DOROTHY L. SAYERS – Strong Poison. Lord Peter Wimsey #5. Gollancz, UK, hardcover, 1930. Reprinted many times, including Perennial, paperback, 1987 (the edition read).

   In which Lord Peter Wimsey meets mystery writer Harriet Vane, under the most unusual circumstances for the beginning of a romance, for she is on trial, for murder, for killing her former lover, whom she lived with for nearly a year, without benefit of clergy.

   It’s a great start for a mystery story, and if it disappoints slightly in its outcome, it may be only natural. The puzzle, not as devious as it could be, eventually centers not on the actual murderer, but rather on how he managed to introduce arsenic into the victim’s system.