Strong Poison is one of those novels that has to be read in the context
of the time in which it was published in order
to be understood and
appreciated. In 1930, a woman who lived with a man who was not
her husband was considered flagrantly immoral, unworthy of association
with “decent” people, and probably capable of anything.
The story begins with Lord Peter Wimsey in court to see author Harriet
Vane’s trial for murder end in a hung jury due to the obstinacy of a
lone juror. Harriet stands accused of poisoning her live-in
lover, Philip Boyes, with arsenic. Not only is Lord Peter
convinced that Harriet is innocent, he is in love and instantly
proposes marriage to her. Harriet refuses the marriage proposal,
but accepts the offer of Wimsey’s help investigating the murder.
Lord Peter has just one month to solve the riddle.
To do so, he turns to his own private detective agency, which is
staffed entirely by women and run by the same Miss Katharine Climpson
whose refusal to accede to a verdict of guilty resulted in the need for
a second trial. One woman is sent to work as secretary to lawyer
Norman Urquhart, the cousin at whose house Philip Boyes was taken ill,
while Miss Climpson is depatched to Westmorland to infiltrate the home
of Mrs. Rosanna Wrayburn, who is near death and whose will may provide
the motive for murder.
This is a mystery replete with colourful characters who enliven a plot
dominated by a protracted search for a will and the intellectual puzzle
of how a meal which has been eaten by four people can result in the
poisoning of only one. Indeed, the victim and his killer are
undoubtedly the most unsavoury characters in the novel. As
always, Dorothy Sayers provides the reader with all the necessary clues
to solve the mystery but, even if the identity of the killer should
become clear before the end, the manner of his capture will provide a
thrill.