Mystery Review: Strong Poison is the fifth Lord Peter Wimsey novel, but more importantly it's the book that launched the author's alter ego, Harriet Vane. Female mystery authors with male detectives find a certain freedom when they turn to a female lead, e.g., P. D. James when she introduced Cordelia Gray in An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972), after having first established Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh as her detective. Here Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) does the same in my favorite and the best of the first six LPW books. This had a little bit of everything all rolled into one. A solid mystery that I accidentally solved early but only because of latter day stories. At the time I think it would've been brilliant. Lord Peter is still a little too silly for me, but at least there were moments when the facade cracked. The rest of the characters, headed by Bunter, were irresistible. Wimsey's version of the Baker Street Irregulars is a business he supports that provides employment for redundant, discarded, and unplaced women. Two of the team get major page time in Strong Poison, with Miss Murchison learning to pick locks from an ex-safecracker (who's since found religion) and Miss Climpson conducting a rigged séance. What's more fun than that? Their efforts actually accomplish most of the crime-solving. Sayers' creativity entertains and educates. Finally, there's a burgeoning romance and I'm always a sucker for the right love story. There's little more romantic than falling in love with someone accused of murder (poisoning no less -- "what's for dinner darling?") and an awkwardly premature but sincere marriage proposal in a prison. Admittedly, Harriet Vane doesn't get many pages here, but what there is gives solidity to the book and augurs well for the future. Beyond the mystery, Sayers gives the reader a hefty dose of the life and times, English society in the Twenties. Between discussions of free love, Bohemian parties, and the exposé of women's actual place on the social and business ladder this book must've been well ahead of the curve. Sayers worked in an advertising agency and knew whereof she wrote. At this point I plan to read the other three novels in which Harriet Vane features, and perhaps follow up on the three remaining LPW books at another time. Strong Poison is a quick, enjoyable, and challenging read; everything I want in a mystery. [5★]
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