This is the first Dorothy Sayers book that I ever read, and I am still very fond of it. It introduces us to Peter's family, en masse.. His brother the Duke of Denver, his sister in Law Helen, the Duchess and his sister Lady Mary Wimsey. In the first novel Whose Body we have met Peter's mother the Dowager Duchess.
Peter returns from a holiday in Corsica - on stopover in Paris, to learn that his brother has been accused of murder. He is shocked and appalled, his brother is an amiable idiot who is devoted to his estates, farming, shooting and hunting. He has an English gentleman's horror of publicity and dislikes Peter's interest in detection.
When he gets back to England he rushes to Yorkshire where his brother was having a shooting holiday in a rented house. The murdered man was Denis Cathcart, a gentleman of leisure who had been studying diplomacy and was engaged to Mary Wimsey. Gerald, the Duke is refusing to say where he was, when Cathcart was shot. Peter's sister is in bed with hysterics, after the death of her fiance.
Inspector Parker, of Scotland yard, Peter's friend is investigating the crime. But the Coroner's inquest brings in a verdict of murder against Gerald, the duke, and he is to be tried by his peers in the House of Lords. Gerald refuses to answer questions about where he was, saying that he had had a row with Denis Cathcart... and Denis had walked out of the house in a temper.. but that he had not killed him. The row erupted because Gerald had a letter from a friend abroad, saying that Cathcart had cheated at cards in Paris and that he was not a suitable husband for Mary. Cathcart tells Gerald that he is not answering any questions and that in any case, he is not going to marry Mary.. the engagement is off.
Peter tries to persuade his brother to say where he was for part of the night but Gerald stubbornly refuses.
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