Customer Reviews
Densely plotted and quite, quite brilliant - By: tybalt-quin, 27 Jan 2008 
Have His Carcase begins with a bang when Harriet Vane finding the body of a man with his throat cut on a beach near the seaside resort of Wilvercombe. Unable to drag the body to a safer location & aware that the tide is coming in, she settles for taking photographs of the body before heading off to find a telephone so she can alert the authorities. Unfortunately, by the time she's able to do so, the tide has comein & the body disappeared. Without a body, there can be no inquest but this doesn't unnecessarily worry the local police who believe that the victim, Paul Alexis (a dancer come gigolo) committed suicide. However Harriet is not so sure & when Lord Peter Wimsey comes to offer support, he too finds it difficult to buy into the theory. And then the body finally shows up ...
This is an intricately & densely plotted mystery novel as Sayers deftly takes the reader through Wimsey & Vane's investigations, with the ever-loyal Bunter doing the required footwork. Much of the plot turns on the timing of the discovery of the murder (which I'm not going to spoil but which tiesin with the alibi for the main suspect) & the reader is really kept on their toes as Sayers goes through all the possible permutations & what they would mean.
Against this, we're also given more on Wimsey & Vane's relationship as Wimsey persistsin asking Harriet to marry him & she persistsin refusing. What makes this so interesting is that Sayers successfully sets it up as a kind of running joke whilst at the same time creating a genuinely emotional scene between the two that explores the undercurrents of why each behaves as they do & which I found to be moving (not least because you end up rooting for & understanding the position taken by both characters).
There are some laugh-out-loud momentsin the book, my favourite being where Wimsey's visit to a theatrical agent resultsin him auditioning for a partin a show (complete with a mincing walk), but Harriet's attempts to 'vamp up' for a suspect runs a very close second.
My only criticism of the book is that I thought the ending was far too abrupt. Sayers does tie the loose ends together of how & why the murder was done (incorporating references to the Russian revolution along the way) but we don't know what happens next & I found this open-endedness to be a little frustrating.
Still, I absolutely loved the book & whilst I think readers would benefit from having read Strong Poison first (as it explains some of Harriet's odd behaviour at the start), it's most definitely worth a read.
Classic murder - By: Lynette Baines, 10 Oct 2007 
Dorothy L Sayers' novels are the best of the Golden Age of detective fiction. I reread them often, even though I know the details of the plot, because they convey the flavour of the 20s & 30s. Have His Carcase is a fascinating look at the seaside towns of the period. Rich old ladies with time on their hands, professional dancers looking for a secure future with the said rich old ladies, journalists after a scoop & theatrical landladies with refined accents. The plot is as convoluted as any Sayers ever wrote. The discovery of Paul Alexis' body, lying on the Flatiron rock on a lonely beach, is one of the great openings of a detective novel. Harriet Vane is a prickly heroine, resenting her gratitude to Lord Peter Wimsey (whose detecting saved her life when she was on trial for murderin Strong Poison), yet reluctantly admiring his intelligence & his calvesin one memorable scene. Wimsey is a fantasy figure, but no less interesting for that. If you love the Golden Age, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Guaranteed to keep you up late reading it! - By: Nanny Ogg, 20 Aug 2006 A very good story with a wealth of interesting detail along the way to keep the brain engaged. Humour, a love interest & a huge variety of characters are offeredin this novel. The painstaking gathering of information by Lord Peter,Harriet, Bunter & the Police - until the pieces of the puzzle fit together - is a joy to read. It is one of those books that will keep you up reading late into the night. Well recommended!
Not quite successful - By: Anders Thulin, 17 Aug 2006 
The BBC production was originally broadcastin 1981in 6 episodes, dramatized by Alistair Beaton. (It has been previously released on audio cassettein 2000 -- this release is from 2003). Here it appears on 2 rather full CDs, with a total running time of about 2 hours & 30 minutes.
The three main characters are Lord Peter Wimsey (played by Ian Carmichael), Harriet Vane (Maria Aitken), & Inspector Umplety (Nigel Stock). The rest of the cast is also fairly recognizable: Warren Clarke, Isabel Dean, & Betty Marsden among others.
The CD carries a notice that it is recommended by the Dorothy L. Sayers Society. I can't make out why -- I suspect it may be a blanket approval of the whole set.
Personal impressions
The broadcasted episodes have been somewhat cut to make it fit on 2 CDs. The original episode structure with opening & closing announcements & cast presentation has been removed entirely, except for some short signature music at the beginning & end of each CD. I presume that no dramatic material has been cut.
This makes it rather difficult to listen to the story episode by episode, the way it was originally designed & produced, & the way I prefer to listen to radio theatre. Instead I found myself getting a bit antsy after about 40 minutes, wondering if it hadn't gone on for too long, & I decided to break where no break was originally planned.
As the track structure on the CDs turned out to consists of 'mini-acts' (20 on one CD, 21 on the other), it was a bit of a bother to find my way back to where I left off the previous evening. The track titles printedin the included leaflet do not give very useful hints to the listener (Track 12: "And that, Inspector, is why ...", or Track 13: "and I think you're treating ..." are good examples).
This is inconsiderate user engineering, & rather detracts from the listening experience unless, of course, the listener can do 1-hour-plus listening sessions.
Little needs to be said about the script, I think: it is impossible to compress the book into six half-hour episodes. Beaton has mainly gone for the mystery, & the very few cases where the growing relationship between Wimsey & Vane is allowed to appear, it feels slightly out of place. Only one single proposal of marriage remains!
As to production & recording, it should be repeated that the production is from 1981, & so feels a little old-fashioned to my ears. In a few places too many it is obvious that the actors are turning script pages, &in one place what should have been an outdoor sea scene is recorded with an in-door ambience, with an almost palpable ceiling above splashing water.
Acting seems reasonable, but I seldom forgot that I was listening to radio drama. Betty Marsden's landlady was a notable exception: she made the story come alive for a few minutes. Maria Aitken does a rather dry & occasionally mechanic Harriet Vane, but as she plays mainly against Ian Carmichael, who turns his Wimsey up a notch or two for radio, & Nigel Stock's west-country Police Inspector, this may be a contrast effect. I suspect it is also because the book portrays Harrietin ways that are difficult to dramatize for radio.
I don't think I will listen to this much again: perhaps on a train or a bus, & then only if I was unable to find the book. It seems mainly useful as an appetite-whetter for the TV series (with Edward Peterbridge as Wimsey), or for the full-length audio-book reading by Ian Carmichael, & ultimately for the book itself.
Second story in the Harriet Vane series - By: B. Chandler, 12 Apr 2006 My first encounter with Dorothy L. Sayers was the Mobile Mystery Theater series showing on PBS. I now have all three DVD's of the series ("Strong Poison", "Gaudy Night" & "Have His Carcase".) They never produced "Busman's Honeymoon" Dorothy sold the rights to Hollywood & BBC could not get them back. The Resulting movie is "Haunted Honeymoon"(1940)
Naturally the TV media cannot fillin all the details that you would pick up from reading the book.
So I read the book. This added more depth to the story, now I appreciate Dorothy L. Sayers more than Agatha Christie. Dorothy not only fleshes her characters out better but her side trips into philosophy & psychology make the story that much more interesting. And just when you say what is the relevance to this conversation it is wrapped upin the final solution.
This is the second of the book series. The story is complete & can be used as a stand-alone story. The notorious Harriet Vane is out for a walk & takes a nap. She wakes up & finds (you guest it) a body. If not for her trusty camera, no one would believe her. As it is the authorities think it was suicide. Wimsey thinks it is murder. Naturally everyone, especially the main suspect has an airtight alibi. The real interest is the interaction between Lord Peter & Harriet.
