Lord Peter Wimsey Solves the Case!

And the culprit is… Annie Wilson! (I was wrong…it wasn’t Ms. Hillyard and nobody died!) I’ve never mentioned her before have I? The reason being she is not by any means a major character in the novel. In fact, Annie is a scout, a member of the servant/maid service at Oxford—not a member of the Senior Common Room as the novel (especially Harriet) led the reader to believe from the start. This just goes to show that in an academic setting, one must always consider all possible suspects because even though one may eliminate a certain group or certain people, there are so many people involved in the academic setting that there’s a chance it could be anyone. I suppose it makes sense now that I know who it is, since a scout would have great knowledge of the buildings and teachers’ movements, as well as access to various places, due to his/her job. But at the same time, although Annie popped up in the story every now and then, she never posed a real threat, especially since she played the widow mother who desperately needed a job to support her two children. By portraying Annie this way, Sayers was able to cast suspicion off of her, thus making it very difficult for the reader to suspect her.

Then again, it would be difficult to suspect her anyway because there is absolutely no way the reader could have pieced together all of the information and discovered Annie’s initial reason for joining the Shrewsbury staff and causing all the mayhem in the first place. Most of the information surrounding Annie was presented at the very end by Lord Wimsey, as he reported his findings to the members of the Senior Common Room (SCR). It was done in a professional way with Wimsey articulating himself very well, after scholarly analyzing all of the evidence of course. (Elements of academic mystery?)

It’s at this time that Wimsey shares with the teachers (AKA dons) that he discovered that the first and even second notes that started the entire mess at the Gaudy, were both meant for Miss De Vine as opposed to Miss Vane based on the closeness of their names (How he jumped to this conclusion is still fuzzy to me…). Then, based on the graphic pictures that the book never went into great detail about (the reader is supposed to understand that they are extremely indecent and inappropriate, some mutilating naked scholarly women), Wimsey surmised that the woman behind the mischief was either engaged or married. Then he concluded that this woman must somehow be connected to Miss De Vine in the past based on his nephew’s testimony and a note from the perpetrator stating that Miss De Vine had killed in the past. Indeed the widow Annie Wilson fit the description. In the past, Miss De Vine had turned Arthur Robinson in for covering something up (the story is not exactly made clear to the reader), which ruins his reputation and career. Unfortunately, he was never able to recover and suffered for the rest of his life—along with his children and wife Charlotte Ann Clarke. (They changed their last name to Wilson as Arthur was trying to rebuild his reputation.) After Arthur “blew his brains out” Annie made it her mission to find and kill Miss De Vine to avenge her husband’s death, which she truly believes is the fault of Miss De Vine.

When confronted, Annie doesn’t even try to clear her name but instead unleashes an outburst in which she confesses, letting out a rage of pent of feelings against the SCR. She proceeds to ramble about how she loved her husband—sticking by him through thick and thin—and about how they won’t marry and let men “make an honest woman” of them. She was appalled at their stance on the issue and this is the reason why her hatred of the intellectual Miss De Vine spread to the rest of the college, including the innocent and studious students. She believed their learning was causing them to believe they were better than others and were in fact taking away jobs from honest hard working men like her husband. She reveals that she desperately wanted to expose the school’s scandal so they would suffer like she did and still does, even claiming that she wanted to burn the place down. In the end, she points out that as smart as they all think they are, they still had to get a man to solve the case for them (her haha moment).

It’s interesting how Annie was motivated to cause havoc and bring down the college because she didn’t approve of women obtaining an education, thus taking jobs away from hardworking men. The book is most likely exposing the widespread beliefs of the 1920s. At the same time, perhaps it reveals that novels in the academic mystery genre are also academic because the perpetrator’s motivation for killing/making a disturbance (whatever causes the mystery), is rooted in academic belief or pertains to academia. I’ll just have to see with the next book.

Academic Mystery Explained

In my quest to better understand the academic mystery genre, I began to do some research, and in doing so, I came across an article that I found helpful and interesting. Maybe it will be helpful for others as well. So here it is: http://januarymagazine.com/features/murddegrees.html
It confirmed my belief that there are a range of reasons to use the academic setting for a mystery, due to the many people and possibilities for motive in academic settings.

And the "romance mystery" continues...

Once again, Miss Vane and Peter Wimsey have become the center of the story again, as opposed to the mystery at hand. In fact, they’ve spent the majority of the day together again, this time Peter teaching Harriet self-defense moves so that she may be prepared in case the Pen-Poison tries to harm her. Peter has this notion that because he is around, Harriet is now an even bigger target than before and may attempt to harm her as a result. Although Harriet doesn’t fully believe in this, she agrees to have Peter teach her self-defense, which is described as being very physical in the novel. After this, she even allows Peter to buy her something—which was unheard of in the past, most likely because he gave her back her life (by helping her not be hanged). She allowed him to buy her an antique ivory chessmen set, which was worth a great deal of money. Clearly, she likes him (even if she refuses to admit it) which is the reason she is beginning to allow him to buy her presents. At the same time, she is still ashamed of this possibility because she is reluctant to bring her gift into the Senior Common Room where the others will undoubtedly see it and inquire who it was from. When Harriet finally gains the courage to enter the room, the others are amazed by it (and she proceeds to use the chess set to play Miss de Vine 3 times, losing all 3 games; could this signify anything?).

Once again, Miss Hillyard comes out looking suspicious in this scene due to the fact that although she regarded “chess to be the world’s most wearisome amusement, [she] would not go away and get on with her work” but was eager to help bring the glass case (of which the set would be encased) to Miss Vane’s room. She set it up “opposite the bed ‘so that…you can see them [chess pieces] if you wake up in the night.’ ” Why the night and not the day? This suggests to me that Miss Hillyard wants this to be the first thing that Miss Vane sees when another nighttime disturbance occurs, hindering her from immediately responding.

Still, as I become more and more convinced the culprit is Miss Hillyard, the fact that this is too obvious and that Wimsey seems to be hinting at another person, makes me unsure of my decision. By now, Wimsey claims Miss Vane “must know…if [she’s] giving [her] mind to the thing at all.” Because Miss Vane is suspicious of Miss Hillyard but didn’t name her as the culprit, it seems as though it is somebody else. Perhaps she cannot deduce the culprit because she is too wrapped up in her own affairs with Wimsey, or perhaps it’s because, as Wimsey says, she can’t “put [her] prejudices aside” (referring to her relationships with the members of the SCR).

Too Many Suspects

I’m becoming more and more convinced that academic settings are used for mysteries because there are so many characters that could be possible suspects. Right now, despite all of my suspicion of the other characters I already mentioned, more characters are falling into the possibility of being a suspect.

Miss Hillyard seems to be a prime suspect. One night while Miss Vane was out at a function, somebody claiming to be the Warden’s maid called her to alert her that another disturbance at the college had occurred. Naturally, Miss Vane excused herself immediately in hopes of quelling the disturbance. Fortunately, while on her way, she remembered Wimsey’s words: “The heroines of thrillers deserve all they get. When a mysterious voice rings them up and says it is Scotland Yard, they never think of ringing back to verify the call.” As a result, Miss Vane called the Warden’s room back and of course, nobody had called from there and there had been no disturbance at the school. Therefore, Miss Vane had Padget, a butler at the college, watch and see if anybody was lurking around her room, waiting for her return (just in case this person wanted to attack her). When she finally returned, Padget informed her that he had seen Miss Hillyard walking about, hinting she most likely made the call, despite the fact that she walks around at night.

At the same time, by the author deliberately stating someone as the culprit in a mystery, it seems that this person is too obvious to choose. However, Miss Hillyard also had an argument with Miss Chilperic for no reason at all. Something is wrong with her. Is she mad she wasn’t able to execute her plan of luring Miss Vane back on campus the night before? Still, at the same time, suspicion is cast off of her at the end of the scene because Miss Edwards comments “ ‘If somebody doesn’t get to the bottom of these disturbances within the next few days, there’ll be murder done.’ ” Why would anybody say this, knowing everybody is on edge looking for the culprit? Again, to me, the reader, this is a foreboding sign that murder is yet to come.

This is all still so confusing. Everybody seems to be a suspect. Other suspects on my mind are Miss de Vine, since all of these disturbances coincide with the time when she began working at the college, and Peter Wimsey. I don’t see how it could possibly be him though since he is the detective and was supposedly away for the majority of the crimes, but recently his full name was revealed: Peter Death Bredon Wimsey! His name seems to suggest he breeds death. Or perhaps could his name be suggesting that he will be the one to die? I just don’t know what to make of all of this.