A Presumption of Death - Jill Paton Walsh

In A Presumption of Death, Jill Paton Walsh tells how World War II changed the lives of Peter, Harriet and their growing family.

The story opens in 1940. Harriet Vane - now Lady Peter Wimsey - has taken her children to safety in the country. But the war has followed them: glamorous RAF pilots and even more glamorous land-girls scandalise the villagers; the blackout makes the night-time lanes as sinister as the back alleys of London. Then the village's first air raid practise ends with a very real body on the ground - not a war casualty but a case of plain, old-fashioned murder. And even before the second body is found, Lord Peter Wimsey and his brilliant wife are on their way to finding the killer.

Once again, Jill Paton Walsh has invented a mystery plot worthy of Sayers herself, while faultlessly capturing the voice of one of the most compelling writers of the twentieth century.

Jill Paton Walsh, born in 1937, is also the author of many non-crime novels for adults: the fourth of these, Knowledge of Angels, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Before writing for adults she made a career as a writer of children's books and has won many literary prizes.

www.greenbay.co.uk

A superb job of seamless collaboration. Thrones, Dominations is pure pleasure.
Wall Street Journal ON Thrones, Dominations

Jill Paton Walsh has...given us a Lord Peter story in the true Sayers' style and tradition
Norma Major - The Week on Thrones, Dominations

An engrossing, intelligent and provocative novel in the guise of a conventional mystery.
Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times Book Review

What we have here is a true detective story unambiguously set in the Thirties and written so much in the style of Sayers that the narrative is virtually seamless. We meet familiar friends and old enemies: the dowager duchess, loquacious as usual; the duchess of Denver with her egregious snobbery and disapproval of her new sister-in-law . . . I didn't myself believe that the job could satisfactorily be done, but she has proved me wrong.
P. D. James, Observer


Could this be the best book Dorothy L. Sayers never wrote? She has done a splendid job - certain to please the legions of Sayers loyalists as well as readers new to the Wimsey canon . . . Lord Peter has been made much more human and interesting by marriage. . . and the story is full of twists and connivance.
Chicago Tribune on THRONES, DOMINATIONS

Miraculously right: catching precisely the tone of the relationship . . . It comes out splendidly, . . . a thrilling denouement.
Libby Purves, The Times

A must for all Wimsey lovers...an entertaining read which offers some longed for insight into the lives of the Wimseys after their marriage
Northern Echo (Presumption of Death)

Jill Paton Walsh does a fine job of taking the first third of a difficult novel of mores and manners and turning it into a readable mystery. She also answers an unasked question about Lord Peter and Harriet: Yes, dear readers, they have a lot of sex and they like it.
Globe and Mail, Toronto

An admirable page-turner with some fascinating detail
Publishing News

Vintage whimsey ... Wimsey lives on in delicious familiarity in this triupmh not just of one writer's art, but of two
Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Presumption of Death)