Alas! The Lord Peter Wimsey stories and novels are my favorite mysteries of all time, and Jill Paton Walsh did a beautiful job of completing Dorothy Sayers' unfinished novel, "Thrones, Dominations," after the writer's death. This novel is more completely from Walsh's imagination, and it shows. Its inspiration comes from several short articles and notes that Sayers published during World War II, describing the Wimsey family's challenges. However, its weak plot--Harriet and Peter working together (long-distance) to solve the village murder of one of the "land-girls" during an air raid practice drill--is Walsh's own. While it includes many of the elements Sayers employed so cleverly--codes, spies, literary references--the spark that made the characters real is completely missing.