so-soSayers has a tendency to have her characters (usually Lord Peter) make a point with a very large number of words. Usually, I like this, but in this novel, it feels tedious. This novel has a seemingly complex mystery with a relatively simple solution that's revealed fairly excruciatingly right before the novel abruptly ends. I wonder what was going on in Sayers's life when she wrote this one because it seems like she wasn't really focused on it.
I've had an emotional week (nothing too awful, just feeling overwhelmed due to a malfunction with my empathy filter), which was punctuated this afternoon by a cathartic crying jag triggered by seeing a racoon family that hadn't made it safely across the road. How murder mysteries became comfort reading for me, I have no idea, but here we are. Hopefully, I can find better emotional balance soon. Until then, hooray for escapism!
I have to leave for a coffee date I've been looking forward to, but Wimsey is just about to do the Big Reveal! This is why I wish I lived somewhere with better public transit.
Okay, so this book just had a scene in which the characters have a detailed conversation about which trains and buses are best to take, and now I keep picturing the characters as the cast of SNL's The Californians.
Time notation in this novel is different than I've seen it before. I've been able to find an explanation for "point format" (using a point rather than a colon between the hour and minute), but I'm not sure about the absence of the zero before a single-digit minute (1.7 vs 1.07). My hypothesis: That the zero as a placeholder is an addition that came about after digital clocks were introduced.
Does anyone have insight into this history?
While it was pleasant to spend a couple of days with Netflix true crime shows, I am very glad that I have enough energy and focus to read a bit today! Although I'd read that the more recent strains aren't supposed to mess with your sense of smell as much, I'm definitely not able to smell or taste like usual. But with a teen just back from sleepaway camp, maybe it's not all bad that my sense of smell is diminished. 😂
pickIn some ways I was hesitant to read this, partly because Gaudy Night was SO GOOD and I was worried this wouldn‘t measure up, and partly because this is the last book and I don‘t want the series to be over. I needn‘t have worried about it not measuring up. Sayers manages to weave together and balance the Harriet & Peter bits with the mystery bits perfectly. And the ending hit me hard—instead of solving the crime and wrapping it up nice and pat⤵️
Home from traveling and at the hair salon getting the boy-teen cleaned up for camp and a really cool musical performance opportunity that came up for him. This is such a busy summer, just one thing after the next! It's nice but tiring.
In other news: The dialect in this novel is really slowing me down. The interactions are clearly funny, but I feel like the sloth from Zootopia with how long it takes me to get the jokes.
Travel day! Spent the 5+ hours on the plane trying to nap then giving up and watching Amelie, and now I'm trying to get some reading in on the hour-long train ride. The train is not nearly as air conditioned as I expected it to be. 🥵
“All my life I have been wandering in the dark—but now I have found your heart—and am satisfied.”
“And what do all the great words come to in the end, but that?—I love you—I am at rest with you—I have come home.”
💜
