeks solace on a barren beach--deserted but for the body of a bearded young man with his throat cut. From the moment she photographs the corpse, which soon disappears with the tide, she is puzzled by a mystery  that might have been suicide, murder, or a political plot. With the appearance of her dear friend Lord Peter Wimsey, she finds a reason for detective pursuit--as only the two of them can pursue it."

Upsides: I think my favorite thing about Wimsey novels with Harriet Vane is the word play between them, it's really cute and laugh-out-loud funny and the way they bounce ideas off each other is fantastic. Sayers developed the relationship between them very well. The dialogue and interactions between all the characters are really masterfully done. The writing is very good, and I have to admit that I'm always a little shocked to find that Sayers didn't just write a morbid murder and have a dark detective gloomily trying to solve it; there's a lot of humour in this book, a woman gets to help solve it (which, considering it was written in the 20's...!), and it doesn't fit into a Sherlock Holmes/Watson type relationship. There's a lot of sexual tension between Vane and Wimsey, but more importantly, throughout the books featuring these two characters together, a great deal of importance is placed on them being equals. This book also features talents from the whole cast of characters that are working on solving the case--it's not just up to Wimsey and Vane, Bunter (Wimsey's personal valet) does a good deal of detective work, the actual detectives and policemen all get their moment in the spotlight. One of my favorite things about the Wimsey books is that they aren't about him being amazingly more brilliant than the police and outshining them, but about taking advantage of connections, of intellect, and working with the police to solve crimes.

Downsides: First and foremost--the cipher chapters! The victim in this book is sent a number of letters in code and Wimsey and Vane sit down for what feels like forever to try and figure out these letters. It's very...clever of Sayers to include the deciphering, but I have to admit that I'm either not smart enough to follow or I was too disinterested to follow. I definitely could've lived without those chapters. I do have to say that the pacing throughout the novel was a bit slow for my taste, but she made up for the lack of momentum with the interactions between characters--there was a lot of time spent puzzling out.

Overall Rating: 4/5 There were moments where there was a lack of momentum and the pacing wasn't great, but overall this is another bit of Sayer's genius mystery novels. The crime itself was very cleverly thought out and very smartly solved, with the right amount of hemming and hawing around the issue. I really enjoyed the humour in the book, and the interactions between the characters.

As I write this, I'm actually watching the "Have His Carcase" DVD put out by the BBC that I've checked out from the library. If you don't have time to read the book, but you still want a bit of that Sayers fun, go see if your library has a copy or buy it on Amazon. The BBC has done "Have His Carcase", "Strong Poison", and "Gaudy Night" and they're all really wonderful, accurate depictions of the books and I love them!

A personal update from me, quickly: I may have a job soon! I interviewed at a nice company for an administrative position and recently heard back that they really liked me, wanted to know if I was still available, and that they just need to get approval for hire before they can consider giving me an offer. So that's a bit of excitement in my life, and hopefully that job works out, as I am getting woefully poor!

Anyway, Happy Reading!
AJ

PS. I'm still reading Dorothy L. Sayers and since the books I'm reading are library books, I'm trying to focus on them so I can get them in on time, and then I will go back to work on the Wishbone Project and on to books in different fictional genres!