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This is the third book in the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery series.*
As the story opens, a country doctor is telling Lord Peter Wimsey about the Unnatural Death of one of his patients. He’s convinced she was murdered, but powerless to act. To begin with, she would in any case have died within a few months. Moreover, the medical evidence clearly indicated the cause of death as heart failure, which was only to be expected.
Intrigued, Lord Peter looks into the matter, supported – as usual – by his friend Chief Inspector Parker of Scotland Yard, and his valet, Bunter (both recurring characters in the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery series).
New to the author’s cast of detective characters is Miss Alexandra Katharine Climpson, a prim, middle aged spinster who lends both charm and variety to the narrative. To Lord Peter, Miss Climpson represents an important but consistently overlooked national resource: post-war England’s thousands of “superfluous females,” with their uncanny facility for finding things out. His explanation is as follows: We gather intelligence by “employing a man with large flat feet,” who communicates “in a series of inarticulate grunts,” instead of sending out “a lady with a long, woolly jumper … and jingly things round her neck …” who could discover far more, and probably faster, since “everyone expects of course she asks questions.” Certainly Miss Climpson does.
The latter part of the book is fast-paced, action-packed and suspenseful, as Inspector Parker, Mr. Bunter, Miss Climpson and Lord Peter pursue various lines of inquiry that ultimately join to explain why and how the murders were done.
*Whose Body? and Clouds of Witness are the first two Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. -Summary by Kirsten Wever