A Presumption of Death
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A Presumption of Death is a mystery novel by Jill Paton Walsh, based loosely on The Wimsey Papers by Dorothy L. Sayers. These consist of a number or letters written by various Wimseys and published during the war.
The novel is set in 1940 wartime England and features Sayer's famous sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, and his wife, detective novelist Harriet Vane. Due to the origins of the novel, the first part of the book is written entirely in the form of letters between various characters, a device also used to introduce Busman's Honeymoon
Plot summary
Harriet has evacuated her family to Tallboys, moving there with her three children, with the two children of her sister-in-law, Mary and with Bunters wife and children. Meanwhile Peter and Bunter are on the continent carrying out undercover work. While Peter is away a murder occurs in the village and the village policeman recruits Harriet to help solve the murder, partly because the police are too busy organising all the changes necessitated by the war and partly because as the wife of a detective, and as a crime novelist she is the best qualified person to find the murderer. Over the course of the novel Peter and Bunter return from the continent, Peter is retired from active service and is able to solve the mystery.
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