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A review by mschlat
Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
4.0
It's sad to finish off the series, but reading all the Sayers Wimsey books has been one of the most fulfilling reading experiences I've had in some time.
After some excellent early chapters that recount Peter's and Harriet's engagement and marriage, the book quickly moves to a more standard domestic murder case. Here, the house the Wimseys have bought and are using for their honeymoon has a corpse in it, and the characters and suspects are the village folk Sayers has explored before (say, in [b:The Nine Tailors|126675|The Nine Tailors (Lord Peter Wimsey, #9)|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353285546l/126675._SY75_.jpg|2795358]). Sayers slows down the narrative quite a bit just before and during the discovery of the deceased, and the result I found a bit claustrophobic compared to the expansiveness in tone of the previous volume [b:Gaudy Night|93575|Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey, #10)|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388197565l/93575._SY75_.jpg|341789]. Quite frankly, it's a smaller mystery, and I somewhat resented the focus on it over the newlyweds.
What redeems and elevates the volume is Sayers' exploration of Peter. Where [b:Gaudy Night|93575|Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey, #10)|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388197565l/93575._SY75_.jpg|341789] highlighted Harriet and wonderfully explicated her as a person, here Sayers returns to the early history of Wimsey and Bunter (alluded to in [b:Whose Body?|192893|Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey, #1)|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387573241l/192893._SY75_.jpg|1090544]) and builds the Wimseys' newly formed union through Peter's willingness to expose his vulnerabilities. It's a rare detective novel that shows the psychological toll crime solving can have, and Sayers covers it beautifully.
After some excellent early chapters that recount Peter's and Harriet's engagement and marriage, the book quickly moves to a more standard domestic murder case. Here, the house the Wimseys have bought and are using for their honeymoon has a corpse in it, and the characters and suspects are the village folk Sayers has explored before (say, in [b:The Nine Tailors|126675|The Nine Tailors (Lord Peter Wimsey, #9)|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353285546l/126675._SY75_.jpg|2795358]). Sayers slows down the narrative quite a bit just before and during the discovery of the deceased, and the result I found a bit claustrophobic compared to the expansiveness in tone of the previous volume [b:Gaudy Night|93575|Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey, #10)|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388197565l/93575._SY75_.jpg|341789]. Quite frankly, it's a smaller mystery, and I somewhat resented the focus on it over the newlyweds.
What redeems and elevates the volume is Sayers' exploration of Peter. Where [b:Gaudy Night|93575|Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey, #10)|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388197565l/93575._SY75_.jpg|341789] highlighted Harriet and wonderfully explicated her as a person, here Sayers returns to the early history of Wimsey and Bunter (alluded to in [b:Whose Body?|192893|Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey, #1)|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387573241l/192893._SY75_.jpg|1090544]) and builds the Wimseys' newly formed union through Peter's willingness to expose his vulnerabilities. It's a rare detective novel that shows the psychological toll crime solving can have, and Sayers covers it beautifully.