The Five Red Herrings (Lord Peter Wimsey, #7)

by Dorothy L. Sayers

The road from Kirkcudbright to Newton-Stewart is of a varied loveliness hard to surpass, and with a sky full of bright sun and rolling cloud-banks, hedges filled with flowers, a well-made road, a lively engine and the prospect of a good corpse at the end of it, Lord Peter’s cup of happiness was full. He was a man who loved simple pleasures.

‘I think there are more bicycles per head of the population in Kirkcudbright than in any town I ever struck,’ said Wimsey. ‘That’s because we’re all so hardworking and poor.’ ‘Just so. Nothing is so virtuous as a bicycle. You can’t imagine a bicyclist committing a crime, can you?