Time for another Golden Age Mystery! The Moving Toyshop reminded me that I haven’t read a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery in a while, so when I was at the library I picked up a copy of Strong Poison.

Strong Poison starts with the trial of Harriet Vane, who is accused of poisoning her ex-lover. Unfortunately for Wimsey, he has fallen in love with Harriet while watching her during the trial. Fortunately for Wimsey, Harriet is set to have a retrial (due to a hung jury), and he now has the opportunity to prove her innocence and convince her to marry him.

As far as Insta-Love plots go, this one is really bad. At least Christie has her characters interact before deciding they are in love; here, Wimsey decides that he’s in love and then talks to Harriet. But thankfully, I’ve already gotten used to Wimsey being whimsical, so this didn’t bother me too much. Instead, I decided to just accept this excuse for Wimsey to investigate and follow the case.

The case itself is pretty interesting. Apart from ten minutes which the victim was unaccounted for, all the evidence points to Harriet as being the murderer. But, Wimsey has his ways, and one of his ways includes his “cattery” or undercover agents. I really enjoyed the people in this agency and I hope that I get to see more of them in future mysteries.

What struck me the most was the humour in this. I’m probably being unfair to Gervase Fen, but I really enjoyed Strong Poison because I thought it was funny. Sayers did a great job of being Wodehouse-like in this book (with a direct reference to Jeeves as well) and I found the story to be fun and funny (murder aside; murder isn’t that funny). I’m not going to quote it because it’d be too long, but Wimsey discussing why the jury hung tickled my funny bone.

I can’t remember offhand if I’ve already read a mystery where Harriet makes an appearance, but from what I can tell, she seems to be a good match for Wimsey and a fun character. As long as Bunter is happy with this marriage, I’m excited to continue reading the Wimsey mysteries and see how Harriet is going to contribute.

Overall, this was a great mystery and a fun return back to the world that Sayers created. It also has the side effect of making me feel like reading another Gervase Fen mystery, to see if the whimsy world of Edmund Crispin will grow on me the same way Wimsey has.