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 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 rather 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 and have their honeymoon in their new country cottage. 

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, dont know anything about Mr Noakes, the miserly owner, selling the house.  Mrs Ruddle a 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, and then Bunter goes down to the cellar to fetch some drinks and finds Noakes' body.....  It seems like he has been killed.