I Read Books: Busman's Honeymoon

 

Busman’s Honeymoon

Several years ago Lord Peter Wimsey, amateur detective, saved Harriet Vane, detective novelist and also occasional amateur detective, from the gallows and has courted her ever since. In the novel Gaudy Night she finally agreed to marry him. The novel opens with a variety of documents related to their wedding, including buying the house Talboys in the area she grew up, her father being a country doctor. They head there for their honeymoon; unfortunately Wimsey’s manservant Bunter had not been able to get up there to make arrangements. They find the house locked up and no one expecting them.

The neighbour doesn’t have a key, so they have to find the niece of Noakes the former owner. Noakes himself left several days ago, everyone assuming he went into town where he has a wireless shop. Finally getting access, the house is even more poorly equipped than they thought to Bunter’s dismay. The chimneys are blocked, the kitchen doesn’t seem to have a stove. Wimsey having got dirty dealing with various things has to be washed under the pump with cold water. Eventually the couple are able to retire, if not precisely in good humour, with a superior knowing amusement that this is a farce. Better than a tragedy!

The next day, dealing with the gardener, the neighbour and her son, the local builder who doubles as a chimney sweep, and efforts to get in food and other supplies, the house becomes full of local visitors, and someone finally goes down into the basement where they discover the dead body of Noakes.

The solution to the mystery is ridiculous so put that aside. Somewhat more enjoyable is the exploration of country life, something that Wimsey is familiar with in general terms from growing up as the local nobleman’s son in Norfolk, and Vane (now Lady Wimsey) more specifically from growing up in the next village. Perhaps unfortunately they all begin as comic types; forced to learn more about them by the crime the couple uncover strong passions and complex motives.

They also have to find their way into married life, both of them trying to cope with tragedy and trauma of their past. Wimsey had a nervous collapse after WW1, and though he knows he must find justice, for many reasons, it creates great distress when the murderers he uncovers face the gallows. (He has lesser distress when he discovers lesser crimes with lesser consequences, but he’s still soft-hearted wanting to avoid too much shame or scandal – for others.) Vane meanwhile has got used to being independent after her previous complex relationship and refuses to let Wimsey sacrifice his own sense of duty for her. (Distracted by the murder investigation Vane eventually gets around to asking if she has any money (which she knows she does because they signed a lot of documents) and if so how to get hold of it as she’s broke, spending the entire advance of her latest novel on her wedding gown so as not to shame Wimsey – or herself. On top of that she wrote three 5,000 word stories for Thrill magazine at 40 guineas each to buy the wedding present she got him.

A combination of stumbling over a murder on their honeymoon with the bizarrely convoluted mystery – the increase in complexity is a development that spread across most of the authors throughout the golden age of murder mystery detective fiction – is coincidence piled on coincidence. Which leaves the reader with the question, are they interested in these two people as they explore their new life, and this odd small village with dark undercurrents? Because if not the whole thing falls apart.

Read This: Fun novel of a couple trying to figure out their new life while village drama and a murder investigation keeps interrupting
Don’t Read This: Stupidly complex murder mystery with crudely sketched country stereotypes