Bloodless Murder

GAUDY NIGHT--Dorothy L. Sayers-- Harcourt, Brace ($2.50). Though murder stories form the chief mental diet of many a respectable citizen, even the most avid consumers are apt to be apologetic or defiant about their appetite. But they would not admit that detectification is the lowest form of writing. They would point out that the ability to concoct a specious and readable thriller demands more ingenuity and special training than many a novelist can command. And they would further contend that the best murder stories can compete with novels on their own ground. Partisans might instance the tales of Foe, Wilkie Collins and Gaboriau, would certainly mention Dashiell Hammett, "Francis lies," Dorothy Sayers. While admitting that run-of-the-mine murder stories bear as little resemblance to reality as a crossword puzzle and are pieced together with as little regard for grammar and probability, they would point with pardonable pride to such a book as Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night. Gaudy Night is not such a gaudy title as might be supposed. It refers to an Oxford colloquialism, "gaudy" (from Gaudeamus igitur), which is the equivalent of the U. S. "college reunion." Readers who are unfamiliar with Author Sayers' careful workmanship will find other surprises. Gaudy Night is twice as long (469 pp.) as the average murder story, and Author Sayers has taken at least twice as much pains as the average with her characters and setting. Second, its interest depends almost as much on its love story as on the unravelling of the mystery. Third, while putting its readers through all the paces of suspense it turns out to be not a murder story at all. Harriet Vane, heroine of a previous book (in which she was rescued from the gallows by the Pimpernellian sleuth, Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey), is a successful writer of detective stories. On account of the notoriety her trial has given her, she is a little too famed for comfort. But she wants to see her old college again, so accepts the invitation to attend the Shrewsbury gaudy. The week-end reunion is pleasanter than she expects: everyone remembers her and most are friendly. Because she is used to anonymous abuse, she thinks almost nothing of the threatening message that drops from the sleeve of her academic gown. But she remembers it again when a few months later she gets an urgent letter from the dean, begging her help. Shrewsbury College is being undermined by a mysterious poison-pen campaign, and the college morale is getting shaky. Harriet has not been long in residence when the outbreaks increase in violence. Fuses are blown, windows smashed, obscene decorations and threats are chalked on the conventual walls; a dummy is found hanging in the chapel. Unable to get to the bottom of the mystery, Harriet sends for her savior, Peter Wimsey, only to learn that he has been sent abroad by an anxious Government. The college jitters get worse as the mysterious campaign grows weekly more sinister. In time's nick Lord Peter arrives. Whether he unmasks the ghost before murder is done, and whether Harriet finally yields to his importunity and marries him are eventualities prospective readers would not like to be told. Gaudy Night is written by one who knows and loves her Oxford--from the vantage of a woman's college. Author Sayers' story is brightly in the Oxford manner, and for that reason may not recommend itself to Anglophobes. But she is not above poking a little feminine fun at the solemn inanities of academic rigmarole, and her satire--especially of conversation at the dons' high table--is kindly but rich. The Author ought to know her Oxford. She was born there (1893), where her father was headmaster of the Cathedral Choir School. She was one of the most brilliant scholars of her year at Somerville College and one of the first to be awarded an Oxford degree (she took a First in Medieval Literature). In London she got a job writing copy in an advertising agency, worked at detective stories on the side. In 1926 she married Capt. Atherton Fleming, famed war correspondent. Dorothy Sayers likes her trade. Her best-loved recreation is reading other people's murder stories, attending meetings of the Detection Club, a private association of her peers presided over by G. K. Chesterton. She thinks well of her own work but admires the classics more. Her favorite classic: Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone.

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