Anne's Reviews > Strong Poison

A mystery to die for.
Or so Harriet Vane must think since it's her neck that's on the line.



When mystery writer Harriet Vane's sensational murder trial ends in a hung jury, Lord Peter Wimsey lets out a sigh of relief and takes up the case. He believes Harriet is innocent, and more importantly, he's fallen in love with her while watching the proceedings.
Just go with it.



With only a month to go before the new trial gets underway, Lord Wimsey sets his considerable resources in action for the sole purpose of finding the real killer and saving (what he hopes will be) his fiancée from swinging from the gallows.



The skinny gist is that Vane was living in sin with the victim until they had a falling out. The argument stemmed from his deciding to make an honest woman of her and her telling him to go to the devil.
Turns out, he had only said he was opposed to marriage (which she wanted at first) to see if she would be loyal enough to live with him without the ring. She thought he was ideologically opposed to marriage and had agreed to live life with him on those terms. Finding out this was a plot to "determine her worthiness" rankled, and she kicked his ass to the curb.
The night of his death, he came back to beg her to take him back one more time, and that's when the police say she poisoned him.
But while it might look bleak, Lord Peter thinks there has to be another way the poison was introduced into his system.



I really enjoyed this one. The women of The Cattery were great, especially Miss Climpson. The seance she initiated to find the missing will was a highlight of the story.
Another thing I loved was Peter's response to Harriet when she pointed out that she was a fallen woman who had already had a lover, was to say that he'd had lovers in his past, too. And that he'd been told he was good at it! Though he had no proof due to the lack of an audience.
Pretty progressive for a book published in 1930.



A fun mystery - that's what I'm saying here.
Recommended.