22nd out of 571 books
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511 voters
Busman's Honeymoon (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries #11)
Murder is hardly the best way for Lord Peter and his bride, the famous mystery writer Harriet Vane, to start their honeymoon. It all begins when the former owner of their newly acquired estate is found quite nastily dead in the cellar. And what Lord Peter had hoped would be a very private and romantic stay in the country soon turns into a most baffling case, what with the...more
Paperback, 403 pages
Published
February 24th 1995
by HarperTorch
(first published 1936)
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The Golden Age Queens of Crime: Christie -- Sayers -- Marsh -- Allingham -- Wentworth
16th out of 120 books
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84 voters
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While reading this, the fifth Sayers mystery I've read so far, I was finally able to figure out just why I love her novels more than any other mystery writer I've encountered so far: I love Dorothy Sayers because she does everything wrong, but it all somehow manages to work.
There are some commonly accepted rules for novel-writing, and detective-novel-writing specifically, that authors have to follow in order for anyone to enjoy/buy their books. Dorothy Sayers looks at these rules, scoffs, and go...more
There are some commonly accepted rules for novel-writing, and detective-novel-writing specifically, that authors have to follow in order for anyone to enjoy/buy their books. Dorothy Sayers looks at these rules, scoffs, and go...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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From BBC radio 4 Extra:
Honeymooners Lord Peter Wimsey and his wife's marital bliss is soon disturbed by something nasty in the cellar. Dorothy L Sayers' mystery stars Ian Carmichael and Sarah Badel.
Honeymooners Lord Peter Wimsey and his wife's marital bliss is soon disturbed by something nasty in the cellar. Dorothy L Sayers' mystery stars Ian Carmichael and Sarah Badel.
Aug 05, 2011
Karen
added it
While some find Sayers to be the ultimate mystery writer, I'm not among them. As a non-fan of most mysteries, I grabbed this book almost immediately after reading Gaudy Night, because I was intrigued by her character of Harriet Vane and was anxious to read more about her. This was Sayers' final Vane/Wimsey book, and through a beautifully written series of letters, describes their life after Gaudy Night's engagement, through the wedding, then takes up a regular narrative as they begin their honey...more
I think it would never happen today that large chunks of French and Latin text would not be translated for the reader. That's one of the things I love about these books, the assumption of a certain level of culture and education. It doesn't make the book less readable, but it adds to the feeling that there is a mystery embedded within the mystery. Perhaps someday I'll feel motivated to get out my dictionaries and grammar books and try to translate. Dorothy L Sayers must have had a mind like a sc...more
This is the last major work by Sayers that focuses on Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey together. It takes place immediately after the wedding, and involves the happy -- but as always, complicated and deliberate -- couple removing to a Tudor country house Harriet remembered from her youth, Talboys. When they get there, the redoubtable Bunter (and several bottles of carefully cradled port) in tow, the house has not been readied for their arrival, and has been left locked, with congealing food on...more
When I have had a really dirty day and want to do no more than curl up with a glass of wine and a whacking good who dunnit, then it has to be Dorothy L Sayers. Ah, Lord Peter Wimsy, you either love him or loathe him! I've always loved him, and I particularly like this book because it is not your average crime novel.
Oh sure, you have a pair of newly-weds, an old house in the country, a cast of eccentric characters from the bumbling vicar to the twittery spinster to the police inspector who likes...more
Oh sure, you have a pair of newly-weds, an old house in the country, a cast of eccentric characters from the bumbling vicar to the twittery spinster to the police inspector who likes...more
Sep 22, 2012
Caro Kinkead
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone who loves classic British Mysteries
Shelves:
mystery
Oh, frabjous day! At long last, Dorothy L. Sayer's marvelous Lord Peter Wimsey novels have been released in in ebook form. I say this as someone who has at least one copy of all the novels and short story collections in her house (sometimes two because one copy has simply been read to death), but having the books easily and conveniently available wherever I go is a joy.
Sayers called the book "A love story with detective interruptions" and that it is. Lord Peter has finally won Harriet Vane, but...more
Sayers called the book "A love story with detective interruptions" and that it is. Lord Peter has finally won Harriet Vane, but...more
A Lord Peter Wimsey story, featuring Harriet Vane. As DLS says in her introduction, this may really be more of a love story than a crime story. Lord Peter has married Harriet. They go on honeymoon to a cottage Harriet had loved when she was a child. Unfortunately it has a dead person in it! Naturally Lord Peter solves the mystery, but the key to this book is the interaction between the newly married couple and how they start to interact with other in a different way. The personality aspects are...more
As a young boy, I used to love mystery fiction. Enid Blyton’s books were among my favorites. Somehow, that love faded as I grew up, and my literary preferences turned to other genres. As an adult I find myself, rather to my confusion, completely out of love for crime and mystery novels. How did I become so very disenchanted? Was it by natural evolution of my tastes or because I had come across literature that changed my mind? To this day I still do not know the answer, but I am sure about my opi...more
Originally published on my blog here in June 1998.
This was the last full-length Peter Wimsey story written by Dorothy Sayers, and follows on more or less immediately from Gaudy Night. The first half of the book details the preparations for Lord Peter and Harriet to get married, and enables Sayers to bring in many characters who will be remembered by fans of the earlier books in the series, from the architect from Whose Body to the retired burglar from Strong Poison to the senior common room of S...more
This was the last full-length Peter Wimsey story written by Dorothy Sayers, and follows on more or less immediately from Gaudy Night. The first half of the book details the preparations for Lord Peter and Harriet to get married, and enables Sayers to bring in many characters who will be remembered by fans of the earlier books in the series, from the architect from Whose Body to the retired burglar from Strong Poison to the senior common room of S...more
Lord Peter and Harriet are finally married and set off on their honeymoon to their recently purchased holiday home only to (eventually) find the dead body of the previous owner in the house's cellar. This story is more about the two main characters and their developing relationship than the murder mystery, which does at times flag and feels less tightly drawn than usual, but there is compensation in a cast of village characters that are wonderfully entertaining, as well as the two main ones who...more
It's really true that you only pick things up when you're ready for them. I used to think reading choices explained something about the kind of person I am, but if there's something to be deduced from my reading patterns I'm not sure I want to know.
I've never thought of myself as a mystery fan in the same way I think of myself as an sf/fantasy fan. I have a mainstay 'comfort list' (Doyle, Christie, Poe) and of course there are my favourite mysteries muddled with other genres (Pratchett's Night...more
I've never thought of myself as a mystery fan in the same way I think of myself as an sf/fantasy fan. I have a mainstay 'comfort list' (Doyle, Christie, Poe) and of course there are my favourite mysteries muddled with other genres (Pratchett's Night...more
Rereading Dorothy Sayers is like spending time with old, much loved friends, but while I'm glad that the series ends on an optimistic note, I find "Busman's Honeymoon to be mostly icing with very little cake and, unfortunately, not much mystery, either. The novel is an odd hybrid that is part Noel Coward-eque stage play, part epistolary novel and part high quality fan fiction. For me, the letters that make up the first portion are the most fun, and read most like something that belongs in the Wi...more
I was plowing through the Iliad when this distracted me. But it's the last part of the Wimsey/Vane series, and those two might be my favoritest literary couple ever, so...I think it was worth it.
I really, really want to give this four stars, but for me, this was a three star book with some great four star moments. Peter and Harriet are ridiculously clever, and they're pleasantly romantic without being sappy or possessive.
The mystery and the plot came secondary for me, mostly because I skim like...more
I really, really want to give this four stars, but for me, this was a three star book with some great four star moments. Peter and Harriet are ridiculously clever, and they're pleasantly romantic without being sappy or possessive.
The mystery and the plot came secondary for me, mostly because I skim like...more
The best of the serie so far. Lord Peter finally found a resounding box that made his analysis open to public, thus reader can think along with him instead of swallowing the whole lump of conclusion at the end as happened in some of the serie.
Otherwise it told an interesting take on their romance, how both of their character learned to adjust itself to one another in the bound of marriage. They believed that their marriage shall not led to the typical relationship of conquest and it's interesti...more
Otherwise it told an interesting take on their romance, how both of their character learned to adjust itself to one another in the bound of marriage. They believed that their marriage shall not led to the typical relationship of conquest and it's interesti...more
Busman's Honeymoon picks up the story of Peter and Harriet on the day of their wedding. There are several amusing, and sometimes sweet, letters and journal entries at the beginning that fill in the details of the time that has elapsed from the end of Gaudy Night to the big day. Peter and Harriet leave for their honeymoon at a house they have purchased near where Harriet lived as a child. The first day there one catastrophe after another occurs, culminating with the discovery of the former owner...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Confession: I'm not into mystery.
I'm not just talking about handsome, brooding men with a secret past (although I'm not really into that, either. Except maybe the handsome part. Secret pasts and brooding, though: no, thank you). I'm talking about the literary genre.
To be fair, my lack of enthusiasm has more to do with my lack of exposure to the genre. I refused to read science fiction until a coworker forced me to read Ender's Game, which is now one of my favorite books of all time.
A friend t...more
I'm not just talking about handsome, brooding men with a secret past (although I'm not really into that, either. Except maybe the handsome part. Secret pasts and brooding, though: no, thank you). I'm talking about the literary genre.
To be fair, my lack of enthusiasm has more to do with my lack of exposure to the genre. I refused to read science fiction until a coworker forced me to read Ender's Game, which is now one of my favorite books of all time.
A friend t...more
More an examination of the adjustments two intelligent, independent people make when they are first married than a mystery, this book takes a lot of mystery fans off balance. Sayers herself called it "a love story with detective interruptions" and notes that while the reader may find the love story to be a distraction from the mystery, the characters themselves would feel the opposite. The story was originally a stage play and I think those antecedents also show through in the writing as the var...more
This was a re-read for me, prompted in part by viewing the 1980s Masterpiece version of Gaudy Night, another Sayers work featuring mystery writer Harriet Vane. Busman's Honeymoon is the fourth of the Vane novels, the woman that Sayers' detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, pursues and finally marries after a frustrating but compelling courtship.
Sayers herself complained about love story plots in detective novels, but once she introduced Harriet, she kept their story going over several novels. She descri...more
Sayers herself complained about love story plots in detective novels, but once she introduced Harriet, she kept their story going over several novels. She descri...more
I don't quite understand all the grumpiness about this book. Sayers clearly titled it: "Busman's Honeymoon: A Love Story with Detective Interruptions." Obviously, if you're looking for a hard-boiled, "true" mystery (whatever that is, if it exists), it's not here. Read the subtitle again. Digest it. Chew on it. Got it? Right-o.
The best thing about this book is the people Sayers populates her world with. Of course we've got Lord Peter and Harriet, and Bunter (my personal favorite), and the Dowager...more
The best thing about this book is the people Sayers populates her world with. Of course we've got Lord Peter and Harriet, and Bunter (my personal favorite), and the Dowager...more
My favourite of all the Vane/Wimsey novels (that Sayers completed before her death). I didn't think it would be possible to enjoy the romance of the pair once they were married (usually the death of such things), but their banter and sexiness only increased and it was even better than the flirty good times prior to their wedding. Sayers had a gift for writing a mere line of otherwise normal dialogue or text and making it elicit a zillion secksy thoughts in the reader's imagination. For example,...more
After reading Jill Paton Walsh's DL Sayers mysteries, wanted to go back to the Master (do I mean Mistress?)I read this years ago and loved it then, although my all time favourite has to be either Nine Taylors (because it's just such an atomspheric, evocative mystery firmly in a distinct English voice. And its about English church bells and bell ringing. Whats not to like?)or Gaudy Night (because when I read it as a teenager all those questions about the education of women were still pertinent an...more
I, not being a mystery reader, didn't expect much from this. I'd picked it up just to see what it was that drew so many readers to this delightful, insightful author.
Her name had been mentioned in the course of another book discussion, specifically regarding her essays and how they veered toward the feminist nature. I wasn't really in the mood for essays and started picking around the net library for an available download - didn't really care which one it was.
Now, I think I'd be perfectly happy...more
Her name had been mentioned in the course of another book discussion, specifically regarding her essays and how they veered toward the feminist nature. I wasn't really in the mood for essays and started picking around the net library for an available download - didn't really care which one it was.
Now, I think I'd be perfectly happy...more
I've enjoyed the few Lord Peter Wimsey stories I've read so far, so I'm not sure why this one was such a slow read for me. I think I was just distracted on my trip. The language was a bit difficult to slog through at times, and the dialogue was rather bombastic. The story was engaging, however, and the solution to the crime was brilliant. (view spoiler)...more
This novel is really much more of a love story than a mystery, as Dorothy L Sayers herself acknowledged. But for readers who followed the story of Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane through the three previous novels which featured both characters, it is a most satisfying love story and a welcome culmination to the years of Peter's patient courtship and Harriet's determined resistance. Tbere's enough of a mystery to make it worthy of being called a mystery novel, but no more than that. Apart from the...more
Where I got the book: my bookshelf.
Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey are married at last, and have purchased an old house in the country where they intend to honeymoon. They arrive to find that the previous owner hasn't put things in order as he promised, and find out (mercifully AFTER the wedding night) that there's a good reason...
This novel was based on a stage play that Sayers wrote with a friend (presumably to capitalize on the popularity of Gaudy Night, the previous Wimsey/Vane book.) Yo...more
Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey are married at last, and have purchased an old house in the country where they intend to honeymoon. They arrive to find that the previous owner hasn't put things in order as he promised, and find out (mercifully AFTER the wedding night) that there's a good reason...
This novel was based on a stage play that Sayers wrote with a friend (presumably to capitalize on the popularity of Gaudy Night, the previous Wimsey/Vane book.) Yo...more
This was my first Dorothy L. Sayers book to read. There were several literary references that I wish I could have remembered as well as the characters in the book seem to. Although I had not read the Lord Peter Wimsey books prior to this one, I did not feel that I had missed out on getting to know his character. Ms. Sayers did an excellent job of weaving references of his personality traits throughout the book.
I struggled with several paragraphs in French and had to rely on my Spanish to unders...more
I struggled with several paragraphs in French and had to rely on my Spanish to unders...more
Busman's Honeymoon is the thirteenth book about Lord Peter Wimsey. While you don't need to have read many of the others, the book will be better if you've at least read Gaudy Night Also, this review will contain some spoilers for that book, so be warned.
The book opens with a number of letters, diary entries and the like written by friends and family members of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, and through these the readers get insight into the preparation for their wedding, and get to witness...more
The book opens with a number of letters, diary entries and the like written by friends and family members of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, and through these the readers get insight into the preparation for their wedding, and get to witness...more
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Dorothy Leigh Sayers (Oxford, 13 June 1893 – Witham, 17 December 1957) was a renowned British author, translator, student of classical and modern languages, and Christian humanist.
Dorothy L. Sayers is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between World War I and World War II that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. However, Sayers herse...more
More about Dorothy L. Sayers...
Dorothy L. Sayers is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between World War I and World War II that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. However, Sayers herse...more
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“For God's sake, let's take the word 'possess' and put a brick round its neck and drown it ... We can't possess one another. We can only give and hazard all we have.”
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“We've got to laugh or break our hearts in this damnable world.”
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