"The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club" by Dorothy L Sayers

On Armistice Day, Lord Peter is at the Bellona club when one of the older members is found dead in his armchair. But when did he die? If it was before 10.36 he predeceased his sister and so the bulk of her fortune goes to her niece. If it was after 10.36 her fortune would have passed, through him, to his grandsons, both of whom were in the club. Can Lord Peter, assisted by the trusted Bunter and Scotland Yard detective Charles Parker, solve the mystery? And is there any evidence of foul play? Of course there is!


Some great quotes

• “The planet’s tyrant, dotard Death, had held his gray mirror before them for a moment and shown them the image of things to come.” (C 2)
• “If nobody saw him, he can't have been here.” (C 9)
• “Books, you know, Charles, are like lobster shells. We surround ourselves with ‘em, and then we grow out of ‘em, and leave ‘em behind, as evidences of our earlier stages of development.” (C 18)
• “Birth is beastly - and death - and digestion, if it comes to that. Sometimes when I think of what happening inside me to a beautiful suprème de sole, with the caviare in boats, and the croûtons and the jolly little twists of potato and all the gadgets - I could cry.” (C 20)

I have set myself the task of reading all the Lord Peter Wimsey novels (mostly again) in order. The ones I have read and reviewed in this blog so far include:

• Whose Body in which my Lord and his manservant are introduced
• Clouds of Witness in which Lord Peter must sleuth to get his brother Gerald, Duke of Denver, off a murder charge
• Unnatural Death which introduces another Wimsey sidekick: Miss Climpson
• The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
• Strong Poison which introduces Harriet Vane, a detective writer who becomes Lord Peter's love interest
• The Five Red Herrings; Lord Peter in Scotland
• Have His Carcase: Harriet and Peter investigate the death of a gigolo with dreams

There are also Wimsey books written since the death of DLS by Jill Paton Walsh. These include:

• The Attenbury Emeralds in which Lord Peter, in 1951, recalls the circumstances of his first case, the Attenbury Emeralds, which have gone missing again.
• The Late Scholar: in which Wimsey returns to Oxford

September 2019; 245 pages