A Presumption of Death (Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane) Paperback – Illustrated, November 27, 2012

When I read the completion of the unfinished novel Thrones, Dominions by Jill Paton Walsh, I was impressed by her ability to copy Sayer's voice so well I couldn't tell where one left off and another took over. I had high hopes that she could continue on her own. Unfortunately this book failed to fulfill that promise. Lord Peter is missing, gone on a secret mission, for most of the book, and Lady Peter is just not as interesting when alone.When he returns, things don't improve much. His ghostly presence reminds us of the old Lord Peter, but he is an anemic shadow of his former self. Jill Paton Walsh just doesn't have the knack of bringing him to life. Sayers was accused of falling in love with her creation, but it made for a robust, lifelike character. Walsh is too detached to bring him to life.

I read somewhere that Jill Paton Walsh was such a fan of Harriet Vane's that "Gaudy Night" inspired her to attend Oxford.That's a wonderful little detail, and I love hearing stuff like that. But unfortunately for me as a Lord Peter Wimsey fan, it seems that Walsh's identification with Harriet means that Lord Peter is being winnowed out of her version of Sayers's stories almost completely.So once again, as with "Thrones, Dominations," we have a solid, competently written book that doesn't feel much like part of the "Lord Peter" series except in name only. Most of the book takes place in WWII England, at Talboys (Harriet's childhood home, and the setting of "Busman's Honeymoon"), and Peter is absent for most of the book, off on mysterious wartime missions.I really felt like this Harriet-centric narrative device was a mistake. We're left with Harriet's rather straightforward, plainer personality, and without even a little of the Wimsey sparkle, the book drags for long sections. The only relief is a surprisingly enjoyable portrait of Bunter, whose character is believably expanded and who is one of the book's bright spots. But nobody else really feels like themselves. Harriet is more humorless than ever, Kirk and Twitterton are both rather grim and seem to return just for fan-service (and they're completely unlike their "Busman's Honeymoon" selves). But it's the bright, mercurial characters that suffer most -- the Dowager is, like Peter, a shadow of her usually wonderful, funny self, Jerry (Pickled Gherkins) is unrecognizable and lacking his usual charm, and worst of all, Walsh cannot even seem to write Miss Climpson, who is presented without her ever-present breathless over-emphasis and italics (surely Climpson's distinctive voice could have and should have been better captured). It's as if Walsh is writing these faintly dry, academic, competent fan-fictions that happen to include Sayers characters, but she can't seem to capture the real vividness of the characters themselves.Lord Peter does return eventually, but he's once again rather sparkless. It's not that I think he should be dancing jigs in wartime, but Lord Peter does tend to whistle in the dark, and in addition to that, a sense of humor can be slyly evident as a personality trait even under pressure. With Lord Peter, in fact? Especially under pressure!But not here. As before, the character just doesn't feel much like Lord Peter at all -- once again, Walsh's take on Lord Peter is rather humorless and stuffy, with little wit or wordplay. Worst of all, she has Lord Peter apologizing repeatedly for being so "foolish" in the past -- this comes up repeatedly, and annoyed me a lot. Lord Peter's 'laughing on the outside' tomfoolery isn't actually foolish, and that's what's fun about the character. He's usually clowning around right when the danger is greatest or when his heart is breaking -- so for Walsh to essentially dismiss and criticize the earlier Sayers (real) Lord Peter as some kind of flighty annoyance is upsetting if you're a fan of the series.While this was an interesting story that brought to life WWII Britain, I ultimately felt this one was less successful than "Thrones, Dominations," which I also felt was an okay novel, but a substandard attempt at Lord Peter. However, where "Thrones" offered a mystery that felt like Sayers, the mystery here not only is very oddly presented and explored, it's almost thrown away by the end of the book -- almost incidental, as if it doesn't matter. Both books are well-researched and presented, and Walsh obviously enjoys Sayers's works, but it's like hearing a barely competent musician play Mozart -- there's little real feeling to what feels like an almost academic exercise.I will keep reading Walsh's take -- substandard Lord Peter is better in a weird way than none at all, and I'm interested to see where she takes the characters. But it's been a quiet disappointment, as she has taken so much of the dazzle and dash of one of my favorite characters and made him rather ordinary -- that's the real crime here.I hope I'm explaining myself well. It's a decent book. But not one to introduce Lord Peter to newcomers, certainly, and only a pale reflection of one of the great literary characters. As an example -- one of my favorite moments in the Lord Peter Wimsey series is a moment in the book "Strong Poison," when Lord Peter is rambling humorously at Harriet about the case (while making yet another marriage proposal), and charmed in spite of herself, she tells him that if anyone ever does marry him, it will be for the pleasure of hearing him "talk piffle."That's my problem with Walsh's take on the characters. There's plenty of mystery but no piffle.

Ms. Walsh does a wonderful job revisiting the tumultuous WWII period and how it affects the Wimsey family. The Duchess is as starchy as ever, the Dowager as delightful, the Duke as bluffly bewildered - Lord Peter and Bunter are mostly off-stage, but as I enjoy Harriet I found this delightful to see her finding her own footing as a wife, mother, and sometimes detective. I didn't mind "Thrones, Domination" although it's not my favorite of "their" adventures, but "A Presumption of Death" does very well at continuing the delicate balancing act of Peter and Harriet's relationship.Is it Identical to what Sayers might have written? Probably not. Is it enjoyable on its own, by an author who clearly loves all of Sayers' incomparable characters? Oh, absolutely yes! I've collected all four of Walsh's books and am looking forward to more from her in the near future.

As many of the reviews before mine point out. This isn't a real 'Lord Peter' book, it lacks a bit in both style and composition a Dorothy L Sayers book. It's more like a letter from a friend of theirs, a friend of a more leftist stance, maybe Lady Mary, telling about them during this time. It's not a bad book nor is it a great book. It's just something to read until you find a better book.

I am listening to the unabridged audio version of POD with Edward Petherbridge (best Wimsey ever). I love Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter mysteries and have read them all multiple times. So I desperately wanted this to be a fair continuation of Peter and Harriet's story. But it is not working for me. At all. The awkward description of wartime Britain, flat characterisation of known characters, intrusive references to older stories and, most of all, the embarrassing crassness of Harriet's behaviour and observations have me muttering "No!" and "That is so stupid!" at distressingly frequent intervals.Right now I am attempting to recover my respect for Lady Peter after a humiliating and absolutely unnecessary exchange with a Brigadier General about why Peter married her. This uncharacteristic crudeness on Harriet's part is first signaled when, out of the blue, she decides to publicly defame a young woman utterly unknown to her as she (Lady Peter)and half the village wait in a crammed bomb shelter, the ugly comments apparently intended to "lighten the atmosphere". Harriet, with her own painful history, would never have done it. Walsh may be an excellent mystery writer in her own right, but, for me, she is simply incapable of catching the spirit of Sayers' Wimsey series.

I loved Sayers’s development of the relationship between Lord Peter and Harriet (Gaudy Night is my all time favourite), and liked Jill Paton Walsh’s contribution to Thrones, Dominations but here the relationship gets too schmaltzy so maybe this is the last for me.Revised November 2020 - I've since added the audible narration which, though I'd already read the book itself, I've started listening to at bedtime. Beautifully read/narrated, this has warmed me to the story with its gentle detail on English life during WWII.I do have some trouble reconciling this Harriet, Lady Peter wife and mother, with the Harriet the Oxford graduate of Gaudy Night, but I so love this fictional couple.Sad at the recent loss of Jill Paton Walsh who kept the Wimseys going. RIP.

This is a wartime murder mystery set in 1939-40 at Pagham, Hertfordshire, where Lord Peter Wimsey (some of the time) and his wife the novelist Harriet Vane (all the time) live in their country house, the odd, quirky Elizabethan Talboys, with their children and those of Peter's sister, Mary Parker. When "Wicked Wendy", an attractive Women's Land Army girl, is murdered during an air raid practice drill, Harriet Vane, whose husband Peter is absent for the first half of the novel, as an MI6 spy behind enemy lines, is asked by the local police to help them solve the mystery of who killed Wendy and why. The plot when the Wimseys finally unravel it, proves to be fiendishly complicated and shocking and - yes- it does involve a German spy.

A wonderful book. It describes an era that I lived through, but was too young to understand: the blackout, the rationing, the feeling of something going on outside one's own life. It recalls the happy life of young children, securely away from the areas of conflict and bombing doing and enjoying all the simple pleasures of childhood. The plot could have been written by DLS herself, gripping, complex and clever. Married Harriet is so nice and loveable that I wish she were real. Duke Gerald and his son come out as much nicer people than would be expected in the light of their bitchy wife/mother. I am glad that I was not an adult in 1940. I never missed the pleasures that wartime deprived people of, and this book shows that life continues despite hardship and dietary nightmares. The book is a worthy successor to DLS's original series, and I look forward to reading books three and four, which I have already purchased. If I were allowed, I would give this book six or seven stars.

Although in this case more Walsh than Sayers, this is, as with 'Thrones and Dominations' a benefit to the reader. walsh adds further depth of characterisation to the cardboard cut-outs that Sayers created and one almost begins to like the self-righteous Harriet Vane.The presence of the Dowager Duchess and the awful Duchess Helen are given more space and add to the humour so markedly missing, other than in the form of 'clever clever' literary jokes, in Sayers's work.A good addition to the series.

A fast paced thriller. Lord Peter Wimsey is away O.H.M.S.S.! Lady Wimsey has to come to the rescue as well as caring for children, WVS, and everything else that the Lady of the Manor has to do - and all this in the dark days of war. Believable and un-put-downable. A convoluted story in the best traditions of Dorothy L Sayers but largely written by Jill Paton Walsh. Buy it NOW - you won't regret it.