Unnatural Death (1927)
N.E.L. blurb:
'No sign of foul play,' says Dr. Carr after the post-mortem on Agatha Dawson. The case is closed. But Lord Peter Wimsey is not satisfied...
With no clues to work on, he begins his own investigation. No clues, that is until the sudden and senseless murder of Agatha's maid.
Then the most debonair sleuth in detective fiction is faced with the problem of discovering what goes on in the mysterious Mrs. Forrest's Mayfair flat—and catching a desperate murderer before he himself becomes one of the victims.
My review:
Sayers' masterpiece. Wimsey, assisted by Chief Inspector Parker (erroneously called 'sir' by a Superintendent!), shines as he attacks the death of Agatha Dawson, whom he believes to have been murdered, yet without any evidence to suggest how she could have died other than from natural causes. Several successive deaths from natural causes follow, the second of which, that of Bertha Gotobed, Miss Dawson's maid, is a brilliantly Fortunate investigation. Like Whose Body? and Strong Poison, this is a tale where the villain is known from the beginning; the interest lies in working out how the crime was committed and how the murderer will be arrested, a similar idea to R. Austin Freeman's inverted tales, but with more mystery. The New Property Act, an empty syringe (superb!), and a moral discussion of euthanasia and Catholicism all feature.