by Z.J. Czupor
ZJ Czupor‘s On Tour with Dead Writers brings us clues to a mystery author each second Tuesday of the month. Dust off your investigative skills and send your answer to mysteryminutecontest@gmail.com by the 20th of the month. From the correct responses, one will be randomly drawn to win a copy of The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado!
St. Cross Church, Oxford, England,
built around AD 890. This is where the fictional marriage of Lord Peter Wimsey
and Harriet Vane took place on October 8, 1935. PHOTO CREDIT: Motacilla, per Wikipedia.
The fictional detective Lord Peter Wimsey appeared in eleven novels by this famous author while his detective partner and love interest, Harriet Vane, only appeared in four. Of course, detectives always must solve the mystery at hand, but the author also introduced feminist and class issues of her day, including topics of poverty, and the rise of Communism and Fascism. And there’s further tension since Wimsey is a blue-blooded aristocrat, assisted by his trusted valet, while Harriet is middle class who has had some success as a writer of detective stories.
Wimsey first meets Harriet after her boyfriend dies of arsenic poisoning, an element she was researching for her new book. She is arrested and tried for murdering him. Wimsey comes to her rescue by proving who the real killer is. Wimsey is instantly infatuated with Harriet (especially her brains) and the romantic sparring and sleuthing together begins. Eventually, the pair marry and end up detecting a case while on honeymoon. Over the next five years, in a series of short stories, the pair have three sons.
What made this detective couple so interesting and three dimensional is that the author created Harriet Vane as an Oxford-educated, angry woman who was indecisive about marriage, and Peter Wimsey who revealed his vulnerabilities and emotions through interior dialogue.
Who was this famous author?
Did you guess Dashiell Hammett last month? Edith in Idaho won a copy of The Assassins by Gayle Lynds!
Subscribe to our Newsletter to receive an extra clue at the beginning of each month as well as automatic entry to several more monthly Giveaways and first looks at weekly blogs!
Contest rules:
1. All US addresses are eligible to win.
2. Each month’s prize will be a book written by one of the Rogues and donated by that author.
3. All subscribers who email us with the correct answer before the 20th will be entered in a drawing to win.
Z.J. Czupor’s new murder mystery, When The Fog Rises, is published at zjames.substack.com. He’s also the author of the thriller Cut Right Through Me (also at Substack) and a book of poetry THE BIG WEIRD: Haikus in Times of Pandemic and Chaos. Z.J. is immediate past president of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and is an active member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. He is represented by Terrie Wolf, founder and owner of AKA Literary Management.
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