Reading Slothfully

Not too long ago, my spouse read this book and intrigued me into doing the same. Back in the dark ages, when we lived in Pittsburgh and didn't have a TV or any money to speak of, we would entertain ourselves by reading Dorothy Sayers to each other in the evenings. I think we pretty much read them all, except for this one. So, now I've read this one as well. It's quite good.

My spouse vowed to divorce me if I didn't give it at least 4*s, but it's not too great a stretch for me to do so. Although, were I able to give +s or -s, I might rank it 4*-. The reason for her dictate is that I gave 4*s to The Diva Detective, which my spouse views as an inferior work. The Diva Detective actually quite good, and y'all ought to go read it yourselves.

Anyway, back to Busman's Honeymoon. Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane finally get married, after having known each other for six years. I guess that back in 1937 that was a long time. A few years earlier than that, my mother made my father wait three years before she would wed him, and up until she died at 106, she continued to lament about how long she had made him wait. My spouse barely gave me a year before we had to tie the knot. Now days, however, modern young folks wait for over a decade, it seems. I have kids to prove it.

Anyway, back to Harriet and Peter. They go off on their honeymoon to a small village near where Harriet grew up, planning to live in a house she remembers fondly from her youth. They had bought the house and it was supposed to have been pimped up for them. But when they got there, no pimping had been done, no one was there to greet them, and no one even knew they were to come. The previous owner had apparently run off, leaving oodles of debtors holding their bags, so to speak. Eventually they get inside. A day or so later, they discover the body of the guy who sold them the house in the basement, with his head bashed in. He'd been there for a week.

So we wander back and forth between Peter and Harriet getting into the swing of finally being married, so to speak, with interludes of musing about the murder, the suspects and possible motives. Well, they don't do much about motives. Their motto is that when one knows how a thing was done, one will know who dunnit, so to speak. For some reason, I found the musings about marriage and relationships rather interesting. I found much of the speculation and conjecture regarding who dunnit a bit tedious.

Whatever, it's a GoodRead for those of us who would still prefer to be reading rather than watching something stupid and trivial on the TV.