Name That Book!

[Sorus]

Sounds familiar, but I can't place it.

[deer of the dawn]

I got nothin'.

[Savor Dam]

Story takes place at Oxford in the 1930s.

[Sorus]

I give up. Have a feeling I'm gonna kick myself though.

[deer of the dawn]

Yes, it's beginning to sound more familiar. But all I can think of is Lewis's That Hideous Strength; right setting and time, wrong storyline.

[Savor Dam]

Interesting that C.S. Lewis is mentioned. He is not the author of the book, but the actual author had much in common with Lewis. Both were writers of imaginative fiction and powerful Christian apologetics. They corresponded with each other and held each other in high regard.

Here's a hint that separates our author from Lewis: membership in the Detection Club. Does that help?

[sgt.null]

nope.

[Vraith]

My wife says it sounds like Chesterton.

[sgt.null]

Wodehouse?

[Savor Dam]

Neither. Yes, it sounds like it could be Chesterton, but I am not going there. Good writer, but a contentious subject on the Watch, nu?

Chesterton was the first Detection Club president; our author was a subsequent one.

Hinting closer to the book's content, protagonist was once accused of murder in another of this author's books

[sgt.null]

grisham?

[deer of the dawn]

Neither. Yes, it sounds like it could be Chesterton, but I am not going there. Good writer, but a contentious subject on the Watch, nu?

Really? Why?

I'm thinking of George McDonald now?? I haven't read him in so long I can't remember anything except the Light Princess.

[I'm Murrin]

Deer - I don't know that Chesterton's a contentious subject, but we used to have a rather contentious member who tended to quote Chesterton frequently and at length.

[ussusimiel]

Deer - I don't know that Chesterton's a contentious subject, but we used to have a rather contentious member who tended to quote Chesterton frequently and at length.

I, for one, miss rusmeister. The Close is a far, far quieter place without him. And Fist almost never posts here now, whereas when rus was around he posted copiously every day. It reminds me a bit of Gangs of New York, where the demise of a person's greatest competitor/enemy leaves them nostalgic and listless

u.

[sgt.null]

never read chesterson. do not miss the rus....

[Savor Dam]

George McDonald would have been rather challenged to have written a story set at Oxford in the 1930s, since he died in 1905.

Murrin has done a good job of articulating what I explained rather poorly in my comment about Chesterton.

Amplifying the last hint and tying several together, the protagonist of this book was accused of a murder in an earlier book by this author. She was acquitted of that murder through the efforts of another ongoing character in this author's works. That other character has been courting our protagonist ever since (over a span of multiple books) and in this book the protagonist finally agrees to marry him.

That should prompt someone to come up with the title!

(Until I discovered Donaldson in the late '70s, this author was my favorite.)

[StevieG]

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers?

[Savor Dam]

Correct!

Now that we are done with that bit of Wimsey, what book is next, Stevie?

[Vraith]

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers?

My god, I think I've actually have read that...my wife probably has it on her shelves. I think she has all the Sayers and Chrisitie books. For some reason the only Lord Peter one I ever remember any of is one where he's "undercover"...I think writing ad copy?...and used the name "Death."

[Savor Dam]

Since we are playing Name That Book, what Vraith is referring to is "Murder Must Advertise." Death (pronounced to rhyme with teeth) is Wimsey's middle name. Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey.

Still Stevie's turn...