3.5*

While the mystery was very good, Walsh doesn't quite seem to hit the mark with Sayers' characters, especially that of Lord Peter Wimsey. No regrets about reading this book (particularly as I already had a copy via my Mom's kindle) but I doubt that I will reread it... ( )

The mystery was partly well developed and partly just crazy... but the academia stuff about the medieval book was fun and Lord Peter and Harriet are always a joy. ( )

I was so excited to read this newest book in the series, especially since I have enjoyed what Jill Paton Walsh brings to these well loved characters.

Unfortunately,

1: I didn't love the audiobook reader -- the past ones were tremendous, and this guy just wasn't. Also, gave Bunter an accent that I found highly irritating.

2: If you're going to write an original piece, write an original piece. Basing the murders off Peter's previous cases (now described as Harriet Vane's books) turns this book into a greatest hits of Sayer's murders. I'm reading these books because I already know Sayer's work, so this just felt like it was leaning on previous work too heavily.

3: Boy howdy did this need editing! Constant repetitions of phrases, rehashing things over and over again -- the reader is reading this book, you don't need to constantly revisit the things we have already read. Also, retire the phrase "When you know how, you know who" -- yes, it's famous Wimsey phrase. It's used in every book. In this book, it becomes a touchstone and is used at minimum 5 times. Enough, already!

4: Extremely disappointed at the ethnic slurs against the Japanese. Just because Sayers used bigoted language as a product of her times, doesn't mean that tradition needs to continue. I understand that this book is set within close memory of WWII, but especially given that the vignette where this occurs is talking about how the professor wanted to move past the war and find peace with wartime enemies, it felt unnecessary.

I loved spending time with Peter and Harriet again, I loved seeing them in Oxford and learning about obscure customs like the Visitor. I loved seeing the way their family is continuing to grow -- all of that was a delight. I wish Walsh would stand on her own feet -- keep the characters, tell us a new story. I think she's picked up the mantle really well, but there comes a time to build new rather than reconstruct the old. Honestly, I'd love it if future books move around in the timeline-- even if uncomfortable with setting mysteries in times where Sayers has already been, it was a pretty big time leap between A Presumption of Death and The Attenbury Emeralds. There's space to tell us more stories set in the prime of their married life, and there's space to show more of the Bunters as well. I suppose I shouldn't let my disappointments overwhelm my gratitude -- I am grateful that this series continues. I am grateful for Walsh's careful and beautiful writing setting scenes and working through complicated puzzles. That part is wonderful. ( )

I love how Jill Paton Walsh has given us more of Wimsey and Vane. In this one, they return to Oxford, a place with both good and horrible memories, to deal with a group of scholars at war with themselves. As part of his new role as Duke of Denver, he is the Visitor of St. Severin's college. The dispute comes down the sale of a potentially valuable manuscript in order to purchase some land to develop. The scholars are split between selling or not sell, and appeal to the Duke to solve it for them. However, once they arrive they find the conflict is far uglier than Peter and Harriet expect, including a murder. ( )

The Late Scholar - Jill Paton Walsh
3 stars

I started reading Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries in the early 1980s. She quickly became one of my favorite authors. I loved the British setting, the literary repartee between her characters, the complexity of her mysteries and the feminist slant that Harriet Vane introduced to her later novels. When Jill Paton Walsh began to continue the series, I didn’t think she could pull it off. But, she did, beautifully, in the first two of her books. In this one; not so much.

In this post WWII story, the aging Harriet and Peter, now the Duke and Duchess of Denver, return to the Oxford of their past. What begins as a tedious aristocratic chore is quickly complicated by a series of attacks and murders. (No big surprise.) Sadly, the murderer seems to be a fan of Ms Vane’s murder mysteries and the deaths begin to mirror the plots of her popular books.

The idea had so much potential. Unfortunately, it lacked the intricate plotting and character development needed to carry it off. It quickly deteriorated into a name dropping, homecoming of characters from previous books. Worse, Paton Walsh did not even attempt to appropriately age characters who appeared in books set in the 1930’s. Seriously, women who were in late middle age in 1935 are unlikely to still be actively teaching in the late 1950s. Also, Sayers’ Miss DeVine (who was pivotal in Gaudy Night), would never have committed the social faux pas that Paton Walsh placed in her mouth.

I am a disappointed fan. In her previous book, The Attenbury Emeralds, Paton Walsh was, as they say, completely spot on. This book was only mildly entertaining, when it wasn’t terribly annoying.
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