For fans of Lord Peter Wimsey
Normally I'm totally opposed to the idea of someone taking over another author's characters. I wouldn't dream of reading one of the many Jane Austen sequels but I have to confess I thoroughly enjoyed a new Lord Peter Wimsey mystery by Jill Paton Walsh.
The Attenbury Emeralds is a prequel of sorts to Lord Peter's career. It is the early 1950's, Peter is telling his wife Lady Peter, the former Harriet Vane (if you like Dorothy Sayers, you'll understand why she isn't Lady Harriet), the story of his very first case. It happened not long after the First Wold War when he was still suffering from shell shock. That case, in which an enormous emerald carved with part of a Persian poem disappears, seems fairly straightforward but over the years bad things continue to happen whenever the jewels are taken out of the bank.
Jill Paton Walsh was asked by the literary trustees of Dorothy Sayer's estate to complete Thrones, Dominations which was based on Dorothy Sayers' own notes and outlines and then A Presumption of Death based on some of Sayer's wartime writings but the Attenbury Emeralds is her first entirely original Lord Peter Wimsey mystery.
2 thoughts on “For fans of Lord Peter Wimsey”
Believe it or not, there some good Austen takeoffs. I recommend the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy by Pamela Aidan. It’s the Pride and Prejudice story written from Darcy’s point of view.
Prequel or sequel, it is always a welcome delight to read a bit more of Lord and Lady Peter’s world. Especially interesting are the social structures, expectations, and changes in the aftermath of that horrific Great War.
Walsh does a fine job of using the Wimsey family as a vehicle not only to entertain but to illustrate English lives caught between and upon the horns of two world wars.
No small task, either, walking the Sayers talk! Like opening the lid of an exquisite jewelry chest… its contents still intact.