I like Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries; Wimsey is sophisticated, witty and has a knack for solving crimes, he collaborates with Scotland Yard detective Charles Parker, Solving the murder in Clouds of Witness is complicated by the fact that it is Wimsey’s older brother, who is accused of the murder, refuses to provide an alibi. I thought the solution was overly complicated and convoluted with a recap at the end that seemed like filler. But…I look forward to the rest of the series to see the development of relationships eluded to in the story.

I wouldn’t consider these light, cozy mysteries as the subject matter involves an abusive husband and relationships that were considered scandalous in the time period. Her books are fairly progressive considering they were written in the 1920’s and 30’s. ( )

Clouds of Witness - Sayers
Audio performance by Jonathan Keeble
4 stars

This is the second book featuring Lord Peter Whimsey. Lord Peter’s brother, the Duke of Denver, has been arrested for the murder of their younger sister’s fiance. The book is full of severely reserved, stiff-upper-lip family drama. The elaborate, historic rituals of the murder trial are set against the background of post WW1 societal changes.

It’s been at least 25 years since I last read this book which was originally published in 1926. I think it’s held up well over time. I enjoyed Lord Peter’s irreverent patter and his mother’s batty monologues. There were plenty of red herrings in this investigation that I’d completely forgotten. I continue to believe that the solution of the murder is too convenient, but that was never the most important aspect of the story. ( )

Highly entertaining mystery romp. If you enjoy golden age stuff you'll enjoy this for sure. The characters aren't super well developed or anything but they're clear and it's hard to get lost with who's who - importantly, Peter Wimsey himself is pretty stand out. The dialogue is good and sometimes is actually pretty funny. The plot goes through a bunch of twists and you never feel ahead or behind compared to the characters, although looking back you can definitely see hints and stuff and nothing comes completely out of nowhere (not sure if you could solve it but I've never been good at that anyway). The ending is satisfying and the depiction of the trial of a lord is fun - it's a cool thing to add to an otherwise "straight" mystery book - and it's all relatively light hearted. Not a work of literary genius but an excellent example of the type and something you'll have a good time reading.

(There's a bit of attacking of socialists but it makes sense given all the main characters are upper class and I'm cool with it because it contained a funny and pretty accurate example of the way sometimes people romanticise the poor. The politics of detective novels would make an interesting book in themselves) ( )

I found Clouds Of Witness to be a very mixed bag. It has a chaotic feel to it as if the energy of the eccentric and well-drawn characters keeps pressing against the confines of the exposition of the slightly over-complicated plot.

Some parts of it sparkle. I love the way Wimsey uses words as both a shield and a sword. When he first appears, he finds the shooting party at breakfast, knows that they've been speaking about him and unleashes a torrent of knowing commentary, an effortless domination of the room, all achieved with a breezy we're all good chaps here tone that it's hard to take offence at but which can't be mistaken for affability.

I also love the way his mother talks when she's sharing her thoughts. You can see her mind working as she pursues her thoughts in a rush of words that tumble like a pack of hounds chasing a fox and which she keeps trying to discipline through half-remembered quotations and verbal footnotes. It ought to sound as if she's babbling but instead, it displays a sharp, well-educated mind forming patterns from the available data.

The characters, even those whose role in the plot is minor, thrum with life. Their voices sound true on the ear. Their foibles, habits and manners are captured with actuely observed without being commented on. I loved the adroit concise, incisive and amusing descriptions of the reasons why the members of the shooting party are angry and unhappy at breakfast on the Sunday morning after the inquest. It made me smile and it helped me see each of them more clearly.

The plot was fairly sound. Everything worked and it delivered a few surprises along the way but it lost a little credibility by depending on so many people deciding independently to do covert and uncharacteristic things in the early hours of a particular morning.

Some of the plot exposition was clumsy, by modern standards. The way the inquest was reported using transcripts enhanced with notes from the police rather than from the point of view of one of the people present shows how conventions in novels have changed over the past ninety-seven years. The KC's closing argument in the trial in the House Of Lords went on so long that I suspect some of their Lordships may have dozed through parts of it.

The action scenes, which included shots fired, death-defying flights and perilous encounters on the moors felt a little frantic, like something from a comic book.

Another sign of how expectations around novels have changed since 1926 is the way French is used in the text. Most of the short sentences in French are not translated and a long letter, that is key to the plot, is included in its entirety before the translation is g8iven. It seems that Dorothy L Sayers assumed that her readers would be able to read French with ease.

Reading Clouds Of Witness after having read later novels like Strong Poison (1930), The Nine Tailors (1934) and Gaudy Night (1935), I was aware of how brightly Dorothy Sayers' raw talent shone through and how much she had honed her skills over the next decade. ( )

I thought this book was fantastic, it pulled me in right away and kept me glued. Unfortunately the author felt the need at the end of the book to recap, step by step, the circumstances surrounding the crime. On the audiobook this lasted a full 25 minutes! It's as if the author was so concerned that readers grasp the full extent and intricacies of the plot that she couldn't just trust us to remember what had happened, but instead had to beat us over the head with a monologue summary. It absolutely left a bad last impression of an otherwise great book. Docking 2 full stars out of supreme irritation. ( )