Lord Peter Wimsey is a British gentleman detective, the younger son of an aristocratic family. His hobby is investigating crimes and collecting first editions and incunabula (books printed before 1501). He works at times with Chief-Inspector Charles Parker of Scotland Yard and Mervyn Bunter, his sometimes cranky manservant.
My motivation to reread Strong Poison peaked when I purchased a copy of Haunted Honeymoon (this is the US title of the film), the 1940 film adaptation of Busman's Honeymoon. I thought that the first book that Harriet appears in would work well as a re-introduction to the Peter / Harriet books. I was right, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Both Have His Carcase and Gaudy Night are much longer books than Strong Poison, and Gaudy Night places much more emphasis on characters than the mystery, which is fine but not what I was looking for. The advantage of those two later books are that Harriet and Peter work together in the detection, whereas in this one Harriet isn't available and they don't even have too many scenes together. Of course, if you haven't read any of them, you should read this one first for sure.
Harriet Vane has been accused of murder; Peter has been following her trial and does not believe that she is guilty. The first trial has a hung jury, so a new trial begins. From my point of view, the evidence is all circumstantial and I don't see how it gets as far as it does, but I don't understand the legalities involved. The reason Harriet is the prime (indeed, really the only) suspect is that she had written a book using the same method of poisoning to kill the victim, and she had acquired arsenic as research for her book. So she can be proved to have some of the necessary poison. The victim was also her lover and they had a bitter break up earlier, so there is the motive. In addition to having a strong belief in Harriet's innocence, Lord Peter has fallen in love with her. So he sets out to find out who really did the deed.
I relished this book because it featured so many characters that I have liked in the series. The Dowager Duchess (Lord Peter's mother), Chief-Inspector Parker (who has been dithering over getting serious about Peter's sister because he thought he wasn't good enough for the family), and Bunter, who feels a bit threatened by Peter's attraction to Harriet. Miss Climpson gets a very good role, helping out tremendously in gathering evidence. Another very strong point in its favor is Harriet’s reaction to Peter’s proposal while she is in jail. It is priceless.Strong Poison, while shorter than the next two Peter / Harriet books, was still a bit long and I would have liked to see the investigation (or the telling of it) move a bit faster, but it was worth it in the end. I am pretty sure this book is different from most others in the series in that Lord Peter has to sit on the sidelines and direct others in doing jobs for him to work towards clearing Harriet. I look forward to reading Busman's Honeymoon soon, even though I have now discovered that it too is a bit on the longish side.
Check these posts for more detail on the plot and characters and other views: at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist..., Carol's Notebook, RogerBW's Blog, Reactions to Reading, My Reader's Block, Clothes in Books, and Lady Business.
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Publisher: Avon Books, 1967 (orig. publ. 1930).
Length: 192 pages (of very tiny print)
Format: Paperback
Series: Peter Wimsey, #6
Setting: UK
Genre: Mystery
Source: I purchased my copies.
Publisher: Avon Books, 1967 (orig. publ. 1930).
Length: 192 pages (of very tiny print)
Format: Paperback
Series: Peter Wimsey, #6
Setting: UK
Genre: Mystery
Source: I purchased my copies.
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