Since I had a pretty good experience with Lord Peter Wimsey with Whose Body?, better than my first Lord Wimsey book, I decided to borrow another Lord Peter Wimsey mystery. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is the fourth book in the series where a question of inheritance soon turns into a question of murder.

As the title indicates, the book starts at the Bellona Club. One of their veteran members has been found dead. It wouldn’t be much of a shock, given that General Fentiman was 90 years old and had a weak heart, but because his sister also died at about the same time, the timing of General Fentiman’s death because vitally important. If he dies first, his sister’s fortune goes mainly to a distant relative. If she dies first, her fortune goes to General Fentiman and from him to his (struggling) grandsons. With large sums of money at stake, Lord Peter is called in to investigate. He soon finds that death may not have come naturally to General Fentiman and turns his attention to investigating a murder.

This was pretty fun and I think I enjoyed more than Whose Body. I’ve more-or-less gotten used to the flippant nature of Lord Peter (it’s rather endearing now) and the mystery was very interesting. I’m not going to spoil the book, but I liked the two-part nature of the murder and I found the conclusion to be convincing.

But what I thought was most interesting was the relationship between two minor characters: George and Sheila Fentiman. At first, their relationship looks fairly typical for books in the Golden Age of detective fiction, if with a higher dose of chauvinism than normal, but it soon becomes apparently that the two are doing their best to hold things together. George has been scarred by the war and can’t hold down a job. And because of the way he was brought up, he isn’t comfortable with the fact that Sheila has to step up. Their relationship is rocky at times, but the affection between the two was pretty clear and I appreciated the fact that the book added in this realism, even though it takes away from the light-hearted nature of Lord Peter.

Overall, this was a fun read. I’m definitely getting used to the world of Lord Peter Wimsey and starting to enjoy this series. I’ll definitely be returning to Sayers sometime in the future.