A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh & Dorothy L. Sayers – Harriet Vane in a Wartime village meeting many challenges

A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh & Dorothy L. Sayers

This book is a slightly hybrid effort. When Dorothy L. Sayers stopped writing Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane novels, she did write a few letters featuring Wimsey family members during the Second World War. Jill Paton Walsh was already a successful author when she was entrusted by Sayers’ estate to use these letters to write continuation novels. This book, which was probably a reread for me, is the second of these books. I greatly enjoyed it and read it really quickly. At its heart is a murder mystery which proves difficult to solve in true Sayers tradition, but which features the skills of Harriet Vane in the first instance. It also deals with wartime conditions which affected even the wealthy beginning in February 1940. It is bookended with Sayers’ letters which reveal how the Dowager Duchess views the Home Front and family matters in challenging times. This novel features many issues such as the role of women in wartime from aristocratic women to Land Girls, the priorities for men and the relationship between the famous Harriet and Peter.

Harriet is coping in the country house of Talboys in the village of Paggleham, with her two sons and the three children of her sister-in-law. She is supported by several servants and life is not too difficult in many ways. Local food sources in the countryside supplement the rations, even though pig-clubs can cause some problems and the magic of Harriet’s cook helps considerably. The research behind this book is considerable; the wonders of liquorice water and the lifestyle of RAF pilots are well described, but the information is never allowed to slow the narrative. There is humour from the children and some of the locals, and a certain dark humour in the refusal of some to use the main village shelter for religious reasons. Despite early preparations a practice air raid shows how the shelters needed certain basic comforts, and village life in all its complexity is a feature throughout the book. It is during a practice raid a young woman is murdered, and thus begins an investigation that Harriet becomes an unofficial part. The author tells us of Peter’s extended absence from the beginning of the book – and so Harriet is left, still a little unsure about her new role as effectively “lady of the manor” with responsibilities to the locals, a household which includes five children, and now with the task of finding out who may be a murderer. Peter may be in all sorts of danger on his secret mission, and Harriet must face investigating a crime without his experience and contacts.

This book works because it gradually introduces and builds on what we know of the characters and setting from Sayers’ own works, especially of Harriet’s character and skills. Even without the Sayers input, it is a very good novel of village life in wartime, and the nature of mutual suspicion which existed when invasion was a real possibility. The murder mystery is well plotted and developed. Harriet’s character emerges brilliantly in this novel as she must prove her ability to cope on all levels, not least with the unspoken fear for Peter’s situation. The author has really absorbed the elements of Harriet’s character that Sayers created, and expanded on them really well, alongside references to the events of “Busman’s Honeymoon” which is set in the village. I was very pleased to reread this book, appreciating anew the subtle and obvious extension to Sayers’ most loved novels. I would recommend it not only to Sayers’ enthusiasts, but also those who enjoy a well written wartime- set novel with a really well plotted murder mystery.