The Attenbury Emeralds
This is the third novel written by Paton Walsh featuring characters from the Lord Peter Wimsey series, originally by Dorothy L. Sayers. Never having read the originals or the previous two continuations, I can only judge on what I found within the covers of this novel.
The story centres around the eponymous emeralds with confusions, twists, suspicious deaths and disappearances cleverly linking Lord Wimsey’s first case, which launched his career as a detective in 1921, with his later life in the 1950s when he is happily married and well-established. The need for Lord Attenbury to sell the emeralds to pay estate duty throws up a problem with their provenance, which Wimsey must solve to save the Attenbury estate. The secrets of his novelist wife Harriet are also dredged up during the course of the novel, giving a whole new dimension to the characters.
The back story is woven in so seamlessly that it can work just as well as a stand-alone novel, although I suspect that, like me, readers will be looking forward to reading the first two and discovering (or rediscovering) the original Dorothy Sayers novels. Paton’s book conjures up a sense of time and place wonderfully well and deals with more than just the central story, giving us a clear picture of life after the war, how the lives of the characters have been affected by it, and also showing subtly and powerfully the relationship between master and servant: Lord Wimsey and the capable and intelligent Bunter. A crime puzzle with deeper layers which makes for an entertaining and satisfying read.
