I really liked the first Wimsey/Vane book ("Strong Poison"), but this one was a bit tedious by comparison. I picked it up to keep reading about the characters, but it turned into long slog to puzzle out a murder with much discussion of train times and ciphers. Figuring out the mystery with 75 pages to go didn't help matters. ( )

Far too many uses of the word "dago" for my liking. Otherwise it's a pretty solid and very clever golden age mystery but doesn't have that special something to lift it higher. The final twist is both logical and also made me go "come ON" at the book and start giggling hysterically. ( )

(37) I loved the way this one started with Harriet Vane finding the body atop a big rock on a stretch of lonely beach while on a 'walking tour' vacation. (I guess this was a thing.) Not able to move the body to prevent the tide from coming in and washing it away - she sleuths around taking pictures of the slit throat, and the razor blade found in the water, and walks on to report it to the police in the next little town she comes to. Before long the police and Lord Peter are involved and the dead man is identified as a 'gigolo' at a seaside hotel, who dances with rich old ladies. And apparently sometimes convinces them to marry. The mystery gets incredibly convoluted and as the body has been washed away - its hard to prove murder or suicide.

I do like the interplay between Harriet and Peter and enjoyed all the hashing out of the details of the alibis. Who was telling the truth? The pages devoted to guessing the cipher were a bit much, though I did like the Romanov family tree twist. All in all it was definitely a good installment. Probably my biggest complaint is that they finally cooked up a story that made sense and then the novel just ... ended. Harriet and Peter literally say - lets go have lunch in Piccadilly square and leave this little town. I think a bit of a description of the aftermath and corroborating the theory was in order. ( )

paperback

Tras ser absuelta del asesinato de su amante en Veneno Mortal, Harriet Vane, la famosa escritora de novelas policíacas, se tomas unas vacaciones para meditar sobre su futuro. A mediados de un esplendoroso mes de junio, decide hacer una excursión por la costa sudoeste de Inglaterra. En una de esas playas desiertas, tan sólo frecuentadas por gaviotas y albatros, se sienta a comer. Tras una agradable siesta prosigue su paseo por la playa hasta dar con algo inesperado: el cuerpo sin vida de un hombre degollado.