Unknown Ajax Part V

Hugo tells his grandfather that he's willing to put some of his money into the estate, as he can see that it's needed, and he wants things better managed. He knows he will have to learn about farming and estate management and he's happy to do so. He wants to move into the Dower House with Anthea, but they both wonder if the butler who is living there, is using it to help smugglers. Then drama begins to happen. Hugo and the family are playing billiards when Richmond comes back to the house, with his face blackened and with a gunshot wound. He reveals that he has indeed been smuggling. He was so fed up with his life that he didn't care -he would do anything to make his life less oppressive. Hugo is shocked but not surprised, but thinks the main thing is to conceal Richmond's behaviour from the law. He rigs up a plan where Richmond pretends that he's drunk, and Claud wears Richmond's bloodstained clothes. Claud claims that he is the one who was shot. He says that he ran away when the Dragoons chased him, because he feared they were the family of his village flirt, Eliza coming after him - and when he ran, he was shot by the Dragoons.. Ottershaw can't prove that it was Richmond who was shot - and Claud's acting is enough to fool anyone, so he has to retire. Lord Darracott realises that his possessive and foolish behaviour has caused Richmond to behave foolishly and recklessly, and he agrees that when his grandson is recovered, he will let him join the army. Richmond goes away to recover, and Hugo says that when he's better, he will get him into his old regiment. Hugo and Anthea are relieved that Richmond's problems are solved now, and that they can marry and take over the Darracott estate. The love story is of less importance in this novel than the smuggling story, but it has a lot of humour with Hugo's teasing his relatives by talking broad Yorkshire.....

Unknown Ajax Part IV

Hugo fears that the Darracotts' attitude to smuggling may result in problems, as he can see that the young Riding officer is very keen on his job and determined to stamp out the practice and he's not worried about the fact that the Darracotts are upper class. Anthea tells him that her family don't have anything to do with the trade but if they found brandy in one of their barns they would turn a blind eye. She and Hugo are getting on better, and Hugo gets on well with Lady Aurelia, Matthew's bossy but intelligent wife, and spends time with her 2 sons. Vincent does not like him, but Claud has been told to help Hugo with fitting into society, and he enjoys the task, correcting Hugo's grammar and manners. Hugo is concerned about Richmond, and feels that its not natural for a boy of 18 to lead such restricted life, having to placate his grandfather all the time. He feels the boy is secretive and that he's up to some mischief. Hugo is increasingly drawn towards Anthea and tells her he is in love with her.. she reminds him of his engagement and he admits that it was an invention on his part. He claimed to be engaged to a young Yorkshire girl, because he felt worried that he was being pressured into marriage at their grandfather's order. Meanwhile, Claud begins a flirtation with a village girl, whose family are inclined to radical views. Anthea is increasingly attracted by Hugo, realising that he's a very decent and kindly person, but then the family receive startling news. His grandfather, Mr Bray was not a weaver but a former weaver who got on well and made a fortune, inventing machinery, and who ended up a mill owner. Lord Darracott is furious, but Hugo tells him that he himself acted like a plain simple Yorkshire man, because he was annoyed at how the family seemed to expect him to be an illiterate rustic. He went to Harrow and while he did still have a bit of Yorkshire accent, he was reared as a rich man's son. Anthea is very upset by the news, as she fears that people will say she is marrying Hugo because he is very wealthy, but he tries to reassure her.

Unknown Ajax Part III

Hugo is pressed by his grandfather to spend time with Anthea, who takes him around the estate and the house. He can see the estate is very run down, and needs money spent on it. Anthea tells him that Lord Darracott is totally selfish and won't do anything. He is fond of Richmond but it's a selfish affection. He wants to keep him at home, and won't let him do anything that he wants, except in trivial matters. He will spend money on himself and on Richmond, but he won't waste money making the house more comfortable or improving the farms. Hugo feels that if Richmond would like to be a soldier, it would be good for him, rather than leading an idle life and not having a worthwhile occupation. Richmond is supposed to be preparing for University but it's clear that he is not at all interested in this. Then Hugo lets it slip to Anthea that he has a beautiful ladylove, in Yorkshire, to whom he is engaged. Anthea is taken aback, as her cousin reveals that he proposed before Waterloo, and that was 2 years ago, but he hasn't been home since then and does not know if she is waiting for him, because she is not a lady of quality and can't write. He admits that he knows that his grandfather will be furious that he is engaged to a woman of the lower orders, even if she is a beauty. Anthea and Richmond take Hugo to see Richmond's boat. They meet a Riding officer on the way, who is there to stop smuggling... and Hugo is shocked to find that Kent and Sussex people are pretty casual about the anti smuggling laws. Most people in the area are involved in it at some level or buy the goods brought in. He can see that Ottershaw the Riding officer is very keen on his work, and it worries him that the Darracotts are so indifferent about the breaking of the law.

Unknown Ajax Part II

Matthew arrives with his wife and sons. He is furious that his father let him believe he was the next heir and now he's been cut out by this young man. His elder son, Vincent, is a selfish rake, and a gambler, and he too is annoyed. Claud, the second son, is a dandy who tries to create fashion trends but is not very original. He likes women, but is afraid of matchmaking mothers so he usualy flirts with girls from the lower classes who are not likely to seek marriage. He is good natured and not very clever, and has inherited a small fortune from a relative. Vincent does not get on with him because he resents Claud having money, and because he finds his innocuous trifling with young women ridiculous. He is also sardonically amused at Claud's attempts to develop fashionable quirks, such as a shovel for taking snuff. Richmond is eager to meet his cousin, and the family are surprised when Hugh, known as Hugo turns up. He is a big sturdily built man in his late 20s, and he seems amiable and shy. Mrs Darracott takes a liking to him, feeling sorry for him. She understands that it must be difficult for him, to come from a modest background and suddenly having to cope with a new family and a new rank of society. She also does not fit in too well with the Darracotts, being gentle and shy, so she sympathises with him. However they are surprised when he talks with a broad Yorkshire accent and seems incredibly placid and gentle for someone who has been in the army. He startles the family at dinner by mentioning that he has been in prison. It comes out that he was a prisoner of war, during his army service. Lord Darracott severely discourages him from talking about his background in Yorkshire, and also from talking about his army service, in case it encourages Richmond to want to go into the military. Hugo is shaken when his grandfather tells him that it would be a good idea if he married his cousin Anthea, who is 22. She knows the estate and could help him fit in with upper class ways. Anthea is furious when she learns about this plan. She has not taken to Hugo, who seems absurdly good tempered. Mrs Darracott reminds her that she has only had 1 season in London and she did not get any suitable offers of marriage.. and she does not have much money, so her chances of marrying are slender.. Hugo might be her only chance.

Unknown Ajax Part I

This is one of the novels that it has taken me some time to warm up to. It is a very good work, more of an adventure story than a love story, but well written and funny. It starts in a manor house in Kent, where the Darracotts live. Old Lord Darracott is one of Heyer's tyrants, who is arrogant and selfish and quarrels with his family all the time. He is also mean about money, and only spends to please himself. He is not friendly with any of his neighbours. His widowed daughter in law, Elvira keeps house for him and he despises her. She lives on a small jointure, with her son Richmond and daughter, Anthea. Anthea is a pretty girl and much cleverer than her mother. Richmond is a rather spoilt boy, who loves all sports but because he was a rather delicate child, is coddled by his mother and grandfather. Lord Darracott is fond of him, and keeps him at home - refusing to let him consider the army, though Richmond would like to join up. Anthea loves her brother but considers him spoiled and fears that Lord Darracott's selfish affection will ruin him. The eldest son of the family, Granville, died recently, in a boating accident, together with his only son. So the family believe that the title will go to Matthew, the third son who is a politican and who lives in London. Mrs Darracott is the widow of the 4th son. However, they are amazed when they learn that there is another heir... Hugh. The Hon. Hugh Darracott was the old Lord's second son, a soldier who was killed in action many years earlier. Now they find that he had been married, and fathered a son, who is now the heir. Lord Darracott was enraged by the marriage, because he married a poor girl, a weaver's daughter, and he disowned his son. He never mentioned the marriage or the existence of the younger Hugh. He tried to see if he could keep Hugh out of inheriting the title but found that he could not. So now, Lord Darracott says that he has invited his grandson to stay. He hopes he can make him into a suitable successor. Anthea is none too happy, as she can see that she and her mother will be forced to help this young man to fit in to society. They learn that he's a soldier, amazingly, he is an officer in spite of his humble background. Lord Darracott also invites his son, Matthew, Matthew's wife, Lady Aurelia, and their 2 sons, Vincent and Claud. Matthew is a politician and live in London.

Charity Girl Part IV

Hetta is annoyed at hearing that Simon has made up this lie about her and Ashley, as engagements are a serious matter. She is afraid that it will look odd if it gets out that she and Ashley were engaged but broke things off. Moreover, she finds that Cherry has disappeared from the house. Charlie, Hetta's brother, had been a little attracted to her, as he is at home recovering from a riding accident. He has been laid up with broken ribs. Cherry has tried to push him away from flirting with her but Lady Silverdale who has become a bit irritated with the girl, tells her off for encouraging him. It is completely unfair but Lady Silverdale is often silly and unreasonable and prone to take up people and then see faults in them. Hetta is worried that Cherry has rushed out of the house in tears, and she does not come back. And Wilfred Steane is planning to call and see his long neglected daughter and she does not know how to explain the girl's disappearance. Then, Cary Nethercott turns up with Cherry in his arms. She had been out walking, trying to calm herself. She fell and sprained her ankle badly. Unable to get up, she was found by him when he was out shooting. He bandaged her ankle and took her back to Inglehurst. She tells Hetta that Cary has asked her to marry him. She wants to wed him as she has found him kindly and friendly when they met at parties at Inglehurst. Hetta can see that Cherry needs a kindly older man, who will look after her... and that Mr Nethercott likes to be protective. She is a little saddened that he seemed to be courting her only a few weeks earlier, and he has now changed in his affections. However, she has never been in love with Cary. Ashley arrives at Inglehurst and is relieved that Cherry is all right and her future is now taken care of. It seems that Cary is not put off by the girl's awful father.. Hetta tries to make a joke of the fact that she will have to be the one who breaks off their fake engagement. Then Ashley startles her by telling her that he loves her and that he did not realise it for a long time. He had become jealous of Cary Nethercott paying her attention and had grown closer to her while they were looking after Cherry. She accepts his proposal... and they embrace...... The story is quite good but there is not that much interaction between the hero and heroine, Ashley spends most of his time on the road trying to help Cherry, but it is enjoyable.

Charity Girl Part III

Ashley wonders if he could persuade Miss Fletching, headmistress of Cherry's old school, to give her a home. He would be willing to pay an allowance to keep her, but it would look very odd if it leaked out that he was paying for the upkeep of a girl who is no relation of his. Meanwhile Cary Nethercott is still visiting Hetta, and Ashley finds himself getting irritated with the man. He is kind and pleasant but rather stuffy. He too feels very sorry for Cherry. Lord Wroxton, his father pays a visit to the Silverdales, to see what the girl is like, having heard about Ashley becoming her champion. He can see that she is nothing like her dishonest father or her spiteful old grandfather. He feels some admiration for his son, having thought for a long time that Ashley showed little sign of responsibility. But now he is working hard to help someone. He tells his wife that if his son is becoming more sensible. If Ashley would get married and settle down, he would hand over a smaller estate, Hartsleigh to him. Lady Wroxton can see that Ashley is moving from friendship towards Hetta to being in love with her, and she hopes it won't be long before they can marry and move to the estate. Simon, Ashley's brother receives a visitor, who turns out to be Cherry's errant father Wilfred. Wilfred is clearly a selfish outrageous con man. He claims that he had to leave England because of money and legal troubles. Some of his activities include trying to raise money on post obit bonds, and getting young men drunk when they played cards so that he could win money from them. Now, he is back to look after his daughter - or so he claims. However when he learns that Ashley has involved himself in Cherry's affairs, he begins to make accusations that he is trying to seduce his daughter and that he will insist that they get married. Angry and unsure what to do, Simon tells Steane that Ashley took Cherry to stay with Hetta for safety and because he is engaged to her..... then he has to dash off to Hetta's home to let her know that he has told this fib.

Charity Girl Part II

Ashley stops and takes Cherry into his carriage, and she tells him that she's running away from her aunt's house and trying to get to London to see her elderly grandfather. He tells her that her grandfather is generally held to be a recluse and a hard hearted man. She knows that it's wrong to run away, but she is determined to leave. He can see that Lady Bugle and her cousins have been unkind to her and he can understand her wanting to escape. So he agrees to drive her to London. When they arrive in at Lord Nettlecombe's townhouse, he finds that the old man is not in his house, and nobody knows where he has gone. Nettlecombe is a hard man who has never cared much for anyone in his life; he has never been on good terms with his sons, and he did not care for his wife, who is now dead. He had had a major row with Wilfred Steane, Cherry's father, and disowned him. Some people in society felt that Steane was badly treated even though he was far from admirable himself. He seems to have left England many years ago, and Cherry thinks he may be dead. Her mother is also dead. She is not a very clever girl and is not sure how she can support herself if her father or grandfather don't help. She tells Ashley that she does have a talent for looking after sick old ladies. Ashley tells her he will take her to Hetta's house, to stay for a few days while he finds old Lord Nettlecombe. So he drives her to Inglehurst place, and Hetta and her mother take the girl in. Lady Silverdale is a moody lady, but she takes a fancy to Cherry and is willing to have her to stay for a short while. She is more willing to do this because she finds that Cherry's aunt is Lady Bugle, whom was a social rival of hers years ago. Ashley leaves her and goes to see Lord Nettlecombe, at his country seat. But it appears that the old man has let the house to a retired merchant. He sees Nettlecombe's lawyer, and finally the man lets slip that he has gone to Harrogate, the spa town. He travels there in a post chaise and finds the hotel where Nettlecombe is staying. Lord Nettlecombe is not willing to see him, nor to hear that his granddaughter is homeless and needs help. Then Ashley is startled to find that a rather over dressed lady comes in. Nettlecombe introduces her as his bride. She is his middle aged housekeeper, who was like Nettlecombe himself, very economical. He thought it would be cheaper to marry her than to continue to pay her. However, they have now just married, and Lady Nettlecombe is spending a lot of money on herself. Ashley is a little amused at the situation but he finds that he can't get the old man nor his wife to do anything for Cherry. The lady does offer to take her into the house. But she gives a strong hint that if they take her in, she will work for them. He tells them that he does not intend to have helped Cherry leave Lady Bugle's house, only to put her into a house where she will still be an unpaid servant. He leaves Yorkshire to go home. When he gets back, he finds that Hetta is worried about Cherry. Her mother, Lady Silverdale, is prone to take a liking to someone and then to find fault with her. She is starting to get a little picky with Cherry. The only solution seems to be to try and find her a job as a companion to an old lady.

Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer

Charity Girl is one of Heyers last novels, and it's a little like the Foundling, in that a lot of the story is about the hero helping a young girl, rather than courting his wife. Ashley, Lord Desford is visiting his father who is ill with gout. The old man is in a temper -annoyed that his eldest son shows no signs of settling down. Ashley has a fortune of his own, inherited from an aunt, so he is independent of his father and spends much of his time pursuing sports. Lord Wroxton reads a tirade over him, complaining that he could have married Hetta Silverdale, who lives nearby, and Ashley responds that he is very fond of Hetta but they are good friends and not likely to fall in love. He pays a visit to her, at her family home, before leaving to visit his Aunt, Lady Emborough, and finds Hetta is entertaining a man who has inherited a nearby property. Mr Nethercott has come now to live at Marley House. Ashley thinks that he is a bit dull but talks to him civilly and then goes off on his visit. Lady Emborough has a large family and Ashley enjoys a stay with them. However they are invited to a ball at the nearby estate of Sir Thomas Bugle who has a very lovely daughter, Lucasta. Ashley flirts with her, a little but during the ball, he sees a young girl watching from upstairs. He goes up to speak to her, thinking she is one of the younger children and finds that she's actually 18, but very small. She is Cherry Steane, Lady Bugle's niece, and he discovers that she has been taken in by her aunt because her parents are dead... and she has been treated as a servant almost. He feels very sorry for her but is shocked the following day, to find her trudging along the road, with a suitcase.

Quiet Gentleman Part III SPoilers

Drusilla's parents, both writers, are renting a house on the Stanyon estate, but have gone away to the North, to visit some of the Lake poets who are their friends. She goes to the house one day, to check that all is well and then visits one of the servants on her way. She comes across Gervase, having had a bad fall from his horse, lying on the ground. It looks as if someone had put a cord across the path, causing the horse to stumble and throw him. She looks after him and gets him back to the castle but is worried that someone is trying to kill the earl. Gervase is also suspicious but tells her and Ulverston to put out a story that his horse stumbled into a rabbit hole and he had a bad fall. He keeps a wary distance from his brother. When he recovers he finds that Martin has got a new valet, an odd rough looking man who uses thieves' cant, and wonders why. Martin goes out shooting and disappears, and when he comes back, he tells a strange tale of having been kidnapped by someone who then let him go and he found out on his way back to Stanyon, that the police were looking for him. He tells Gervase that his so called Valet is actually a retired Bow Street runner, whom he hired because he was worried about his own and his brother's safety. Gervase realises that someone has been trying to make mischief between the 2 of them, and he confronts Theo, telling him that he believes it is he who has been doing this. Theo has contrived accidents that look like they have been caused by Martin... He believes that his cousin had developed an obsession with Stanyon... and wanted it for himself. If Gervase were killed and Martin were blamed for it, he would inherit the estate. Gervase adds that he does not bear malice against his cousin. He feels that he was in a very difficult positon. He grew up at Stanyon and loved it, but it was not his estate.. and old Lord St Erth did not think of giving him one of his smaller estates for his own... Martin is horrified when he hears this.. but Gervase says that he will only remember Theo as his cousin of whom he was fond and who looked after his interests for a long time. Gervase suggests that Theo could go to the West Indies to look after an estate there, but the place belongs to Martin. Martin agrees, unhappily. It is not an ideal solution, but they don't want a scandal and if Theo leaves Stanyon but stays in England there will be talk. In the meantime, Gervase has proposed to Drusilla. Her father is not too happy because he disapproves of Earls, however Drusilla's mother is more practical and feels that the couple love each other and that her daughter is doing very well for herself to catch an earl.. so they agree to the marriage.

Quiet Gentleman Part II

Gervase tries to get to know his younger brother but finds Martin is very spoiled, stormy and difficult. Theo tells him that Martin was reared as though he was the heir and that he and Lady St Erth half hoped or believed that Gervase would not survive the war. He is shocked to feel that his brother at least cared so little for him. Matters get worse when he meets Marianne Bolderwood, the pretty daughter of a local gentleman, who is an heiress. Marianne flirts a little with him, arousing Martin's jealousy. Lady St Erth has hoped that her son would marry Marianne when they are a little older, and Gervase finds her attractive though she is naive and young. This causes more tension between the brothers, and Theo remarks that Lord St Erth has left a lot of unentailed property to his favourite son. Drusilla Morville, the house guest, tries to smooth over the problems, and Gervase finds her soothing and pleasant to talk to though she is not a beauty. Her father is a member of the gentry but he has very radical views and wishes to live in a republican state. A friend of Gervase, Lucius, Lord Ulverston comes to visit. He has also been in the army but has sold out when his father inherited an earldom, and now he meets Marianne and falls in love with her. This arouses Martin's anger even more, seeing the girl he was enamoured of being courted by 2 older men who have titles. He gets into an argument with Lord Ulverston and challenges him to a duel. Gervase manages to smooth things over, telling Martin that Lord Ulverston has become engaged to Marianne and that he must respect that. So the duel is called off. But Gervase although he is naturally mild mannered is increasingly angry with his brother and regarding him as unstable and very foolish. He begins to wonder if Martin might wish to see him dead. He remembers that since he came to Stanyon there have been odd accidents to himself that could have been caused by the younger man. Drusilla Morville tries to keep the peace and Gervase grows increasingly fond of her, since she is calm and sensible, even if she's not so pretty as Marianne.

Quiet Gentleman BY Georgette Heyer

This is one of Heyer's adventure stories, more of a mystery book than a romance. Gervase Frant, Earl of St Erth, returns to his family home in Lincolnshire, a year after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. He had been a professional soldier all through the wars and had not seen much of his family. His father, a severe man, had married twice. His first wife was Gervase's mother, who was unhappy in her marriage. She ran off with a notorious rake when her child was very young. Lord St Erth was enraged and remarried a few years later, after her death. He had 2 more children by his second wife, a son Martin and a daughter Louisa. He disliked his eldest son, because the boy was a reminder of his mother, and Gervase spent more time with his mother's family. Martin was favoured by his father, who treated his second son as though he was the heir and not Gervase. Gervase went into the army and rarely came home. He did not like his domineering stepmother and nor did he care much for his half brother and sister. His only friend at home was his cousin Theodore, the son of Lord St Erth's younger brother, who had been reared at Stanyon the family home. As an adult, Theodore took on running the estates. Gervase returns home, but although he is a gentle man who does not like conflict, he feels ill at ease with his stepmother and the rest of the family, apart from Theodore. He tells Theo that he might decide to live at one of the smaller family houses. However he knows that his father left a lot of his unentailed property to Martin. Theo says that Lord St Erth would have chopped up the estate even more, had he not restrained him. He also finds that Lady St Erth has a young woman friend staying with her. He finds the girl rather dull, and hopes that his stepmother is not trying to marry him off to her.

Beds and Blue Jeans - Nadine Sutton

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1W9753L8DLM2I&keywords=beds+and+blue+jeans+nadine&qid=1671034961&sprefix=beds+and+blue+jeans+nadine%2Caps%2C491&sr=8-1 A realistic story about a small time singer in Nashville who tries to make a living with his band, and tries to find true love, though he has a girlfriend and a baby.

Rough Music, a story on Amazon

  Rough Music eBook : Sutton, Nadine: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

This is one of my works set in the American country and rock music world. Its not a romance. It is a story about two members of a country rock band, in the 1970s and 80s.. who are trying to move from the small time to the big time. It's about the compromises that they make along the way. It is based on what I know of the bands back then when I was a kid, and how they worked very hard and gave a lot to their fans... and partied hard. I hope that people can enjoy a story which does not have a schmaltzy happy ending.

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie was a contemporary of Dorothy Sayers and like her a detective fiction writer. She was born to a well to do middle class family in 1890. She studied at home and was a voracious reader. Her father died when she was a child and the family were not so well off, but Agatha did come out and do the social season, and fell in love with Archie Christie, just before the outbreak of the War. He joined the army and they got married. During the war, she did voluntary work - she learned how to be a dispenser in a hospital, so she acquired a knowledge of medicines and poisons. This knowledge was useful to her, when she started to write, which she had always wanted to do. Her husband came out of the army at the end of the war and went into business. Agatha started to write her novels. She created Hercule Poirot, a Belgian refugee who became her first detective. During the war, a lot of Belgians had come to Britain to escape the German invasion. Her novels sold well and she was a busy worker. Unlike Sayers, who only wrote 11 detective novels, Christie produced many novels in this genre and created more than 1 detective, like Miss Marple, a middle aged spinster. Sayers wanted to write more serious novels and also went into writing plays, mainly on religious themes. However Christie stuck to the one genre, for the most part and her works tend to be pure mystery rather than any attempt at a serious novel. In the 1920s, Agatha's marriage to Archie Christie became unhappy. He had a mistress and wanted a divorce. Agatha disappeared for 11 days, causing a newspaper furore, her car was found abandoned and she had vanished. She was found staying at a hotel under the name of her husband's mistress. She seems to have had a breakdown, but some people thought it was a publicity stunt. Afterwards, she and Archie divorced and Agatha continued with her writing career. She later remarried to an archaeologist, and took a great interest in his work. She wrote a story based in Ancient Egypt. She was such a prolific writer and her works still sell and have been made into TV and films, with many different actors playing Poirot and Miss Marple. Sayers, by contrast, was not keen on her works being filmed, and even now, there have only been a handful of TV adaptations.

Strong Poison by Sayers

Strong Poison is the first book with Harriet Vane in it, and it reflects part of Sayers' own life. It is a murder mystery about arsenic poisoning. Harriet, like Sayers herself, is a Bloomsbury writer who writes murder mysteries, and like Sayers she falls in love. Philip Boyes, her lover, is a poet and novelist, like Sayers' boyfriend John Cournous, and like John he tells her as John told Sayers, that he does not believe in marriage and does not want a conventional married life with children. Boyes pesters Harriet to live with him and she finally agrees, and moves in with him. Boyes like Cournous is pretentious, a good writer but someone who likes to show off his intellectual abilities, and who resents Harriet for earning a living for both of them, though the money comes in handy. Dorothy did not live with John Cournous, but she did have an intimate relationship with him while still hoping that he might marry her. She got tired of waiting, and broke off with him because, although she cared for him, she could not see any future in it. Then she learned that in America, he had married a woman who had children, and gone back on all his principles. Harriet finds, after a year, that Boyes also goes back on his principles. He asks her to marry him and she is angry and upset, since she felt that he had been testing her love for him, trying to see if she would give in to him and abandon her principles for him. Harriet broke off their relationship and left him. Then, Boyes is poisoned with arsenic, and it looks like Harriet, who has been writing a book on arsenic poisoning, might have killed him. Sayers used her backstory with Cournous to provide a set up for her murder mystery, and the novel starts with Harriet being tried for his murder. Murder stories in Sayers' time were not expected to be fully accurate. The story would centre around a murder by some esoteric method that was not likely to be used in real life. In Strong Poison, the murder is poisoning by arsenic, but the killer ate the same food as the victim. Peter then learned that it is possible to build up an immunity to arsenic by eating a bit of it every day and that Norman Urquhart, the murderer had done this, and then shared an omelette with his cousin, the victim. Sayers was conscientious about trying to find out scientific information for the methods of murder she used, though she did not always get it right as she was not a scientist.

Reluctant Widow Part II

The discussion is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Carlyon's youngest brother Nicky, who is at Oxford. He had been sent down for a prank, and on his way home, he met Eustace in the local inn.. Eustace was drunk and made unkind remarks about Carlyon, which infuriated his brother. They got into a fight. Eustace tried to attack Nicky with a knife and ended up stabbed himself. Nicky, shocked and scared, tells his brother that their cousin is dying. Edward Carlyon tells Elinor, that if she comes with him to the inn, she and Eustace could be married. That would save him from having to inherit his estate. Elinor is in a state of shock and agrees. She and Eustace are married, by special licence and Edward sends her back to the house, Highnoons, while he helps his cousin to make his will, and leave his property to Elinor. Next day, she wakes up to find she is a widow, and owner of a badly run estate and a shabby house. She sets about getting it cleaned up, and hiring more servants. A couple of days later, she finds a man in one of the rooms, who tells her that he is Eustace's friend, and he had come in through a private door, to see his friend. He is a French emigre, named Louis de Castres who had been brought up in England, and Elinor is highly suspicous of her late husband's conduct.. as it seems odd that he would walk into the house as he has done. The Carlyons wonder if possibly Louis is a French spy, and if Eustace has been selling information about Wellington's war plans to a Bonapartist. His uncle, Lord Bedlington, is an ADC to the Regent, and has access to the War office. He is not a very admirable character, stupid and venal.. and he is able to see government papers. Elinor is concerned about the danger to herself if she stays in the house until it is sold, with strange people coming in and out through secret passages, but the Carlyon family, particularly Edward are very cool about it. It emerges that Louis De Castres IS a Bonapartist agent, and he and Eustace were in cahoots. The most guilty party is Lord Bedlington. He has been selling information to the French as he is not very bright and not very well off... Francis, his dandified son, wants to cover up the scandal, so he persuades him to retire from his job with the Regent and sell off the family mansion, to pay his debts. Francis then startles the Carlyon brothers by telling them that he has stopped up any further leaking of information by killing Louis. The brothers had thought he was too much of a wimpy dandy to do anything violent. Edward proposes to Elinor, who, although she finds him exasperating, has fallen in love with him. She decides to sell off the estate as quickly as possible, and to marry Edward when her period of mourning is over. Edward tells her that the price of the estate will pay for her wedding clothes. The book has its fun moments, a lot of them related to Elinor's common sense reactions to the intrusion of spies and over large dogs into her house and her desire to concentrate on her housewifely duties.

Reluctant Widow

This is one of Heyer's adventure novels. It is set in the countryside, during the Napoleonic Wars. Elinor Rochdale is a young woman of 26 who has lost her parents and has no money, so she has been working as a governess. She takes up an appointment with a lady, and when she arrives by Stage coach to start her new job, she finds a carriage has been sent for her. This is an unusual honour for a governess. She travels to the house and finds that it is rather shabby, and that a man of about 30 seems to be in charge. He tells her that her new charge is very difficult. After a long conversation, she realises that they are talking at cross purposes and that she is at the wrong house. Lord Carlyon, who has welcomed her, thought that she was a woman who had been hired from an advertisement in the papers, to marry his wayward cousin, Eustace. The woman whom he hired did not turn up. Elinor is shaken to find that she's at a strange man's house, miles away from where her new employer is. She tells Lord Carlyon that her father lost his fortune and shot himself, leaving her almost penniless. Carlyon owns an estate nearby. He tells her that he is the eldest of a large family, and that he has always been the one who looked after his siblings. She tells him that she's the daughter of a man who shot himself, after losing his fortune. She had been taken in by relatives as a poor relation, but they were not kind to her. So she preferred to be independent, though the life of a governess is far from easy. He tells her that if Eustace dies without a wife, the young man's estate, Highnoons, will pass to him, Carlyon, and he does not want the estate. He and his cousin don't get on, and Eustace has done his reputation harm, by accusing him of bad behaviour. He would rather not inherit the estate as it would look like he had deliberately schemed to get it. Carlyon then suggests that as Elinor is alone in the world and badly off, she could marry Eustace, and become heir to his estate. While the estate is almost worthless due to mismanagement, he would provide for her. Or she could try to make a living running it. Elinor refuses the idea.

Bellona Club, finis

Peter has a talk with his friend Colonel Marchbanks, and they confront Penberthy. He admits that he killed the General by giving him some pills and advising him how to take them; they were meant to keep him going long enough to outlive his sister. However they were poisonous, and killed him. He feels that he's entitled to the money which would come to him via Ann Dorland, he could make better use of it than George or Robert Fentiman. Unfortunately, Robert's moving the body and concealing the death for a day, caused the murder to be suspected and discovered. He admits that he used Ann. He fixed on her since he knew that she was rather desperate to find a man... But he says he would have been a good husband to her if he had married her for money. Penberthy knows that he's caught. Peter suggests to him that if he would make a full confession, and clear Ann of any involvement in the murder, like a gentleman, he would let him commit suicide rather than facing trial. Penberthy agrees and writes a confession. The Colonel leaves his gun for him. Penberthy shoots himself, and the sad affair of the Bellona club is finished. Ann Dorland agrees to share the fortune with the Fentiman brothers, which leaves them all comfortably off. She and Robert become friendly. Peter's original feeling that digging into the Dormer will would only dig up a lot of trouble, has turned out to be true. However, the Fentimans will get some money and Ann may find a man who genuinely likes her.

Rough Music By Nadine Sutton on Amazon

 This is one of my works set in the American country and rock music world.  Its not a romance;  its a story about two members of a country rock band, in the 1970s and 80s.. who are trying to move from the small time to the big time.  Its about the compromises that they make along the way.. their love of their music.. and their friendships.. and the strain that touring and working hard puts on their marriages....and the ups and downs of travelling with a band, in the old days. Its based on what I know of the bands back then when I was a kid, and how they worked very hard and gave a lot to their fans... and partied hard.  

Bellona Club, next part

George disappears one night and Sheila calls Peter, who manages to calm her down and placates the owners of the house where she and George live. They think Sheila is having an affair with Peter. Peter finds that George has had access to Sheila's medicine for heart trouble, which contains digitalis, and since he has run off, he fears that the man did kill his grandfather in a maniacal fit. Then George is found. He turns himself into a police station and confesses to the murder. He collapses and it is not clear if he is making a real confession or if he is still not in his right mind. Peter meets Ann Dorland, and talks to her, and she finally confides in him. She had not been very happy in her life, as she is rather plain and does not have an easy manner. She was lonely and wanted love affairs, but in the Bloomsbury set, she did not attract many men, so she felt out of place. She was not a talented artist and so made few friends, except for Marjorie Phelps, Wimsey's friend who makes pottery figures. So she turned to other interests, and became friendly with Walter Penberthy, the Fentimans' doctor. He socialised with the Bloomsbury set and who wanted to set up a clinic for glandular treatment and rejuvenation. Ann explains that Pemberthy told her he would like to marry her and that he needed money to set up his clinic. He encouraged her to stand firm and not agree to share the Dormer legacy with George and Robert, but now that she is being whispered about as the woman who may have poisoned the old man, he has cut himself off from her. He has become engaged to another woman, Naomi Rushworth. Peter believes her but fears that if the case goes to trial, there will be just enough doubt cast on Ann, that she and he conspired to murder the general, and then fell out. He decides to go and see Pemberthy who lives at the Bellona Club.

Bellona Club Redux by Sayers

I started to blog about this some time ago, but lost track of it.. and it is one of my favourite novels by Sayers. It gives a sympathetic portrait of England in the years after the war, and the trauma that the war had inflicted on the soldiers. Peter is an ex officer who suffered a nervous breakdown after being blown up and buried in a shell hole in the last months of the War. George Fentiman, from a not very well-off military family had also suffered from war injuries and shell shock. He may resemble Dorothy's husband Mac who had stomach injuries and suffered from depression and general debility after his war. Dorothy had tried her best to support Mac and she sympathised with the soldiers who had come back to poverty and inability to find jobs. George is prone to fugues and fits of hysteria and he is grumpy and difficult with his loyal wife. But he feels emasculated by her having to work to support him, but he gets ill and cannot work. He and Sheila are in debt and want desperately to get some money from Lady Dormer's estate, but Ann Dorland seems unwilling to compromise. Peter manages to find out that General Fentiman went to see his doctor - Pemberthy, after he saw his sister, wanting some medicines to keep him going. He wants to outlast his sister and inherit her fortune. Other than that, there does not seem to be much evidence of how the old man spent the last day of his life. Robert Fentiman has mentioned his grandfather being friendly with an old man called Oliver but they cannot find Oliver. Peter notes that there is something odd about the corpse. Fentiman was not wearing a poppy.. which is unusual for a military man. It seems likely that the old man died before Lady Dormer. He applies for an exhumation order, and when General Fentiman is autopsied, it emerges that he had been poisoned. Robert Fentiman comes clean and admits that he found his grandfather dead. He realised that now, his family would not come in for the lion's share of the fortune.. and George needed the money. So, he hid the body and put it in the chair later on, so that he would be found later. Robert feels guilty at his fraud and resigns from his army job. But he is shocked that his grandfather was poisoned. The evidence seems to point to Ann Dorland, who had a motive and who had had access to the General when he came to see Lady Dormer. The nurse who was attending Lady Dormer is questioned and she says she likes Ann - but she does admit that when Ann prepared a drink for Fentiman, she could have poisoned it. It also emerges that Ann who had previously spent some of her time trying to paint and hang out with Bohemian arty types, has lately been taking an interest in crime and in chemical experiments.

Rough Music a Story of American music

  Rough Music eBook : Sutton, Nadine: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

This is one of my works set in the American country and rock music world.  Its not a romance;  its a story about two members of a country rock band, in the 1970s and 80s.. who are trying to move from the small time to the big time.  Its about the compromises that they make along the way.. their love of their music.. and their friendships.. and the strain that touring and working hard puts on their marriages....and the ups and downs of travelling with a band, in the old days. Its based on what I know of the bands back then when I was a kid, and how they worked very hard and gave a lot to their fans... and partied hard. 

Friday's Child Part V

 Hero makes another of her social gaffes, agreeing to have a driving race with another society woman, and Sherry loses his temper with her. He tells her that she is going to have to stay with his mother and learn how to behave. She is upset and angry, because she know that Lady Sheringham does not like her and she can't bear the thought that she let Sherry down.  She runs away, and seeks advice from George and Sherry's bachelor friends.  They agree to help her and persuade her to go to Bath to stay with Lady Saltash, an elderly society lady and Ferdinand Fakenham's grandmother, who will look after her and teach her more about society. While she is away, Sherry hunts everywhere he can think of, to find her. He begins to realise that she loved him and that he himself is in love with her, and that it is time he put aside his playboy ways and settle down. He tells his mother she will have to move out of their country house and that he is going to try his best to get Hero back. However, she says that Hero has probably run off with a lover and he should find her and divorce her. Sherry has a sudden inspiration that his wife may have gone to Bath, to get a job in a school there.  So he goes escorting his mother and Isabella.  Lady Sheringham is hoping that if he does get a divorce, he will marry Isabella. But to his amazment he sees his wife, walking with George who has gone to warn her that Sherry is coming to Bath. Hero has been learning more about society and has also acquired a new admirer, an older man called Jasper Tarleton.  The Sheringhams go through a fantastic drama, where Jasper tries to elope with Hero, not knowing her to be married, and Montague Revesby tries to compromise Bella so that she will have to marry him.  However, Bella turns up at the inn where Hero is anxiously talking with Jasper. Bella has jabbed at Revesby with a hat pin and generally made his life a misery. Sherry arrives and he and Hero are reconciled. Revesby acts in a miserably cowardly way, drawing a swordstick on the unarmed Jasper. The group are disgusted with him and he is forced out of their social circle. Isabella finally gives way to her love for George, whom she has always preferred and agrees to marry him. Hero and Sherry agree to return to London and to take up their position as Lord and Lady of Sheringham Place and to have a baby. This is one of Heyer's best novels, with a convoluted plot, fantastic twists and turns and a set of funny characters who make up ridiculous stories. 

Friday's Child IV

Hero does not like Revesby. She is naive and silly at times but she instinctively knows that he is a bad influence on her husband. Sherry worries about his young wife, because she does seem to get into trouble quite often. She has noone to teach her the ways of Society. He continues to over spend and both he and Hero gamble. One evening, Hero and Sherry are with friends, including Revesby, when a young woman with a baby comes up to him in the street. She tells him that the child is his, and she has no money. Revesby unkindly cuts her and says she is mad, but Hero takes her home. Sherry agrees to take the girl in. He begins to see a major flaw in his friend. Hero insists that they look after Ruth, the girl and her child.. She was a servant at an inn when Revesby was visiting a relative. Sherry gives her a job at his hunting lodge. Soon after Ruth's arrival in his house, Sherry finds that his wife went to the house of a courtesan, Charlotte Gillingham, who was one of Montagu's mistresses and lost a lot of money gambling. He finds out through the good nature of one of his own ex mistresses, Nancy, who saw Hero at the house, playing cards and looking very unhappy. He thanks Nancy for telling him, and Hero tells him the whole story. Sherry realises that Revesby was trying to cause trouble in his house, because it was Hero who made him look bad by taking in his mistress and child. He visits Revesby, but the older man refuses to be drawn into a row, because he is too cowardly to fight and does not want to fall out with his rich friend.

Beds and Blue Jeans a story on Amazon

 A story set in recent years in Nashville Tennessee- the home of country music.  It's the story of Sam, a young man, who has a small band that play in the bars for tips and makes a modest living.  He has a lot of women flirting with him and  he takes advantage of the fact.  But he also has a girlfriend and a baby.  Patti is a young woman who has no ambitions, and was drifting along, till she had her baby.   Now she is trying to find a new way of life.....

Beds and Blue Jeans: An everyday story of music and mayhem eBook : Sutton, Nadine, Waldock, Sarah: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Friday's Child Part III

Sherry takes Hero to London with him and puts her up, in an hotel, so that he can arrange a marriage. He has to ask his friends about how to get a licence for the marriage, and some of them are not very bright, but they are good at coming up with stories to cover the elopement. Hero meets his little group of friends, and they all get on well, and as soon as they have the licence, she and Sherry marry. He writes to Mrs. Bagshot, Hero's cousin. He knows that as she has three rather plain daughters, she will be furious at her orphaned impoverished ward having caught a very wealthy man. He buys clothes and presents for his bride, who is so happy as she has never had such luxury before. But she is reluctant to take on the family's London house, as it is dreary and intimidating and she is unused to that sort of life. Sherry decides to rent a smaller cosy house that she can manage. Hero's marriage is happy at first, though she frequently makes social mistakes, due to her youth and lack of knowing about Society's ways. Sherry is happy too, but he still spends a lot of time with his male friends and spends even more money than he used to. He makes no attempt to take on his responsibilities in regard to his estates. He and Hero both lose money gambling, and his lawyer warns him that while he is very rich, he needs to be more careful. Isabella is a little peeved that Sherry married so quickly after she turned him down, but she likes Hero. She has several suitors, including the hot-tempered Byronic George Wrotham, who is passionately in love with her and very jealous. She loves him, but she won't admit it. He is not that well off and she is unsure whether to commit to him. Her mother pressures her to consider richer suitors, and she does. She starts to flirt with Sir Montagu Revesby, who is one of Sherry's friends, but Sherry's other friends do not like him and think that he encourages Sherry to gamble. She also encourages the wealthy Duke of Severn.

Friday's Child Part II

Isabella is rather a spoilt young beauty and one of the most popular girls in Society. But she is fond of Sherry and has known him since she was a child. However she refuses him, because she does not love him and she says that she knows he does not really love her;  he has just proposed because she is the fashion at present and he's too selfish to love anyone but himself. 

Sherry is annoyed with her for turning him down and being so unladylike as to refer to his having mistresses, but he leaves her house and drives off back home.  His mother and uncle are annoyed that Isabella has refused him. They would like him to marry her, because she is an heiress. She is the only child of her parents, and her estate is close by Sherry's home.. so the 2 estates could be merged. He gets more and more angry with his selfish relatives, finally storming out, saying that in order to get hold of his estate, he will marry the first woman he sees. He sets out to drive back to London.

On the way, he meets the 17 year old Hero Wantage, who is also a neighbor.  She lives with her cousins, and is a poor relation. She looks unhappy so he stops to talk to her, and she tells him that her cousin Jane has said that she should start earning her living and she's being sent to Bath to become a governess.  Sherry laughs at the idea, as she is not all that well educated and she is so young. She tells him that her cousin has said that the local curate also has proposed to her, and that she must either marry him, or get a job as a governess...Sherry has always in his careless way felt sorry for Hero, and he tells her that Isabella refused him, and that he had said that he would marry the first woman he saw. Hero laughs and says that that is her. He thinks about it and feels that marriage to him would be better for Hero than a job as a governess, and that he would secure a wife who would not interfere with him and he would gain control of his fortune. Hero has always had a crush on him, and she decides to marry him. 

Friday's Child I

Friday's Child is a great favourite among fans of Georgette Heyer. It has a complicated plot and several funny characters. Antony, Lord Sheringham, is a young man of 23, who has inherited a large estate and fortune. However, he has 2 trustees, one of whom he dislikes and distrusts, and his father's will specifies that he won't inherit before he is 25, unless he marries before that date. The other trustee is his paternal Uncle, Prosper, who is decent enough but fat and lazy. Sherry does not get on with his mother, who is a weepy complaining woman. Even less does he like her brother, his trustee, Horace Paulet, whom he feels is rather less than honest. Sherry is himself a thoughtless young man who does not really want responsibility. So he has let things ride for a time but he is infatuated with Isabella Milborne, a lovely young heiress, who lives near him. So he decides to marry her, and secure his estate.

Sayers' Letters 4

Sayers wrote home about how she and Eric had rescued a girl who had become pregnant, and they helped her with making arrangements to have her baby and get a job afterwards. However, she was getting tired of the job in France and her unfulfilling relationship with Whelpton and he also wanted to leave the job  and move to Florence. He was considering marriage and Dorothy realised that the relationship was going nowhere. For the next few years, her letters were mostly about London, trying to find a new steady job, and moving from flat to flat.She got a job in Bensons Advertising Agency and at first enjoyed it, writing to her parents about her hopes that the job would provide her with a steady income, while she continued to write. She began writing her first Lord Peter book and told her family and friends about how it was going, and how she researched crimes in the British Library at weekends. She visited friends and family in London, and then began to write to her parents about her new boyfriend, John Cournous. She was plainly very much in love with him.

Sayers' letters 3

Dorothy met Eric Whelpton, who had served in the War, during her time working at Blackwell's, and fell in love with him. He was fond of her but did not return her feelings. He was a sophisticated young man who had a busy romantic life and he was not attracted to Dorothy. And although she was witty and clever, she was not very experienced in relationships with men. The women undergraduates at Somerville were chaperoned, almost like Victorian girls, and she admitted that she did not know much about men and had noone in the college to advise her. Older women dons were usually spinsters who had dedicated their lives to learning and did not know how to help younger women who had difficulties in mingling with men. Dorothy liked to flirt, but she did not meet many congenial men, and when she fell in love, she was at sea. Then, Blackwell's changed over to publishing academic books and she decided to leave as it wasn't the kind of publishing she wanted to do. Whelpton had taken a job in France and set up an agency for exchange students, bringing boys from England to France and vice versa. He invited Dorothy to work as his secretary. She told her parents that she would like a complete change, and assured them that her relations with Whelpton would be completely proper, as they would be living in a provincial and old fashioned part of France. She spent some time there, and kept in touch with her parents by letter, telling them of her ongoing but proper friendship with Eric, and she read a lot of detective stories, as her work was not all that busy.

Sayers' Letters 2

Dorothy went up to Oxford after she had finished school. She was highly intelligent, particularly good at languages, and was eager to study. She loved Oxford, and her letters from there are lively and fun, giving a picture of the University and the life of the young women undergraduates. She did well at her studies, made a lot of friends and engaged in extracurricular activities. She often claimed that she did not study much but she did very well, and still took part in rowing, theatricals, playing music and writing. She and a few friends formed a group called the Mutual Admiration Society, they met to read their writings to each other.. and remained friends after they left college. I enjoy her college and working years letters more than anything else she wrote. She has a talent for describing ordinary life or telling a funny story, and she was so enthusiastic about life that it is a pleasure to read her on life at college,. She is even funny when trying to find a job or a flat in London. She had several elderly relatives who lived in Oxford and had a tiresome cousin who kept pestering her to join in Christian social activities. She did not pay much attention to the war, though she had cousins who were in the army. This was pretty common during World War One. People in the UK did not know much about what was happening in France and did not talk about it much. Dorothy knew about shell shock, but it was not till later that she married a man who suffered from it, badly, and who had other war induced illnesses. When she finished college, she tried to get a job teaching, though she did not really like the idea, but most women graduates went into schoolteaching. She took jobs in various schools, but found them boring, as the children were not as keen on learning as she herself had been. It was difficult for her to get down to their level, but she did her best to find permanent work though she soon realised that teaching would "make her brain go rusty". She still wrote and had some poetry published but she became nostalgic for Oxford and decided to take on an apprenticeship with Basil Blackwell, the Oxford Publisher. She enjoyed this more, and told amusing anecdotes about office life, about Basil, and a young clergyman who paid court to her and proposed. She refused him.

Sayers' letters Part I

Dorothy Sayers was a novelist, playwright and poet, who was also very musical. From an early age, she was keen on writing and like most middle class people of her day, she kept in touch with friends and family by writing letters. As a girl, she was sent away to school and wrote to friends and her parents on a regular basis. Her letters were lively, full of news about the activities she enjoyed, the teachers and other girls. She was very keen on acting and loved going to the theatre and taking part in school plays and a lot of her letters home are about getting costumes. At home she and her family acted out scenes from the Three Musketeers which was one of her favourite novels. She wasnt all that keen on games, but enjoyed her work, and was an excellent student. A few times during her schooldays, she had serious illnesses, and she ended up having to leave before the end of her last year and to be tutored at home by letter.

Busman's Honeymoon note

This isn't my favourite novel. Peter and Harriet have become rather more snobbish than they were in earlier works. Peter used to have a lively friendly manner to his social inferiors, and Bunter was someone who was close to him. Now Bunter has retreated into more of a servant role, does not do any detecting, and Harriet is Peter's confidante. They both are rather more condescending to the lower orders of the village, very much the upper class couple patronising the various tradesmen and the police... and servants like the Ruddles. Peter does show compassion for Crutchley, and agonises over his part in the man's death. But I think that after showing how upset Peter gets when one of his cases results in someone being hanged, Sayers perhaps did not want to write any more murder mysteries. She does not usually show the business of detecting going all the way to the trial and the gallows and having done so, possibly she felt it would be too painful to keep on showing this part. She did start to write another Peter novel but never got very far with it.. She felt also that detective fiction encouraged people to feel that there was a simple solution to all kinds of complex problems in life.. that all one had to do was to set a detective in place to work out who committed the crime and then all would be well. Having written a play version of Busman's Honeymoon, she then began to write plays on religious subjects.. during the war, she wrote a famous and well received cycle of plays on the life of Christ, and though she always loved her Wimsey character and wrote bits about his family history in letters to friends, she never managed to complete a detective novel again.

Busman's Honeymoon Part V

Peter passes on the information about the secret love affair between Frank and Miss Twitterton, to Kirk. The inspector does feel that this makes it likely that she is the murderer. She was the only one who had keys to the house or who was accustomed to going in there. She has no alibi, and she was also Noakes' heir. Harriet is depressed because she can feel Peter's depression at not solving the crime. The 2 companies who lent Noakes money are coming to remove the furniture for sale against the debt. She and Peter feel that the best thing is perhaps to leave the house while it has been stripped of its contents, and return later. But she wonders if Peter will always feel unhappy in the house now that he has failed to do his job there. On the day of the funeral, the men come to remove furniture while Peter and Harriet invite a few people in for a drink, and Mr Goodacre notes that the cactus has been over watered. This alerts Peter that something is wrong, and he realises how the murder was done. The chain has been changed and is now hanging lower than it used to, and a thin wire had been fixed to the radio cabinet so that when the lid was lifted to listen to the news, as Noakes did every night, the heavy pot would come smashing down on his head. Frank was the one who watered the cactus. Peter sets up the same situation and when Frank comes in to move furniture, he moves the radio and the cactus comes down, missing him by inches. Startled, he makes a wild confession and Kirk arrests him. Peter is relieved that he has solved his case, but the whole business depresses him. He does not like Crutchley but he had a grievance against Noakes, and he is a poor man, who resents those who are better off than him. He and Harriet go back to London, and Peter hires Sir Impey Biggs who is a very famous and skilful lawyer, to defend Crutchley. Frank insists on going into the box, himself, and makes a poor impression on the jury and he has made a confession, so the verdict goes against him. Peter tries to see if there is anything he can do to help the man, but Frank refuses to see him or to appeal. They learn that he has made his girlfriend Polly pregnant, and Peter tries to see him to ask if he wants to get permission to marry her but Crutchley angrily refuses to do anything to help himself or the girl. Harriet suggests they ask Miss Climpson for help in assisting Polly, and he goes along with the suggestion.. but she still feels that her husband is emotionally withdrawn from her. The night of the execution, Peter manages to see Crutchley who is still angry and unrepentant, and he comes back to Harriet, turning to her at last. She feels some relief that he has finally shown that he needs her. Peter usually asks the condemned man for his forgiveness but Crutchley is just angry and does not seem to care about anything. He tells Peter that he was a fool to bother about Polly and the baby. Harriet tells him that if he hadn't interfered in her murder case, it might have been her who was facing execution. The two of them wait for the 8 o'clock strike which will mean that its all over, and they can go on with their marriage.

Busman's Honeymoon Part IV

Peter and Harriet are depressed by their inability to solve the crime, but their personal relationship is going well. After 5 years of waiting, they are a happy couple. But Harriet does worry that Peter is upset by not being able to solve the crime. However, he has some property in London which he has inherited, and has developed over the past 20 years, as he prefers London life to country life. He has built houses and tried to help his tenants. But it seems he cannot help Joe Sellon who has this shadow hanging over him. He has always disliked the fact that his job as a detective sometimes entails getting people hanged, but he believes that whatever happens, its better that the right person suffers for the crime. He and Harriet go to visit Mr Simon Goodacre, the vicar and his wife who have invited them to a small party. Mr Goodacre likes plants, and wants to buy Mr Noakes' collection of cactuses. They learn that Mrs Sellon, Joe's wife, who is pregnant again, was taken ill. When they return to Talboys, after their visit, they talk emotionally about how much they love each other, and are startled by the sudden appearance of Miss Twitterton. She had been visiting the house, where she had a quarrel with Frank Crutchley, who was there, and she hid when the Wimseys came back, feeling embarrassed. She cries on Harriet's shoulder and tells her that she and Frank were engaged, but that now she realises he didn't love her and was only courting her because he thought that she had a little money and would inherit more from Noakes. She realises that he was seeing a young village girl as well... Harriet is sympathetic - but when she tells Peter what she's been told, he is appalled. He tells her that this casts a lot of doubt on Miss Twitterton. She had keys, she was in and out of the House, and she is a middle aged woman, in love with a younger selfish man. She might have been tempted to kill her uncle in order to have the money to marry Frank, as he would drop his girlfriend if he could marry a woman with a bit of money. Harriet is very upset, feeling that she had been given Miss Twitterton's trust and now Peter is saying that they will have to tell the police. Peter realises how she feels but says again that they must tell the truth and find out who did the crime, or the whole thing will hang over all the village or the wrong person will be hanged for it.

Busman's Honeymoon Part III

When the police are questioning people, some startling information emerges which widens the pool of suspects. Mrs Ruddle, who is a spiteful stupid woman, tells Inspector Kirk that Joe Sellon, the local bobby was at the house the night of Noakes' death. He was shouting aggressively through the window at the old man. It comes out that Joe had found some money in a wallet, which Noakes had dropped and had given way to the impulse to steal it. Noakes found out and started to blackmail him.. and Sellon who has a young wife and a baby - which was why he stole the money - was still paying him and getting desperate. Joe tells Kirk that he was at the house at a certain time, but Peter tells Kirk that he would like to believe that the young man is telling the truth, but he is not. If he was at the window, he could not have seen Noakes' clock, as there is a large cactus plant in a hanging basket, in the way. Therefore, it seems more likely that Joe managed to get inside the house and attacked Noakes. Peter points out that it seems unlikely that Noakes would have let Joe in, as he was a timid man and Joe was angry with him..But it might be the case that Sellon had agreed to pay him more money and he let him in to do so. Peter feels sorry for Joe, who is poor and desperate - but it seems that all the suspects are more likable than Noakes himself. Miss Twitterton might have done it, as she was someone that Noakes trusted, so he might well turn his back on her and she could have then struck him with a poker. It seems unlikely, as she is a fussy little woman, but it's possible that she felt angry and worried enough about the loss of her money to attack her uncle, knowing that she would inherit whatever he had. Frank Crutchley has a grievance also but he never had keys or access to the house and has an alibi for the night when Noakes was killed.

Busman's Honeymoon Part II

Harriet is badly shaken, and does not want her honeymoon to become the scene of a crime investigation. She wants to ask Peter not to get involved in it, and to go away, but knows that Peter would feel it was his duty to investigate a murder. He says that he hates violence and quarrelling and while Noakes is not a very likable old man, he should not have been killed. They learn that Noakes was a dubious character, who lent money, pressured simple people into dodgy deals and who was clearly borrowing more than he could afford. Peter owns the house, but there are 2 companies which lent him money and they want to take away the furniture and other possessions against the debt. Frank Crutchley, the young gardener, is upset and angry, because he had put some money into Noakes' business and now, won't be able to get it back and he was saving up to set up his own garage business. Peter makes friends with Sam Kirke the local police inspector, and Bunter befriends Tom Puffett, who is in the building trade and has come to Talboys to sweep the chimneys. Harriet feels sorry for Miss Twitterton, Noakes' niece, who has also put her small savings into Noakes' business and now finds that her money is gone and that she wont inherit anything but debts from her uncle. To her dismay, Harriet realises that Miss Twitterton might be considered a suspect, since she was his heir.

Busman's Honeymoon Short post

This is the final Lord Peter novel, which started out as a stage play, written by Sayers and one of her friends. She had met a chimney sweep who was very amusing, and she said she'd like to put him in a play. She had always been interested in drama, and had been a keen actress in school and college, so after writing Busman's, she moved from writing novels to writing plays, mostly on a religious theme. She wrote a novelised version of the play, and intended to go on writing Peter novels but became dissatisfied with the detective story format, and more and more interested in play writing on serious themes. The novel takes place straight after the action of Gaudy Night, where Peter and Harriet finally become engaged. He has to go away on diplomatic business, and Harriet visits the Dowager Duchess and gets to know Peter's family. Helen, Gerald's wife, keeps interfering in their wedding plans so Peter and Harriet decide to take matters into their own hands and to arrange a small wedding at Oxford, with their own close friends, and to go for a quiet honeymoon in the country. Peter has bought a farmhouse in the country, near to where Harriet was brought up, a house which she had always liked...and they plan to sneak off there, avoiding the press. The wedding takes place, and taking Bunter, they go off to Talboys, the farmhouse. When they arrive, however, noone is there to let them in, and the Ruddles, who live next door, in a cottage, don't know anything about Mr Noakes, the miserly owner, selling the house. Mrs Ruddle, a grumpy middle aged widow, does some cleaning for Mr Noakes, and she agrees to work for the Wimseys. They manage to get keys from Miss Twitterton, Noakes' niece, a middle-aged spinster who is very fussy and silly but good natured. The house is not very comfortable and clearly is not well looked after by Noakes, who spent a lot of his time at another business in a nearby town. But they manage to settle in and Peter and Harriet have a romantic night, and plan to improve the place during their honeymoon. The following morning, the Vicar calls and a young man who looks after the garden. But there is no sign of Mr Noakes. Peter wonders if the old man had money troubles as he accepted a relatively low offer for the house... Then, a man appears from London, whose firm lent money to Noakes, and who has come to pressure him into paying up. Peter feels more suspicious, then Bunter goes down to the cellar to fetch some drinks and finds Noakes' body. It seems like he has been killed. 

Documents in the Case by Sayers And Eustace

 Sayers wrote only one detective story which was not a Lord Peter work.  She produced a work called Documents in the Case, which was based on the murder case of Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywater, in the 1920s.  

Quite a few detective writers of the time wrote fictionalised versions of the story, but Sayers chose to write a more complicated work which involved a lot of scientific input for the murder method. She worked in collaboration with a doctor, Dr Eustace who supplied her with information on mushrooms and poisons.  The story is set in Bayswater, in a suburban maisonette, where a Mr Harrison and his young second wife Margaret live.  Harrison is an engineer, rather a bore, but a decent enough man, but he nags his wife, who is getting fed up with him.  Two young men move into the flat in the top of the house, a writer and a painter, (Munting and Harwood Lathom). 

Margaret Harrison is increasingly bored with her husband, and she starts an affair with Lathom.  Munting disapproves of his friend seducing a married woman whose husband has been friendly to Lathom.  He leaves the flat and gets married, and some time later, he meets Lathom again, who has picked up his friendship with Harrison. Margaret thinks she is pregnant and is scared to death.  Lathom resolves to free her from her marriage. 

He goes off on a painting holiday with Mr Harrison, in a cottage down in the West country, and goes back to London on business.  He meets Munting and invites him to come down for a couple of days and when they get there they find Harrison has died horribly from poisoning, apparently from cooking and eating some poisonous mushrooms that he has foraged locally.  

Paul, Harrison's son by his first marriage, does not believe that his father would make a mistake like that over food, and thinks that he has committed suicide to free his wife from their marriage, as he knows of the affair. He reads up the letters he has had from his father and other documents and finds that it is not suicide or accident, but murder.  Lathom used artificially made poison to kill Harrison, while providing himself with an alibi. Paul gets hold of the love letters written by Margaret to Lathom, by bribing Lathom's charlady, and finds that she thought she was pregnant and was urging her lover to "do something" to help her. 

He puts together a case, and the police investigate it.  Margaret (unlike Edith Thompson) is considered innocent, in spite of her compromising letters but Lathom is found guilty of murder and hanged.  The book is not one of Sayers' best.  It starts with a fairly sympathetic portrayal of Margaret, as a lonely wife whose husband nags at her, is suspicous of her and generally is not a sympathetic character.  Then sympathy abruptly switches to Harrison, who is seen as a victim of his wife's shallowness and Lathom's selfishness. Sayers never wrote another non Peter detective work again.  

Sayers and Five Red Herrings

I've been writing short blogs on Sayers' detective stories lately. One that I haven't done is Five Red Herrings. I like the book, but it is not nearly my favorite as it is mainly a plot driven novel, without much development of characters. I've only read it a couple of times. It is set in Scotland, in a village where a lot of artists live and paint and Sayers often took holidays there with her husband, Mac Fleming who was Scottish and an amateur painter. So she knew the area and the lives of artists up there, pretty well. She said that she wanted to try her hand at a novel which was all plot, rather than the more discursive works she had done before. The novel has a lot about railways timetables and alibis and rather lacks human interest. The novel is about an artist who is notoriously quarrelsome and bad tempered and it emerges that it was an accidental death. Wimsey investigates it, because he is holidaying there with Bunter. I will write a bit more about Sayers' other novels and possibly her religious dramas.

Whose Body Part III

Peter finally manages to crack the case through knowing of the connection between the Levys and Freke. Freke's house is close to the block of flats where Thipps lives and close to the Battersea Hospital. He gets Bunter to befriend Freke's butler/servant, who says that the surgeon is up late at night often, dissecting bodies for his research. Peter finds that Freke killed a workhouse inhabitant, who had been injured, who had a superficial resemblance to Levy. He shaved him and tidied him up to look like Levy, and then put his body in Thipps' bathroom. He then invited Sir Reuben to come to his house one night to discuss an investment and asked him not to tell anyone where he was going. Levy comes along, and Freke kills him and brings his body to the hospital for dissection by medical students. He is buried in a pauper's grave. Peter has to arrange an exhumation and Lady Levy identifies the "pauper's" body, as her husband. Freke, knowing that he has been caught, writes a confession, before he is arrested. Peter decides to arrange a dinner party for the Thippses.

Whose Body Part II

Peter is dismayed when Thipps and his maid, Gladys are both arrested by Suggs since he is quite sure the body is not Sir Reuben and that neither of them is capable of murder. Old Mrs Thipps who is very deaf, has noone to look after her and is very upset. She calls Peter for help. He goes to her, and tries to get one of the neighbours in their flats to take her in but noone will.. so Peter takes her to Denver to his mother's house and the Duchess welcomes her. He discusses the case with the Duchess, and she tells him that she actually used to be quite good friends with Sir Reuben's wife, Christine. They were girls together in Hampshire, and there was quite a fuss when Christine fell in love with a Jewish businessman who was not that well off at the time. The Duchess tells him that the family had hoped that she would marry Julian Freke who was an up-and-coming young surgeon of good family, but she was in love with Levy and insisted on marrying him. She tells Peter that Levy became very rich and successful and it seemed to be a happy marriage. Her own husband, the Duke of Denver, didn't like business people and so she didn't see much of Lady Levy over the years. Peter wonders if there is any connexion between the Levy case and the body, but cannot quite see how it would work out. At the inquest, Mr Thipps, scared by the hints about murder, tells the truth about where he was. He had gone with an old school friend to a nightclub, which was raided by the police. Thipps is a shy nervy man and had never been to a night club.. However, this clears him as there was a record of the raid by the police. It emerges, through the evidence of a young prostitute, that Levy was seen in Battersea, the night that he disappeared. Peter learns that he has another link with the Levy family via his friend Freddy Arbuthnot, an amiable society idiot who dabbles on the Stock exchange. Freddy knows the Levys through the investments angle, and is in love with Rachel, Levy's only daughter. He tells Peter that Sir Reuben is Jewish and self made but he's a good husband and father and a decent soul. Sir Reuben is not keen on Freddy as a son in law however because he's not Jewish and he is something of an upper-class twit.

Whose Body?

Whose Body was Dorothy Sayers' first novel.. which she referred to as Lord Peter. It is shorter than most of her other works, and a little clumsy, but her main characters do not change that much, as the series goes on. It starts with Peter going to a book sale and we learn that he is the second son of a duke, very wealthy, who lives in a flat in Piccadilly with his manservant, Bunter. One of his hobbies is collecting old books and manuscripts and he likes art and music, unlike his older brother the Duke who is happy to live the country and farm his land, and whose amusements are hunting and shooting. We learn that Peter prefers London and claims to hate the country but does enjoy an occasional visit where he can shoot and ride and hunt. He is thirtyish, and has served in World War One, and is now a gentleman of leisure who also has a hobby of helping the police with detective inquiries. He has to go back to the flat to collect something, and finds that his mother, Honoria, the Dowager Duchess is on the phone and that she has some information for him. The architect who was working on the church on the family estate has had a bad shock. He found a naked body in his bath, in his London flat, and the police have become involved. Peter agrees to go to Battersea, where Mr Thipps, the architect lives with his aged deaf mother, and to try and advise him. When he gets to the more modest block of flats, he finds that Inspector Sugg is there; they know each other of old. Sugg is a very stupid policemen who resents Peter getting involved in detection. He believes that the body is that of Sir Reuben Levy, a Jewish financier, who has disappeared from his house and cannot be found. Parker who knows about both cases, says that he's reasonably sure that the body is not Levy, but Suggs is an idiot and Thipps has been behaving strangely, so the case needs investigating. Peter inspects the body and can see that it is not circumcised so it seems unlikely to be Levy.

Murder Must Advertise II

Peter enjoys working at copy writing, which gives him a chance to use words, one of his favourite amusements has always been talking wittily. He has been talking to Pamela Dean, the sister of the man who died. In the past year, Victor Dean had been mixing with an upper-class pleasure-loving set. He and Pamela were not that well off, so he was "sinning above his station in life" and his mistress - a member of the Bright Young Things set - was Dian De Momerie, who came from an aristocratic family. Peter gets taken to some of their parties, where he goes in fancy dress, as a Harlequin. Dian takes a strange fancy to him. He realises that the crowd are taking a lot of cocaine, and he wonders if there is a connection between drug trading and Victor's death. The young man didn't like drug taking, but was mad about Dian and believed that he would marry her. Peter manages to stay under cover in the office, though Miss Meteyard, one of the female copy writers (said to be based on Dorothy herself) is suspicious of him. He finally solves the case, finding that there is someone at the office who is using the advertisments that go in the paper, to send messages to dealers throughout London, so that they will know what pub to go to, to pick up their dope. He learns that James Talboys, one of the copy writers, had for some time been doing this for the dope dealers. He was using the office as a signal depot.. and that Victor Dean had found out. Dean was threatening to expose him. He had killed Dean by firing a pebble at him from a catapult, while the man was walking down the stairs. Peter feels very sorry for Talboys, who is not long married and has gotten into debt and has just had a baby. He tells Peter he would give himself up but he doesn't want his wife and child to be pointed at...Peter suggests that he "takes the gentleman's way out" by putting himself in the line of fire of the drug dealers, who will bump him off.. He is depressed by the ending of the case, though Parker has managed to catch a ring of drug dealers, and he has found out who the killer was.....

Murder Must Advertise By DL Sayers (Spoilers)

This novel was written by Sayers while she was working on the Nine Tailors. The bell ringing in that book took a long time to research and she had to produce another novel, in a hurry to fulfil her contract. She knew about advertising, as she had worked for several years in an advertising office. She had been a good copy writer and enjoyed the work, but had left the job to become a full-time writerShe produced a plot about drugs and Bright Young Things, but admitted that while she knew about advertising, she did not know so much about dope. In this novel Peter goes undercover as a copy writer in a firm in Bloomsbury, where someone died in an accident by falling down a staircase. After the man's death, they had found a half written letter, to Mr Pym, which unnerved the boss. The management want to find out exactly what happened, and he agrees to send an agent along to work in the office, but decides to go himself, as it might be fun to try his hand at a job. He takes a flat nearby, in a building where Parker lives with Mary, Peter's sister, and their 2 children... Mary has given up Bolshevism and is a busy housewife.

Beds and blue Jeans Available on Amazon (Nadine Sutton)

 A story set in recent years in Nashville Tennessee- the home of country music.  It's the story of Sam, a young man, who has a small band that play in the bars for tips and makes a modest living.  He has a lot of women flirting with him and  he takes advantage of the fact.  But he also has a girlfriend and a baby.  Patti is a young woman who has no ambitions, and was drifting along, till she had her baby.   Now she is trying to find a new way of life......

Will she and Sam find a way of working out their relationship or will Sam drift away with other ladies.

Unnatural Death Part III

Miss Climpson continues to keep an eye on Mary Whittaker, who has gone away from her home in Leahampton, for a few weeks, looking at chicken farm. She has been thinking of buying a farm and running it. She takes a friend with her, Vera Findlater, a pleasant but not very clever young woman who has become her best friend. Miss Climpson thinks that Mary is using the girl. Peter has a sudden inspiration. He remembers that several months earlier, there was an article in the paper about a change in the laws of inheritance, simplifying the rules for people who died intestate. He consults Murbles, the family lawyer, who consults a barrister. The barrister explains that the law was due to change in 1926, and it might make it more difficult for Mary to inherit. She was the great niece of Miss Dawson and it seems unclear whether the new law would allow great nieces to inherit. If someone died intestate, and has lost their siblings, their nieces and nephews would definitely be next of kin, but maybe not the great nieces. If Mary feared that she might lose her money, and Miss Dawson was very ill, she might have been tempted to kill off the old lady, in the autumn of 1925. That would make sure that she died under the old law. Parker consults solicitors in the Holborn area, figuring that Mary would probably have sought legal advice. He finds a man who tells him that he did receive a visit from a young woman, some months earlier. He advised her that the law wasn't all that clear and that it would be advisable to make sure that a will was made, if the next heir was a great niece. Soon after that, he himself was called out to see a dying woman, to make a will. It was a house on Hampstead Heath, and when he got to the place, he found a very sick woman, who wanted her Will made, but who offered him a drink. He drank it, and decided to go back home, after he had completed the legalities. He realised he was feeling very ill. His taxi driver found him unconscious and being a decent chap, he called a doctor. It emerged that he had been drugged with a sleeping potion, but not enough to kill him. He tells Parker that he knew it was the same woman who had consulted him earlier about the new law, because she had a scar on her hand, and the whole incident scared him to death. He went to the house later and found that it was all shut up. It would seem that Mary Whittaker broke in and made use of it. Parker is now taking the case seriously, but he keeps pointing out that they don't know how Mary has killed her victims. Then Mary and Vera disappear, and their abandoned car is found, with a magazine called the Black Mask, in it with a mark under the title. It seems as if suspicion is being cast on the Rev Mr.Dawson. Then news arrives from a bank in town that Mr Dawson brought in a cheque for £10,000 - which seems suspicious. Wimsey believes that Mary has faked the kidnapping and is going to imply that the Rev Dawson did it or got some East End Villains to do it for him. Miss Climpson is concerned at the disappearance of Vera, and then finds in her local church some notes for a confession (Miss Climpson being High Church). She tries not to look but then looks at them and works out that Vera has been following Mary, when she and Mary were looking at chicken farms. It seems as if Mary had left Vera alone to pursue a love affair with a man and Vera concealed this information. Miss Climpson decides to go back to London to see if she can find Mary Whittaker at the street mentioned in Vera's notes. She disguises herself as a collector for her own local church, working her way along the street. She finds Mary, dressed differently, because she is now playing her alter ego of Mrs Forrest, and Mary attacks her. Meanwhile Vera Findlater's body has been found and she too has been murdered. While talking to the doctor, Peter has a sudden inspiration as to how Mary could kill her victims without any signs. He remembers helping a stranded motor cyclist who had an airbubble in his fuel feed, and asks the doctor if the same could apply to humans, that if there was a large syringe used, it could push air into the blood stream and cause death. Parker has people watching Mrs Forrest's flat, and he and Peter hurry there just in time to find Mary trying to kill Miss Climpson with an empty syringe. Mary is arrested but the detectives believe that they cannot make a charge stick on the murder of Miss Dawson. She can be accused of killing Vera and Bertha and attempting to kill Miss Climpson. Hallelujah Dawson has the money she gave him and does not realise that it was done to try and implicate him in killing Vera. But the case goes wrong because Mary strangles herself in prison with a sheet. Peter feels depressed but tries to be cheered by the knowledge that she was caught and stopped from killing, and that the Rev Mr Dawson will now be comfortably off - or as he puts it "all the little Hallelujah's will be rich".

Jerry Lee Lewis RIP

Jerry Lee died today at the age of 87, after a long career of singing country, rock and roll and gospel. Jerry Lee was born in Louisiana and was a cousin of the evangelist Jimmy Swaggart and another country singer and pianist, Mickey Gillis. As a child he used to sneak into clubs for black people, to listen to what was then called "race music". He was torn between his love of rock and roll and his belief inculcated in childhood that rock and roll was the devil's music.. He went to Bible college as a young man. He was famous for his wild antics, such as setting a piano on fire, and he made several marriages, including one to his young cousin Myra, who was only 13 when he was around 21. He went on performing till old age.

Unnatural Death Part II

Peter and Parker discover a connection with a lady living in London, Mrs Forrest - and they suspect that she may have given a five-pound note to Bertha Gotobed (it was found in her handbag). So they visit Mrs Forrest. She has a satisfactory explanation, but Peter still continues to believe that Mary Whittaker may have killed Miss Dawson and that she may be responsible for the death of Bertha. Parker is not convinced, as the autopsy on Bertha shows a heart failure after a heavy meal. It seems to be a natural death. However, Peter points out that she was alone, and the food she had with her was quite expensive food, not the sort of picnic that would be brought by a waitress. Peter advises Evelyn, Bertha's sister, to leave the UK, and to go back to Canada where she lives with her husband, as soon as possible as he is not sure that she is safe. He thinks that there was something funny about the Will, which was never made, and he tries to find the solicitor who worked for Miss Dawson but finds that the man has retired to Italy. Miss Climpson finds that Miss Dawson had a West Indian relative, a black clergyman called Hallelujah Dawson.. She hears that he visited Miss Dawson and had lunch with her. Peter traces Mr Dawson, who is now living at a mission in the East end, and wonders if he could be a rival heir to Miss Whittaker. He meets him and realises that the Rev Mr Dawson is a gentle naive soul, who did contact Miss Dawson, because he was in poor circumstances. He was descended from Simon Dawson, a relative of Agatha's, who went abroad in the previous century to escape from some trouble at home. He ended up in the West Indies, took a new name and managed to buy a small sugar plantation. Hallelujah found some old papers which told him that the real family name was Dawson, and that he had cousins living in England. But he then found that old Simon had taken his grandmother as a mistress but deceived her into thinking that they were legally married.... so his descent is illegitimate, and he could not be a rival heir. He tells Peter and Parker that Agatha was not prejudiced at all and was very kind to him. When he explained to her that he was not well off, the sugar plantation having failed, she made him an allowance. She told him that Mary would continue to remember him after she was gone. However, Mary did not do so but he has been managing to live modestly in the East End. Peter and Parker dont know what to make of all this, since Hallelujah cannot be an heir, as he is descended from an illegitimate line. Mary has inherited Miss Dawson's fortune so she had no motive to murder her. The only thing they can think of was that Miss Dawson might have tried to will the money to someone else but given her dislike of the idea of making a will, that seems unlikely. Meanwhile Mrs Forrest calls Parker, to ask for contact details for Peter, who visited her with his friend, using a false name. She asks Wimsey to come to see her, and he goes, but she tells him he must be discreet because she's trying to get a divorce and it could cause trouble if she is seen receiving a man in her flat. When he goes there, she gives him some details of seeing a girl outside the flats with a man, wearing the suit that Bertha Gotobed was wearing.. and he's not sure if she's telling the truth. But she seems to be trying to get him to stay the night with her. He takes a chance and kisses her, and while she tries to hide it, she is clearly repelled by the kiss. He tells her he must be going, and she looks furious and it unnerves him.

Unnatural Death by DL Sayers Part I

Been re reading a favourite Sayers book - Unnatural Death. It starts with Peter and his friend Inspector Parker- they are discussing murders at a restaurant. They fall into conversation with a doctor, dining at another table. The doctor tells them that he had to leave his practice in a small town, because he asked for an autopsy on a cancer patient who had died unexpectedly. He had believed that the old lady would live another 6 months, but she had died. The local gossips took exception to his "practically accusing the old lady's niece of murder". However, the examination had showed natural death. Peter becomes interested in the case and decides to investigate further. He uses Miss Climpson, a middle aged lady who has become an enquiry agent for him, because being a sweet older lady, she can ask things and gossip, whereas a policeman or male detective would be suspected. Miss Climpson goes to Leahampton, and becomes friendly with Mary Whitaker who was the great niece of Miss Dawson, the old lady who died. Then, a former servant of Miss Dawson's is killed, her body being found in Epping forest. Peter becomes scared that his investigations are setting off the crimes again. He meets Evelyn Cropper, the sister of the murdered girl, who has married and gone to Canada. He finds out that she and Bertha, her sister were asked by Mary Whitaker to witness a will signing by old Miss Dawson. The old lady had refused to sign the will as she had an aversion to the idea of making a will, believing that her property would go to her great niece anyway. Mary had tried to slip in a will to some papers the old lady was signing and when she found out, Miss Dawson got upset, and soon afterwards the maids were dismissed. Peter thinks it's in case they gossipped about the Will.

Rough Music, story on Amazon by Nadine Sutton

 Rough Music is a story set in the US in the 1970s, about a country rock band.  It is not a love story with a happy ending, but more a story about life on the road, making music and trying to stay married while travelling.  The 2 lead singers Brandon and Jeff, are good friends, but find it hard to cope with the compromises of being in the music business, not seeing their wives and kids because they are away on tour so much, and putting up with conflicts in the Band. 

Toll Gate Part III

Jack also learns that Jerry Chirke met Rose, Nell's nurse and chaperone, a pleasant looking middle aged woman, and fell in love with her at first sight. That's the main reason why he wants to reform. He stables his horse at the Toll House, when visiting Rose. Jack finds him a decent man, in spite of his profession. Chirke was from a poor family and had to work in a factory as a child, and he's never forgotten it, which is why he is kind to Ben. Nell is worried that her grandfather is now very frail and dying and she cannot leave him, especially with Henry hanging around. Jack tells her he wants to marry her. Sir Peter persuades her to go ahead and do it, privately by special licence, so she will have someone to look after her when he is gone. He has sent off for a special licence and the couple get married in Sir Peter's bedroom. Next day, the old man dies. Jack finds that the reason Henry is hanging around is that he has been involved with stealing a large load of the new sovereigns which are soon to be issued as legal currency. He learns that Henry and his accomplice, Nathan Coates, and their men did the robbery. The coins are now hidden in a cave on Sir Peter Stornaway's property. He also finds Ned Brean's body there, Nathan having killed him to make sure he did not talk. Jack and Jerry become involved in a gunfight in the cave and Henry and Nathan are both killed.... but Jack allows Jerry to claim that he found the hoard of coins, as there will be a reward from the Government for finding them. He is pleased that Jerry can use the money to buy a farm. Jerry is delighted, and he and Jack return to the village to meet Nell and Rose. He and Rose can now plan their wedding. Jack has decided to tell Ben about the death of his father when he feels the time is right. He plans to take the boy to his estate where he can be looked after, and train as a groom. However, Jerry and Rose decide that they will take care of Ben and adopt him. Since John has now married, he gets Jerry to agree to stand in as toll keeper until a new one is appointed, and Ben is delighted to be looked after by him and Rose.