From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Busman's Honeymoon (Lord Peter Wimsey, #13)

Dorothy L. Sayers

Start date: December 1, 2016

Finish date: December 31, 2016

Discussion: Group Challenges

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* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
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What Members Thought

Nov 27, 2016 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

After agreeing to marry Lord Peter Wimsey in “Gaudy Night,” this novel sees the couple marrying and embarking on their honeymoon. Having fought both herself, and her feelings, for so long, Harriet allows Peter to buy her a house – Talboys – a farmhouse that she admired as a child, to be a weekend cottage. Delighted to please her, Peter buys the house from the current owner, Noakes, who agrees to stay there until they move in.

However, what with avoiding the press and organising the wedding, Bunte ...more

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Dec 14, 2016 Damaskcat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: dls-challenge

This has always been one of my favourite books in the Lord Peter Wimsey series and I have re-read it many times. Peter and Harriet are married and intend to spend their honeymoon at Tallboys - a house which they have just bought which Harriet used to visit as a child. But when they arrive at the house nothing is as expected and it seems the previous owner is nowhere to be found even though he had promised to be meet them to hand over the keys.

When they find the body of the previous owner in the ...more

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Jul 08, 2015 Bev rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery

** spoiler alert ** So...Lord Peter finally gets the girl. Well, we knew that at the end of Gaudy Night...what with them kissing madly in the middle of Oxford and all. But this one seals the deal. The book begins with the details of the months leading up to the wedding, the wedding itself, and on to the honeymoon. Not that Sayers is so gauche as to reveal ALL about the wedding night, but it's abundantly obvious that our favorite lord and his new lady have quite a nice time of it.

The mystery fun ** spoiler alert ** So...Lord Peter finally gets the girl. Well, we knew that at the end of Gaudy Night...what with them kissing madly in the middle of Oxford and all. But this one seals the deal. The book begins with the details of the months leading up to the wedding, the wedding itself, and on to the honeymoon. Not that Sayers is so gauche as to reveal ALL about the wedding night, but it's abundantly obvious that our favorite lord and his new lady have quite a nice time of it.

The mystery fun begins the next day when the body of their neglectful host is found in the basement. It soon becomes clear that the reason the honeymoon house was not prepared was because Mr. Noakes has been dead for almost a week. Harriet rather wishes that Peter need not be bothered with all this murder business while on his honeymoon--if only because it will bring the mobs of reporters descending upon them--but soon realizes that his "job" is something they will need to come to terms with if theirs is to be happy marriage.

What follows is, as Sayers notes in the subtitle, A Love Story with Detective Interruptions. We follow Peter and Harriet as they sort out how their love story will begin and in the intervals they pick up clue after clue that will ultimately lead to the discovery of the culprit. However, the point of the story is not the murder. The point is love and marriage and what Sayers thought was the ideal way for two adults to sort things out.

The mystery isn't a very deep one and it shouldn't be hard for anyone to spot the criminal. But the detective story is not the reason I can read this novel (or any of Sayers' mysteries, for that matter) over and over again. I read them for the language and the characters and their interactions. Rereading Busman's Honeymoon, I was struck once more about how delightful the opening chapter is. It is told entirely in letters and excerpts from the Dowager Duchess's diary and I chuckle over it every single time. The voices of the various characters--from Peter's insufferable sister-in-law to the irrepressible Countess of Severn and Thames--are so distinct and vibrant. And the images they convey are such a hoot--can anyone who has read the stories not snort over the picture of the "hell-hound" reporters trying bribe Bunter? Or Peter and Harriet composing rude rhymes in order to get rid of Helen (the insufferable sister-in-law)?

I love this book. And can only regret that it is the last full-length novel written entirely by Dorothy L Sayers. The books penned by Jill Paton Walsh just aren't the same.

As I say, I love Dororthy L Sayers. I can't say it any better than that. I could read her Wimsey novels any time and I've already read them many times (more than I can count). I reach for Sayers when I need a pick-me-up, a soothing read, good writing, great quotes and references, a good dose of golden age mystery, any or all of the above. My only quibble is that I have already read them all and I have no new stories to look forward to. Oh to be in the position to pick up a Sayers for the first time--that would be bliss.

I could write pages and pages...but not nearly as well as Miss Sayers. I'll just leave it at this: If you enjoy good prose by an intelligent writer then you'll want to read these stories. ...more

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Dec 16, 2012 ShanDizzy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I have grown to love LPW and Harriet. Too bad this was the last book about them written by Mrs. Sayers. I would like to have seen how she described their marriage/love and whether or not LPW would have continued sleuthing and Harriet continued writing. I will read Thrones, Dominations which Jill Paton Walsh wrote from the notes of Mrs. Sayers. All in all this series was AMAZING, a great escape and wonderfully cerebral reading.

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Oct 11, 2021 Lady Wesley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fave-favorites, mystery-golden-age-or-similar, listened

I read this book many years ago, but listening to Ian Carmichael’s performance brought home to me its power and beauty. Above all, we see the real Lord Peter Wimsey — the piffle, the urbanity, the cleverness, the suffering, and the deep love he has for Harriet Vane. It is all just about perfect. Thank you, DLS.

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