Gaudy Night

Gaudy Night: Lord Peter Wimsey #10 

By Dorothy L Sayers

Bourbon Street Books, 2012. 528 pages. Mystery

Harriet Vane's Oxford reunion is shadowed by a rash of bizarre pranks and malicious mischief that include beautifully worded death threats, burnt effigies and vicious poison-pen letters, and Harriet finds herself and Lord Peter Wimsey challenged by an elusive set of clues.

This has long been my favorite novel, and I read it once a year. All of the Peter Wimsey mysteries are delightful, with an impressive eye to detail, and the stories that feature Harriet Vane (#8 on) are especially good. These are from the "Golden Age" of mystery, the first Peter Wimsey novel was published in 1923. Gaudy Night is a mystery, but it is so much more: a discussion of women's roles, academia vs. domesticity, as well as an intelligent romance. It also provides a fascinating glimpse into Oxford of the 1930s. I recommend the whole series, but if I had to pick just one, this would be it! 

If you like Gaudy Night, you might also like

An Oxford Murder

By G.G. Vandagriff

Orson Whitney Press, 2019. 253 pages. Mystery

When Catherine Tregowyn, poet, and Dr. Harry Bascombe, her bête noire, discover a body in the Somerville College chapel, they are declared suspects in a murder inquiry, and must launch their own investigation.

Maisie Dobbs   

By Jaqueline Winspear

Penguin Books, 2004. 294 pages. Mystery

Maisie Dobbs isn't just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence--and the patronage of her benevolent employers--she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.

MGB