Have His Carcase Part II Spoilers

Harriet has to stay in Wilvercombe to help the police with their enquiries. She learns that the dead man (whose body has been washed off by the tides) is Paul Alexis, a professional dancing partner who works at one of the big hotels. At the hotel, she meets an older woman, Mrs Weldon, who turns out to be engaged to Paul. She is in her late 50s and he was only 22. At first, the case looks like suicide. Peter Wimsey arrives in Wilvercombe and he and Harriet work together. The mystery is a very complicated one and rather melodramatic, which is one reason I don’t think it is one of Sayers’ best. They learn that Mrs Weldon was a lonely widow with one son, Henry, and had fallen in love with Paul. So they planned to marry. However Henry Weldon, who is a rather crude and stupid individual, was not happy at the idea of his mother making a fool of herself by marrying a man 30 years her junior who was penniless. Harriet tries to befriend Mrs Weldon, though she thinks of her as foolish and wrong minded. But Harriet herself is also considered a suspect when it begins to look like Paul Alexis might have been murdered. She and Wimsey argue and their friendship comes under strain, because she feels that she has to be grateful to him all the time. The plot thickens, when Harriet and Peter learn that Alexis had a girlfriend, a silly girl called Leila. Leila tells them that he was fond of reading “Ruritanian romances” and that he got letters in code, sent from abroad. Eventually, it begins to look like Alexis was lured to his death by these letters, but other evidence seems to point to Henry Weldon being involved.