Mystery writer Harriet Vane, recovering from an unhappy love affair and its aftermath, seeks solace on a barren beach -- deserted but for the body ...
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Jun 05, 2007
Siria
rated it: 
The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think,repose upon a manly bosom...
I think Have His Carcase is the book where Sayers begins to make the transition between a standard Golden Age detective story, and the much more interesting and engaging (I find) novels which make up most of the Wimsey-Vane stories. As much as the earlier novels are fun to read, with some very entertaining secondary characters, I think this is really the point where both Harriet an More...
I think Have His Carcase is the book where Sayers begins to make the transition between a standard Golden Age detective story, and the much more interesting and engaging (I find) novels which make up most of the Wimsey-Vane stories. As much as the earlier novels are fun to read, with some very entertaining secondary characters, I think this is really the point where both Harriet an More...
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Apr 28, 2010
Miriam
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After her highly-publicized near-conviction in the murder trial of her former lover (in Strong Poison), mystery writer Harriet Vane decides to get away from it all by taking a solitary walking tour in the countryside. While lunching on the beach, she stumbles upon a corpse. There are no one else's footprints in the sand, but other evidence suggests this was not suicide...
Harriet doesn't want to ask Lord Peter, who cleared her name once before, to do it a second time, but he shows up More...
Harriet doesn't want to ask Lord Peter, who cleared her name once before, to do it a second time, but he shows up More...
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Dec 25, 2011
Leah
rated it:
Sayers was actually a very good writer. I was immediately drawn in by Harriet's character (the mystery writer solving a mystery, quelle original) and her relationship with Lord Peter is humorous and clearly developing over the long term.
For a mystery novel, however, 444 pages is long, and it started to flag a bit once the various suspects' stories began to be checked, rechecked, double checked etc. Indeed, while the all-too-familiar general police procedural is prolific these days, I More...
For a mystery novel, however, 444 pages is long, and it started to flag a bit once the various suspects' stories began to be checked, rechecked, double checked etc. Indeed, while the all-too-familiar general police procedural is prolific these days, I More...
Jan 09, 2011
Lightreads
rated it: 
I would say ‘another Lord Peter mystery,’ but it’s more accurate to say, ‘a Sayers book, marking the transitional point in the series where we stop having Lord Peter mysteries.’ And start having Peter-and-Harriet books, I mean.
Not as enjoyable as I was expecting. Peter and Harriet are, of course, rubbing along very complexly here, with suppressed romantic sentiment (mostly Peter, but not all) and resentment (mostly Harriet, but not all). There is only one real eruption between them; More...
Not as enjoyable as I was expecting. Peter and Harriet are, of course, rubbing along very complexly here, with suppressed romantic sentiment (mostly Peter, but not all) and resentment (mostly Harriet, but not all). There is only one real eruption between them; More...
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Nov 20, 2010
Madeline
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After reading Gaudy Night and hearing Peter and Harriet refer to "the Wilvercombe affair", I was intrigued and naturally wanted to read more about these two crazy kids solving another mystery. Rather misleadingly, the book that details this case is not called "The Wilvercombe Affair", and doesn't even have the word Wilvercombe in the title. It's called "Have His Carcase", because Dorothy Sayers wants to make us work for our fun, dammit.
Anyway, the mystery More...
Anyway, the mystery More...
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Apr 25, 2010
Rob
rated it:
This is the first of Sayers's Wimsey novels I've read. As far as detective novels go, it's interesting, not in the least when the crime being investigated becomes impossible to have been committed.
However, what I find more interesting is Sayer's explorations of Wimsey as a person. I don't know about earlier novels, of course, but none of the short stories I've read do this. In each of them, Sayers holds the reader at length from Wimsey. He's always a distant figure, almost remote. Bu More...
However, what I find more interesting is Sayer's explorations of Wimsey as a person. I don't know about earlier novels, of course, but none of the short stories I've read do this. In each of them, Sayers holds the reader at length from Wimsey. He's always a distant figure, almost remote. Bu More...
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Jun 26, 2011
Clara
rated it:
A glorious return to form after the painful Five Red Herrings nearly halted my obsessive devouring of this series. Alas! No Miss Climpson, but we've got Harriet Vane to make up for it. I like the Vane/Wimsey duo because it adds an interesting element of actual character development to the detective romping. The mystery element of the books is also stronger with Miss Vane present because she serves as a sounding board for Lord P.--there's a lot less of the climactic "all is revealed!" e
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Jan 05, 2010
Jayaprakash
rated it:
Something of a mixed bag, this novel begins all jaunty and jolly with Vane and Wimsey trading flirtatious barbs and chasing down clues in a seaside resort town. It gets progressively more complicated as the investigation goes round in circles trying to crack a very clever set of mutually interlocking alibis until finally there is a rather dark and ambiguous conclusion without a clear resolution to the plot, even if the mystery itself is solved. There's a bout a 100 to 150 pages in the last third
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Feb 04, 2012
Nikki
rated it:
Another of the BBC's fantastic radioplays. I can't think why I didn't feel like listening to them for a while -- they're great, and very good company when I'm crocheting. I'm going to blame essay deadlines and such.
Everyone's very well cast, of course, and the plot is easy to follow; maybe easier than when I read it, though I'm not sure if that's the audio or the fact that I have read it before, albeit the novel, not the radioplay adaptation. It suffers from a sad lack of Bunter and More...
Everyone's very well cast, of course, and the plot is easy to follow; maybe easier than when I read it, though I'm not sure if that's the audio or the fact that I have read it before, albeit the novel, not the radioplay adaptation. It suffers from a sad lack of Bunter and More...
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Dec 01, 2011
Reds_reads
rated it:
A big improvement on Five Red Herrings - a more manageable level of plot detail and local dialect helped the story along and the presence of Harriet gave Lord Peter someone to be frivolous with. It helps that I find the setting more interesting too - the seaside watering hole and its inhabitants which Sayers describes very well, and at times quite amusingly.
There remains the casual racism of its time which can be startling on occasion, and a puzzling inconsistency of attitude towards More...
There remains the casual racism of its time which can be startling on occasion, and a puzzling inconsistency of attitude towards More...
Aug 07, 2010
Brandy
rated it:
In order to have a solitary holiday with no mail or phones Harriet sets out on a walking tour of the coast. One day after lunch and a nap she comes across a corpse on a rock. It is the body of a young man and his throat has been slit. Knowing that the tide will come in soon and wash the body away Harriet does some investigating, finds the razor used and takes pictures of the body to give to the police. When she finally is able to reach a phone she calls the police and then the press, thinki
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Jul 23, 2011
Harmonybites
rated it:
I haven't read the Lord Peter Wimsey series systematically and in order. My first was Gaudy Night, which I adored and would rank five stars. I wouldn't myself recommend starting there, because I think readers would enjoy following the development of the romance between Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane from its beginning in Strong Poison, the sixth book.
This book begins with Harriet, still somewhat shaken by the events of that book, and definitely not intending to comfort herself on More...
This book begins with Harriet, still somewhat shaken by the events of that book, and definitely not intending to comfort herself on More...
Oct 24, 2011
Kelly
rated it:
I was so prepared to give this book a 5 star rating. I liked it so much more than Strong Poison. However, two things got in the way: the chapter about the cipher was difficult to follow, and I didn't feel that how they cracked the code or the specifics of the code were necessary to the plot. And, the ending was very abrupt.
Other than that, I loved the complexity of the story and the way all of these different characters and aliases were introduced and intertwined. I found it very More...
Other than that, I loved the complexity of the story and the way all of these different characters and aliases were introduced and intertwined. I found it very More...
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Sep 22, 2010
Christina
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Dorothy Sayers is one of the premier mystery authors of the 20th century. Maybe it is just me, but I have a hard time getting through her books. I've read several, including "Gaudy Night" and this one, and I'm still having a hard time getting interested in the plot and characters. Maybe I'm just used to a quicker pace in the mystery novels I read, but this one took forever to get through. Especially when I figured out what happened a little more than halfway through the book. Not
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Jun 26, 2010
Tomchicago
rated it:
I don't know if I'm going to make it through this one, but I love a good mystery and she's rated among the best.
I'm now about half way and I'm held by the puzzle and by the relationship between Harriet and Peter and its repartee. At the same time, I was put off by the jarring sounds of the words "dagoes" and "niggers". These come out of the mouths of some of the stuffier characters, some of them less than admirable, but it serves to take me back to a period that i More...
I'm now about half way and I'm held by the puzzle and by the relationship between Harriet and Peter and its repartee. At the same time, I was put off by the jarring sounds of the words "dagoes" and "niggers". These come out of the mouths of some of the stuffier characters, some of them less than admirable, but it serves to take me back to a period that i More...
Dec 25, 2011
Zana
rated it:
Dorothy Sayers has this brilliant thing that she does, where she is hyper-aware of the reader's reaction and actually addresses it in the text. You're getting the feeling that the suspected murderer seems to be entirely too subtle and also too obvious at the same time? Harriet Vane brings up the complexity of Richard III. The bits of the plan that they've worked out seems tortuous and too random? Lord Peter throws his notes across the room in a fit of pique, saying "But that's all too c
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Mar 04, 2009
Mike
rated it:
Dorothy Sayers is probably my favourite mystery writer, up there with Ngaio Marsh (Agatha Christie had her moments, but she was less consistent; and though Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are both absolutely classic, I was never a huge fan of Parker Pyne). This one felt a bit more contrived at the end, though. Not that all the puzzle pieces didn't fit together, and not that it was a deus ex machina ending (she gave all the necessary clues) it just felt a bit less plausible than some -- but then a
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Jul 30, 2011
Well, I don't know why I took my time reading this one - it was a cracking good mystery! A complicated plot and Lord Peter, Harriet and police definitely over-think and over-analyze this but finally come to their conclusion. The ending was a little anticlimactic. And I thought the police were extraordinarily patient. I kept thinking of Inspector Umpelty as Inspector "Uppity" for some reason! This is the first one I've read with Harriet Vane and I did like that she is an intelligent wom
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Oct 04, 2011
Bev
rated it:
Dorothy L Sayers is always a comfort read for me. I've had a love affair going on with Lord Peter for about 30 years now. And I return to his stories whenever I need a pick-me-up. And, boy, did I need a pick-me-up after making my way through Middlemarch!
Have His Carcase was just the tonic that the doctor would have ordered (had I consulted him). We have Harriet Vane, mystery writer and recently acquitted of murdering her former lover, on a walking tour to shake off the horrors of havin More...
Have His Carcase was just the tonic that the doctor would have ordered (had I consulted him). We have Harriet Vane, mystery writer and recently acquitted of murdering her former lover, on a walking tour to shake off the horrors of havin More...
Aug 22, 2008
Anne
rated it:
I've never liked murder mysteries, until I was inspired to read Dorothy L. Sayers by a Lord Peter Wimsey-obsessed friend. The woman is a genius. I don't know how she kept track of all of the characters, plot twists, different possibilities, alibis. She had a full alphabet system for a coded letter, information about how to use a needle to prevent a car from starting, about tides, about the human body. Lord Peter Wimsey is unbelievably brilliant, eccentric, and funny, and he is doubly all of
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Mar 28, 2010
Telyn
rated it:
This is a book about the mystery genre as much as it is a specimen of the genre itself. Sayers has a great deal of fun satirizing the conventions of the fictional sleuth, while putting her own sleuths through their paces, but the convoluted plot is not one of the author's stronger efforts, and requires a considerable amount of suspension of disbelief.
This novel forms an important bridge between "Strong Poison" and "Gaudy Night" but isn't really in the same league with
This novel forms an important bridge between "Strong Poison" and "Gaudy Night" but isn't really in the same league with
Dec 28, 2009
Sonja
rated it:
I can't believe how good this writer is, especially considering when she wrote--I love the strength of the female characters especially, but also enjoy the bite and intelligence of the writing and the dialogue. My only real complaint is how often we get bogged down in details--I ended up skipping half of ALL the pages explaining how to decode the cipher letter. I just wanted to know what it said. Otherwise this was a great book to read while it's snowstorming outside.
Sep 29, 2010
Kristen
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Jul 20, 2011
Brad
rated it:
This book was really fun. One thing I particularly liked was the method of giving each chapter a title based on what would be revealed within. It was a great way to keep me interested and kept me from putting the book down a few times. The only thing I can think of that may have detracted a little was the very, very abrupt ending. The "detectives" laid out how the crime must have been committed, complained that they thought there wasn't enough evidence to convict, then told us that eve
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Aug 20, 2011
Vera
rated it:
I wonder if I should create a cosy or comfy shelf? For the e-books, anyway. I know where I keep my comfort hard copies.
I find I skip the technical parts of detective stories like this (the railway timetable sections - though in this one it's several pages of deciphering secret letters) much as I used to skip the technical descriptions in Golden Age science fiction. Oh, Doc Smith, you were always a fast read!
Anyway, long passages of detail aside, there's the slow progress of More...
I find I skip the technical parts of detective stories like this (the railway timetable sections - though in this one it's several pages of deciphering secret letters) much as I used to skip the technical descriptions in Golden Age science fiction. Oh, Doc Smith, you were always a fast read!
Anyway, long passages of detail aside, there's the slow progress of More...
May 13, 2010
Felisa
rated it:
Harriet Vane and Lord Peter investigate a murder at a seaside resort. Dorothy L. Sayers is one of my favorite writers of all time, and Lord Peter and Harriet are two of my favorite characters of all time, and I certainly enjoyed this book. However, the plot is so convoluted that the story is occasionally tedious. That said, Sayers is sharp, the characters are amusing, and the relationship between Vane and Lord Peter is, as always, very dear.
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Feb 10, 2009
Eva
rated it:
I just love these two. Peter and Harriet are the cutest detective couple ever. I love how he is always asking her to marry him. This book was just great. Having seen the movie, I did know what was coming, but there were times when the book so enthralled me and confused the facts (as it was meant to) that I forgot how in the world the murder could have been carried out. The confusing alibis and medical evidence makes it an awfully good read.
PS: Has anyone noticed how incredibly More...
PS: Has anyone noticed how incredibly More...
Jan 19, 2012
John
rated it:
It's impossible to have a Peter/Harriet book that doesn't get five stars. Harriet's still struggling with the deleterious effect of gratitude on a serious relationship, which causes great strain on their love and/or friendship, but it's the character development that makes these four books so compelling. I'm very gentle on books, but this one is showing a lot of wear from rereading.
Jul 31, 2011
Jeremy
rated it:
I'm a fan of Harriet, and the counterpoint between her and Wimsey kept the story going. I'm not entirely sure I'm in love with their romance, but a pair of well-matched detectives is better than just one. And the central assumption that sets up the whole rigmarole was very clever - I'm not quite sure how scientific it is, but it seemed plausible enough to me.
Oct 12, 2010
I read this book a number of years ago, at the end of college, just before graduation. I recall lying on my bed, near the open window, enjoying the spring air and a feeling of peace.
I feel self-indulgent when reading Dorthy L. Sayers. My modern mind struggles with language that is now deemed offensive, but was once normal. And yet I love the vintage world that Sayers portrays so charmingly.
I appreciate different aspects of the book today than I did when I was twenty-one, including Ha More...
I feel self-indulgent when reading Dorthy L. Sayers. My modern mind struggles with language that is now deemed offensive, but was once normal. And yet I love the vintage world that Sayers portrays so charmingly.
I appreciate different aspects of the book today than I did when I was twenty-one, including Ha More...
