Strong Poison

5 Stars for the audiobook First off - narrator is the actor Ian Carmichael who is excellent. He narrated a few in this series and also was in a full cast recording by BBC (abridged dramatizations) and he also played Lord Peter Wimsey on TV. I remember seeing a BBC Wimsey series with a different actor, which turned me on to reading the books in the 80's or it may have been the other way around. This is the 5th book in the series which takes place in the 1920s, England. I started here because it introduces my favorite character, Harriet Vane, a mystery novelist. Harriet is accused of murdering her ex-lover by poison. Wimsey falls in love at first sight with Harriet and proposes to her when he meets her face to face for the first time - while she is a prisoner awaiting trial! She turns him down and he vows to prove her innocent. I especially love their clever banter. I love this series. Wimsey is not the eldest son, so he is able to be a detective without family duties hindering his efforts. Through the years of detecting he has made many friends on both sides of the law and often asks favors of both. To get Harriet free he uses all his resources - especially from a secretary agency he funds which he will use to be his eyes and ears for where they can go and he can't. They actually do much of the actual clue gathering in this book. It looks like I'll have to re-read most of this series myself as the majority of the audio books are abridged. Too many books, too little time!