"THRONES, DOMINATIONS" by Dorothy L. Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh (A-)

This book will be a real treat for older readers like myself who thrilled to the many BBC televised productions of English mystery novels that were imported to our shores under the aegis of PBS and presented by either Masterpiece Theater or Mystery Theater during the Seventies and Eighties. Younger audiences might not recall this era 30 years ago when PBS was virtually the sole channel that offered a more literate fare.

Reading this novel will be a treat for any Anglophile, as it is quintessentially English through and through. While somewhat dated in its writing style and suffused with an English character as would be appropriate for a story about a British Lord, I found it to be marvelously good fun as well as being a very entertaining read.

With our growing American cynicism towards all manner of authority, it might seem odd and decidedly out of time and place to read about a titled Englishman, and a Lord at that, parading about solving murder cases, but Ms. Sayers has written about her literary creation with such charm and élan that most of us will be easily drawn into Lord Peter Wimsey's orbit.

My wife and I especially enjoyed the fact that these television productions often gave faces to the characters in the books. However, when it came to the Lord Peter Wimsey televised mysteries, there have been two prominent actors who have played that role to distinction. Ian Carmichael was the ideal Wimsey in the series of five Sayers novels that were broadcast during the 1970's. Actor Glyn Houston also appeared in that earlier series as Bunter, and he was the incarnation of perfection as Wimsey's valet, confidante, and all around right hand man.

In the later novels Lord Peter becomes instantly smitten with Harriet Vane, a mystery writer who was then in prison charged with poisoning her lover. Certain of her innocence, he makes it his duty to rescue her from the gallows. Harriet becomes the very reluctant object of his ardor, but during Lord Peter's extended courtship they do share the duties of sleuthing and pursuing justice.

A decade or so later when it came time to film this second set of Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novels, Ian Carmichael, then in his sixties, was considered to be too old to play the part of a romantic lead. A younger Edward Petherbridge was chosen to play the new lead. We have always considered Petherbridge to be a little bit too effete for our tastes, but still he was perfectly cast for a role that had him mooning for Harriet Vane for the three televised episodes where they collaborated together in solving cases. In any event, the happy trade off is that British actress Harriet Walter was perfectly cast as Harriet Vane. I shall always see her visage in my mind's eye when I read any of the later Sayers novels.

I had often wondered about what kind of marriage Lord Peter and Harriet might have had. I was unaware then that Sayers' had written her only completed work on this very subject titled, "Busman's Holiday" (reviewed on this site). After I discovered this fact, further investigation revealed that the Sayers estate had hired Jill Paton Walsh, a highly regarded British mystery writer, to complete an unfinished Sayers manuscript with the working title "Thrones, Dominations," a title that Sayers had taken from a poem by John Milton. (Ms. Walsh has also authored a second Lord Peter Wimsey-Harriet Vane novel titled, "A Presumption of Death," from sketchy notes provided to her by the Sayers estate.)

In "Thrones, Dominations," the Wimseys are adjusting to life at Audley Square, Wimsey's London home. Harriet Vane, who had been penniless at times during her literary career, now has to adjust to life in a spacious London town home fully staffed with servants. While Harriet gets on famously with Bunter, and would never think of intruding upon his close relationship with her husband, she still is painfully aware of the fact that it must be a huge adjustment for Bunter.

The time frame for this novel occurs during the official six month period of mourning following the death of the popular King George V when only black is worn out in public. The British populace is still getting used to life under their new monarch, King Edward VIII, and gossip is just beginning to surface about his growing infatuation with that American divorcee, Mrs. Wallace Warfield Simpson.

The Wimseys are enjoying an extended but belated honeymoon after the trial for the murder which was committed in "Busman's Holiday." While enjoying lunch at an elegant Parisian hotel, they are perturbed to see a close relative, an uncle, eyeing them with more than the usual interest, no doubt to ascertain the nature of their marriage. Peter is well aware that some in his family feel that he has married beneath his station. Furthermore, he has shocked many of them by marrying a one time prisoner and, worse yet, a novelist and an unmarried woman who had formerly lived openly with a man.

By coincidence, wealthy London theater producer Laurence Harwell and his famously beautiful wife, Rosamund, are also dining at the restaurant. Lord Peter's uncle introduces the two couples as the Wimseys leave, and this occasions them to call upon each other when back in London.

Laurence, who adores his wife and dotes on her, is horrified to find her murdered at their country house. There are several suspects with differing motives, so Inspector Parker calls upon Lord Peter and Harriet to get to the truth of the matter. Besides, Parker already has a case involving the sudden disappearance of an actress who had been starring in one of Harwell's new theatrical productions. 1998, St. Martin's Press, 312 pages.