Clouds of Witness

I thought this book was fantastic, it pulled me in right away and kept me glued. Unfortunately the author felt the need at the end of the book to recap, step by step, the circumstances surrounding the crime. On the audiobook this lasted a full 25 minutes! It's as if the author was so concerned that readers grasp the full extent and intricacies of the plot that she couldn't just trust us to remember what had happened, but instead had to beat us over the head with a monologue summary. It absolutely left a bad last impression of an otherwise great book. Docking 2 full stars out of supreme irritation.

I found Clouds Of Witness to be a very mixed bag. It has a chaotic feel to it as if the energy of the eccentric and well-drawn characters keeps pressing against the confines of the exposition of the slightly over-complicated plot.

Some parts of it sparkle. I love the way Wimsey uses words as both a shield and a sword. When he first appears, he finds the shooting party at breakfast, knows that they've been speaking about him and unleashes a torrent of knowing commentary, an effortless domination of the room, all achieved with a breezy we're all good chaps here tone that it's hard to take offence at but which can't be mistaken for affability.

I also love the way his mother talks when she's sharing her thoughts. You can see her mind show more working as she pursues her thoughts in a rush of words that tumble like a pack of hounds chasing a fox and which she keeps trying to discipline through half-remembered quotations and verbal footnotes. It ought to sound as if she's babbling but instead, it displays a sharp, well-educated mind forming patterns from the available data.

The characters, even those whose role in the plot is minor, thrum with life. Their voices sound true on the ear. Their foibles, habits and manners are captured with actuely observed without being commented on. I loved the adroit concise, incisive and amusing descriptions of the reasons why the members of the shooting party are angry and unhappy at breakfast on the Sunday morning after the inquest. It made me smile and it helped me see each of them more clearly.

The plot was fairly sound. Everything worked and it delivered a few surprises along the way but it lost a little credibility by depending on so many people deciding independently to do covert and uncharacteristic things in the early hours of a particular morning.

Some of the plot exposition was clumsy, by modern standards. The way the inquest was reported using transcripts enhanced with notes from the police rather than from the point of view of one of the people present shows how conventions in novels have changed over the past ninety-seven years. The KC's closing argument in the trial in the House Of Lords went on so long that I suspect some of their Lordships may have dozed through parts of it.

The action scenes, which included shots fired, death-defying flights and perilous encounters on the moors felt a little frantic, like something from a comic book.

Another sign of how expectations around novels have changed since 1926 is the way French is used in the text. Most of the short sentences in French are not translated and a long letter, that is key to the plot, is included in its entirety before the translation is g8iven. It seems that Dorothy L Sayers assumed that her readers would be able to read French with ease.

Reading Clouds Of Witness after having read later novels like Strong Poison (1930), The Nine Tailors (1934) and Gaudy Night (1935), I was aware of how brightly Dorothy Sayers' raw talent shone through and how much she had honed her skills over the next decade. show less

A vacationing Lord Peter Wimsey races to join his family at Riddlesdale Lodge in Yorkshire as soon as he learns of a family crisis. Wimsey’s elder brother, Gerald, the Duke of Denver, stands accused of the murder of their sister Mary’s fiance. Both Gerald and Mary appear to be hiding something. Wimsey’s friend, Detective-Inspector Charles Parker, is on the case and he looks forward to Wimsey’s assistance. With the aid of Wimsey’s man, Bunter, Parker and Wimsey race against the looming trial deadline to uncover the truth of what happened on that fateful night.

The best parts of the book are in Wimsey’s voice, which sparkles with wit. However, the book loses momentum in long information dumps. I look forward to seeing more of show more Wimsey’s mother, the dowager duchess. If Sayers were writing today instead of nearly 100 years ago, the dowager duchess might have been the detective instead of her son. show less

An intricate and lovely mystery. Solid plot with lots of twists and turns. Lord Peter Wimsley is on a mission to exonerate his brother the Duke accused of murdering the fiancee of his younger sister. The period, early 20's is very well described without being heavy and awkward. The characters we've met in the previous book, Parker, the Duchess, Peter we come to care a lot about. A little less of Bunter in this one but we do meet Lady Mary and learn a little about Lord Peter's past. I loved it. I kept rationing my chapters because I didn't want it to end and have one less book to read.

When the Duke of Denver is arrested for murdering his sister's fiancé, Lord Peter rushes home to do a bit of detecting. Apart from the delightful humour, one of the most appealing elements of Sayers' mystery novels is that she always incorporated commentary of social conditions and happenings of the day. In this story, Wimsey takes a flight across the Atlantic to secure a witness statement to clear his brother, a trip that sounds almost innocuous until it is remembered that this was in 1920. In the open plane, pilot and passenger were soaked in a rainstorm on the return journey! The Duke's dramatic trial in the House of Lords was an excellent display of the pomp and pageantry associated with that institution. Favourite characters here show more are police Chief Inspector Parker who overcomes his timidity in a Paris shop to buy lingerie for his sister; Wimsey naturally; and Bunter at the top of the list. As always, Sayers is eloquent and entertaining. show less

It was an unexpected pleasure to discover that there was a Wimsey novel I hadn't read yet - rather like finding the last bottle of the '47 lurking dust-covered at the back of the cellar. The book - the second full-length Wimsey novel - isn't up to the standard of some of the later ones, but it does have quite a lot to entertain and interest the reader. The Yorkshire setting is nicely observed, with dialect characters who are portrayed as individuals and manage to avoid becoming stereotypes. The scene where Wimsey goes astray on the moors on a foggy night is pure melodrama (Wilkie Collins at his most wuthering), but Sayers defuses the tension with neat irony by tying it into the song "On Ilkley Moor baht'at"

What is most interesting about show more the book, seen as part of the Wimsey "canon", is the way it establishes the relationships between Lord Peter, his brother the Duke, his sister Lady Mary, their mother the Dowager, and Chief Inspector Parker. The Duke is accused of murdering Mary's fiancé: we know, of course, that Wimsey will be able to get him off the hook (any other outcome would pretty much rule out any further Lord Peter novels), but it's an interesting challenge for him, not least because the Duke refuses to explain where he was on the night in question, while Mary's evidence at the inquest conflicts with the other witnesses. show less

Sayers brings real comedy, history, and her Oxford training in languages to her inevitable detective stories. Dickensian names: Lord Peter Wimsey, lawyer Sir Impey Biggs (a handsome, big imp), opposing attorney general Lord Wigmore (in full wig). Mr Murbles, the senior lawyer, says " ‘Brilliant man, Sir Impey. He is defending Truth.’ Lord Peter, ‘Astonishin’ position for a lawyer, what?’ Mr Murbles acknowledged the pleasantry…’”(164).

First heard this book aloud decades ago, by my wife, so I had not grasped all the wit, though I knew the plot was multiple, at least three affairs with three different couples all converging to one crime, of which the detective’s older brother, the Duke of Denver, stands accused. The Duke show more reserves his alibi which would compromise a married woman—perfect gentlemanly act which increases the difficulties of his defenders, including his detective brother (whose interests the Duke disapproves—incunabula and crime rather than football).

Sayers gives us an intricate plot, with its culmination a long letter in French written by the victim the day of his murder. Lord Peter Wimsey has to go to the US by steamship to find it, and when he does, he flies back in a 1920’s plane, flimsy, the famous pilot’s jacket covered in rain. Flying through ravaging storm and fog, Wimsey’s arrival in doubt, his butler Bunter resolves to set a fire in his bedroom, hopeful.
From our yearly visits to England, but perhaps more from watching TV mysteries like Midsommer and Father Brown, we have personal experience of much in this novel. Further, I have a coat that my British-resident friend asked if a Burberry. No, a wax-coated LL Bean, but… We “musn’t rest upon our oars” takes me back to college freshman crew on the Connecticut River (169). Also, my wife and I have had one cup of hot chocolate, with a jigger of brandy, every evening for over a decade. Our preferred brandy is Portuguese, not the priceless 1800 Napoleon served in Lord Peter’s house near Piccadilly.

Many characters here are witty, including butler Bunter’s mother, who says, “facts are like cows. You look them in the face hard enough, they generally run away”(79). Lord Peter later informs his butler, “Well-bred English people never have imagination, Bunter.” “Certainly not, my lord. I meant nothing disparaging.”(175)
Scotland Yard, headed by a Scot, and a crossword solution in Scottish, never spelled out for me. Broad Yorkshire dialect as well, as in the Yorkshire “national” anthem, “On Ilkley Moor Bat’ at,” quoted in, “Then doocks will coom an’ ate pop worms/ On Ilkla Moor…” (196).
Be prepared for many un-American, British words: “widdershins” “gaiters”, and words like “loofah” which I had to search, evidently an organic sponge grown from a gourd—even in California.

The real title should be “Cloud of Witnesses,” which appears late in the novel (258), but Sayers must have preferred the sound of both -s endings.

Sayers considered her Divina Commedia translation to be her best work, in Dante's prosody,
hendecasyllabic terza rima. show less