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The Late Scholar (Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane, #4)

Jill Paton Walsh

Start date: April 20, 2017

Finish date: April 28, 2017

Discussion: Buddy reads

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What Members Thought

Jan 25, 2024 Adrian rated it really liked it

Shelves: detectives-buddy-lpw-2022-23, zz-e-book

English Mysteries Group Buddy Read of all Lord Peter Stories 2022/23/24 - Final Book 4.5 stars

So this is the final book in the series that has taken us from 2022 through to January 2024, from a young Dorothy L Sayers writing her first Lord Peter story in 1922 ( one hundred years ago) to Jill Paton Walsh picking up the baton with the blessing of the Dorothy L Sayers estate and writing her fourth and final Lord Peter novel in 2013, ninety years after the series started.

They have all in their way b English Mysteries Group Buddy Read of all Lord Peter Stories 2022/23/24 - Final Book 4.5 stars

So this is the final book in the series that has taken us from 2022 through to January 2024, from a young Dorothy L Sayers writing her first Lord Peter story in 1922 ( one hundred years ago) to Jill Paton Walsh picking up the baton with the blessing of the Dorothy L Sayers estate and writing her fourth and final Lord Peter novel in 2013, ninety years after the series started.

They have all in their way been fun and very enjoyable, admittedly some have been better than others, and in my view, this was certainly one of the good ones. Set in the early 1950s, Lord Peter, now 17th Duke of Denver is tasked by tradition to oversee and cast a vote in relation to a problem at one of the Oxford colleges, the fictional St Severins, where the Duke of Denver is the "Visitor of the college".
Accompanied by Harriet his wife, herself an Oxford undergraduate, they arrive at St Severins to find things are even worse than they thought; The Warder has disappeared, some of the recent deaths of the fellows are quite suspicious and the atmosphere in college is in a bad way due to the polarisation of all the fellows over selling a rare book to purchase farmland.

This book depicts extremely well, life in the early 50s and life for the fellows, masters and undergraduates of an Oxford college. I remember how things were in the 60s in Britain and this is not that far removed in time, so in some ways seems familiar to me. In addition I myself was due to go to Oxford in the late 70s, but cried off for various reasons that now seem unimportant. Luckily my middle son put things right and got his MA from Wolfson College as a postgraduate, one of the relatively newer Oxford colleges.

Anyway, as ever His Grace with the aid of Harriet, the ever loyal Bunter and Sir Charles Parker (his brother in law) battle their way through the red herrings and misinformation to a successful conclusion.

I shall certainly miss Lord Peter and the other regular characters, and hope to one day come back to these thoroughly enjoyable novels by these two talented writers. ...more

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Nov 02, 2022 Leslie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, mysteries

3.5*

While the mystery was very good, Walsh doesn't quite seem to hit the mark with Sayers' characters, especially that of Lord Peter Wimsey. No regrets about reading this book (particularly as I already had a copy via my Mom's kindle) but I doubt that I will reread it... ...more

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