The Late Scholar

Summary: Peter discovers a new duty that his role of Duke brings. It leads him to a mystery and eventually to several deaths.

I have enjoyed this series of four books that grew out of Dorothy Sayers writing. The first was the draft of a novel written by Dorothy Sayers that Jill Paton Walsh finished. The next three were mostly Jill Paton Walsh using Sayers characters. I have enjoyed the books and I am glad that I read them. But I also haven't loved them.

I still like Peter and Harriet as characters and I appreciate seeing them as they age. Their children are young adults. At the end of the last book, Peter had assumed the role of Duke after his brother died. His nephew was killed in action during WWII. Harriet still is writing, but the work of Duchess takes time. And there is a lingering of her earlier reputation as an accused murderer that does pop up in this book several times. Bunter is the ever present assistant who wants to keep the social boundaries in place, but who acquiesces to the increasing informality of the 1950s.

The mystery always felt a bit under developed. There is an ancient manuscript in one of the college of Oxford. Because of a long ago bequest, Peter has the role of “visitor” to help settle disputes within the college. In part because of money problems within the college, there is a disagreement about whether the manuscript should be sold and the money invested or if the manuscript should be kept and financial changes made in other ways.

Peter was unaware of the role until he started hearing from members of the faculty seeking to persuade him of their position. Eventually Peter goes to investigate, in part to get away. There he discovers a couple of accidental deaths that he suspects were murders and several more potential attempted homicides and a missing person.

I like that Walsh makes both Peter and Harriet joint figures in the mystery. She operates within a community that still is pretty sexist and I think Walsh over does that in some ways. It isn't that the era was not sexist, but there was already a history of the female writer and detective.

I was glad to read the book overall, but I think there is a reason that the series did not go further. It has been just over a decade since this book came out. I like the characters more than I like the series and it feels like Walsh didn't really have anywhere to go. There is only so many references to real life mysteries being different from books. I think Walsh has done a good job maintaining the feel of the characters, but the mystery of the last two has felt pretty flat.

The Late Scholar was entertaining and kept my interest, but I didn't feel it was as well plotted or characterized as the previous one in the series. I did like the setting at Oxford, a throwback to Gaudy Night, and it was different enough as it focused on a men's college. The mystery plot didn't hold up, however, and any recollections of Gaudy Night were disrupted by the body count. However, I still liked it. I wonder if she'll write another.