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Unnatural Death, published in 1927, is the third novel written by Dorothy L. Sayers featuring her aristocratic detective Lord Peter Wimsey.
The story begins with a conversation in a restaurant between Wimsey, his friend Detective Inspector Charles Parker, and a doctor who tells them about a situation he was involved in: an elderly lady, suffering from a slow-acting cancer, died suddenly and unexpectedly with no obvious immediate cause of death. She died intestate, but her great-niece, with whom she was living, was set to inherit the considerable estate. Suspecting something wrong, the doctor demanded an autopsy, which showed nothing unusual, but stirred up such local animosity that the he was forced to abandon his practice. Wimsey, sensing a mystery, decides to investigate—but his investigation triggers a series of deadly events.
One of the delights of the book is the introduction of a new character in Miss Alexandra Climpson, a middle-aged spinster whom Wimsey employs as an investigative agent, and whose effusive reports of the gossip she picks up in the town are very amusing.
Unnatural Death is notable for its inclusion of one clearly lesbian character—a decision unusual in detective fiction at the time—and the very sympathetic treatment by Wimsey of a black character (though offensively racist terms for him are used by others in the book).
An adaptation of the book was made for BBC radio in 1975.
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Subjects
Private investigators, Lord Wimsey, Peter (Fictitious character), Open Library Staff Picks, English Detective and mystery stories, Fiction, Large type books, Wimsey, peter, lord (fictitious character), fiction, Fiction, mystery & detective, general, Fiction, crime, Crime, fiction, Private investigators, fiction, England, fiction, Fiction, mystery & detective, traditional, Private investigators -- England -- Fiction, Detective and mystery stories, Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction, Wimsey, Peter, Lord (Fictitious character), 1890- -- Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, generalPlaces
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1920sShowing 10 featured editions. View all 70 editions?
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Unnatural Death (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries)
August 1, 1995, HarperTorch
Mass Market Paperback
in English
0061043583 9780061043581
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Unnatural Death (Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery)
July 1993, Perennial
Paperback
in English
0060923865 9780060923860
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Unnatural death
1987, Perennial Library, HarperCollins Publishers, HarperPerennial
in English
- 1st Perennial Library ed.
0060808403 9780060808402
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