Dorothy L Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh, A presumption of death

The second of the Jill Paton Walsh ‘creations’ of a Dorothy L Sayers novel – this time drawn from a series of wartime sketches rather than an existing plot outline.

At one level, this is a reasonable pastiche – it draws upon the Paggleford characters established in Busman’s Honeymoon, and also makes use of the devices employed in previous novels – the letters between main characters, lengthy literary quotations, and the written precis of evidence available to Lord Peter when he returns from unspecified diplomatic work abroad. 

This faithfulness to the canon is also one of the weaknesses – there is no suggestion of the ways in which the relationship between Peter and Harriet might have developed since Busman’s Honeymoon, or even, Paton Walsh’s previous ‘Sayers’ novel, Thrones, Dominations. Indeed, with Peter (and Bunter) away for much of the novel, the relationships that are at the heart of the Sayers novels are sidelined.

The wartime setting both gives leeway for the plot (an under-resourced wartime police force inviting Harriet to help) and also brings its own awkward cliches, e.g. the Duke recognising talent across the class when pressed into contact with the evacuees billeted with him.

The book tries hard – I can’t be more positive or damning than that.