Don’t yell at me. I know reading the penultimate Lord Peter Wimsey mystery is not the best place to start. And not just because it’s the tenth book in the series, but because it’s unlike the other Wimsey books, most notably because Lord Peter — like the 7th Doctor in the New Adventures — doesn’t turn up until the last third of the novel.* Blame Backlisted. They decided to do an episode on this novel, and I wasn’t going to read the other nine just for a podcast, even an awesome one.

Instead of Wimsey, the plot focuses on Harriet Vane, the woman Wimsey saved from certain death (two or three books prior) and promptly falls in love with – though she refuses to marry him. Vane is heading to her alma mater, the all-female Shrewsbury College in Oxford. She’s there for Gaudy Night, but someone at the college wants to spoil the fun. Across the year, they will send poison notes to students and dons — awful letters making all sorts of claims — while defacing the walls with offensive epithets and damaging College property (the poor library). But who? And why? And can Harriet Vane (did I mention she’s a mystery writer) uncover the responsible party before they do something worse, something violent.

The answer to the last question is no. Wimsey eventually saves the day, which is the only frustrating aspect of what’s a feminist mystery novel, one that advocates for female education and empowerment.

Aside from its setting and focus on female academia, in other ways, Gaudy Night isn’t your average mystery novel. No one dies; the events occur across the academic year, and all things considered, the stakes are small (the College’s reputation is at risk, but there’s never the threat of shutting the place down).

Sayer’s interest is focused entirely on Vane and how she navigates competing priorities – as a writer, an academic (she’s working on a thesis about Le Fanu), and a woman (she does love Wimsey, but is she willing to lose a measure of independence to be with him). It’s a wonderful, sometimes very funny, but also thoughtful, portrait, and I was always a little annoyed when the mystery intruded. Wimsey, for all his deductive brilliance, is dull compared to Harriet. Or, more to the point, and saying this as someone who just picked up his first Lord Wimsey novel, it’s clear that Sayers had lost interest in her star, which is probably why this was the penultimate book in the series.

I think Gaudy Night is too long, especially given that the mystery isn’t gripping. But it’s still a fascinating and astute character study. Will I read the other mysteries? Yes, maybe.

*I watched the first twenty minutes of the TV adaptation and wasn’t entirely surprised to see that Wimsey not only appears straight away but plays a much more significant role than he does in the books. A clear lack of confidence in Harriet carrying the narrative.