The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

By Simon Winchester

Unpleasantness may be an understatement when there is murder afoot.
 
Lady Dormer has a singularly strange will – if she dies before her brother, his grandson’s will inherit a considerable fortune, but if she passes first, the money will go to the young artist that she has sponsored. Strange, yes, but relatively simple, until both parties pass on the same morning. It’s up to Lord Peter Wimsey to determine the exact timing, and events, surrounding their deaths – a task that becomes more complicated when he starts to suspect foul play.
 
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• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9780771060410

Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts.

Reviews for The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

[tututhefirst_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Quick read, classic peter whimsey.

[fliss88_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A lovely old fashioned, frightfully British who-dun-it. Lord Peter Wimsey could be compared in character to Agatha Raisin - idiosyncratic, singular, snobbish, a civilian sleuth and loveable aristocrat. This mystery centers around a gentlemen's club, society parties and a dead body......I enjoyed the unravelling of the truth.

[ramrak_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A cracking read!

[sheiladeeth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The club is so muted and quiet it’s not hard to believe someone could die there unobserved. But then those nagging doubts creep in—those details Lord Peter Wimsey is so good at noticing. And then there are all those questions, because perhaps something far more unpleasant than old age caused this man’s demise. Evocative of time and place, polite with just the right touch of acid, and well-flavored with red herrings, Bellona Club is a fun book in the series, a nice characterization of the rich and less well-favored, and a cool blend of mystery and old-fashioned English manners. Disclosure: I love the series and am working my way slowly through rereading them all. (Very slowly—I savor the anticipation as well the read.)

[vivienner_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sayers portrays the time so well, in this case Armistice Day, 1928: young men were still suffering shell-shock while the elder gentry snoozed in clubs. Peter Wimsey is a wonderful character, intelligent, compassionate and observant, the perfect qualities for a sleuth. Everyone melts in his presence. This is a good mystery story, of course, but the characters, setting, and Sayers' writing make this a winner.

[ritaer_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Holds up well in rereading. The plot has interesting twists and turns and the characters are well drawn. This early Lord Peter is still a fairly frivolous seeming gentleman, but he displays incisive intelligence in questioning witnesses and suspects. Several years ago I cited this novel in a conference paper rebutting the idea that Golden Age mysteries ignored the condition of society. A mystery set in a men's club for military gentlemen is very clear on the physical and mental damage done to the veterans of WWI and their disappointment in the society to which they had returned. From the fathers giving commemorative dinners for the comrades of sons lost in the war, to the shell shocked George Fentiman, to Tin-Tummy Challoner, to the numerous women who will never find husbands, the England of Dorothy Sayers has been heavily marked by the war.

[jeremypreacher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Acceptable without being particularly awesome. It was hard to get too worked up about the murder, since everyone seemed to agree that because the old boy was 90ish it didn't much matter that he had died, the only question was exactly when - and that only because it affected his sisters' will. Several of the characters are flat unlikeable, and the various twists were not all that compelling. That said, Wimsey himself is always entertaining.

[sriemann_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thought I had this one figured out... but I was following one of the red herrings that the author had cleverly used. Will be looking for the next Wimsey.

[helen.callaghan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Another dose of rollicking good fun from the slightly affected but still likeable Lord Peter Wimsey. An old fossil at the Bellona Club is found dead, his newspaper in hand, and it's assumed he's simply gone off from natural causes. A question over his sister's will, however, soon brings out that not everything is as simple as it seems.

I read this in a day or so. While Lord Peter is unbearably silly (living up to his name) he's also fairly sharp and frequently kind, so spending time with him is always a pleasure.

[kimmr_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really love this book. For an unpretentious 1920s mystery novel, it really has a lot going on. There's the mystery itself, which has enough twists and turns to remain interesting. (I didn't guess the outcome, which is always a plus!). Then there is the social commentary: the plight of World War I veterans, the effects of poverty and unemployment, the changing role of women in society, relationships between men and women. And of course there is Peter Wimsey: intelligent, intuitive, funny and compassionate. Some scenes from this novel will remain with me for a long time: George Fentiman's breakdown, Peter's argument with Charles Parker, the easy camaraderie between Peter and Marjorie Phelps and Peter's conversation with Miss Dorland. Reading this book - and Dorothy L Sayers' other novels - makes me so much wish that I had known the author. What an interesting mind she had.

[kellyn_903682 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ninety-year old General Fendman is found dead in his favorite chair at the Bellana Club. The time of his death will determine who will receive a half-million-pound inheritance. Lord Peter takes up the investigation and, of course, solves the mystery. I read this twice in the summer of 2007 and thoroughly enjoyed the story both times.

[crowyhead · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's unpleasant enough when members of the Bellona Club discover that the elderly General Fentiman has apparently passed away in front of the fire. But unpleasantness continues when, due to some complications of inheritance, it becomes necessary to acertain when exactly the good general passed on -- and Lord Peter finds it may have been earlier, and in different circumstances, than anyone previously thought. This is a great puzzler, which takes the conventions of the detective genre and uses them to great advantage.

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Premise of the story: Old so and so (90 year old General Fentiman) has keeled over in the Bellona Club. Because the old codger had a heart condition and was so old people assume he died of natural causes until his estranged sister's will is discovered. If he dies before Lady Dormer a distant relative would get her inheritance. If he dies after Lady Dormer he would get the inheritance. Since they both die on the same day suddenly it matters very much exactly when General Fentiman passed. Down to the minute. Did he die before or after Lady Dormer? When it is discovered that General Fentiman was murdered aristocrat and amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey (don't you just love that name?) is called in to solve the mystery. The best part about this book is that it is really, really funny whether you read it or listen to it.

[figgles_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I reread this as it seemed like a good read for November the 11th - the novel begins with the death of an aged General in the Bellona Club on Armistice day. Lord Peter Wimsey is called in to acertain the time of death and untangles a net of deception and murder, driven by a squabble over a huge inheritance. Nicely written, with an interesting sideline on bohemian London in the 20s as well as a sympathetic portrayal of a man suffering from what we would now call PTSD. Good solid read.

[themulhern · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a review of the BBC radio dramatization. I suspect the book is superior. The murderer says "Right-o" in a bright sort of voice, even when he's just agreed to commit suicide.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's OK. Lots of people jumping through lots of hoops. Robert being too clever for his own good, for instance. But it came out OK. I'd forgotten that Peter's classic offer was in this one too. And the actual question was nicely tricky...

[thorold_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When an elderly retired general is found dead behind his newspaper in an armchair at the Bellona Club and Lord Peter Wimsey happens to be on the spot, the reader has a pretty good idea that it will turn out not to be a simple case of death from natural causes. I found this one less interesting than some of the other Wimsey stories seen purely as a detective story -- in the end, I didn't find myself very interested in who did it -- but it is worth reading for Sayers' sympathetic portrayal of the after-effects of World War I.

[lahochstetler · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Peter Wimsey solves a classic locked-room mystery, as he tries to determine how the corpse of an elderly man came to be in the Bellona Club on Remembrance Day. The man died sometime after 10am, but the exact time of death is a mystery. It becomes a pressing mystery when it becomes clear that the time of death determines who will inherit a large fortune. The convoluted family argument and complex relationships make Wimsey's efforts more difficult. Halfway through the book the culprit seems to be apprehended, but Wimsey isn't so sure. I liked the model of a solution partway through the book that had to be unraveled. This book had little engagement with Wimsey's life outside of the mystery. It is a book dependent upon Wimsey entering an existing situation. The details are numerous, and we get an interesting look at a London gentlemen's club in the 1920s. Overall, an entertaining classic mystery.

[janesteen_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Where I got the book: my bookshelf. A re-read.I have grown to love this Lord Peter Wimsey mystery because of its somberness, although I remember that when I first read it as a teen I found it uninteresting. Amazing how history (and, therefore, literature) becomes more complex and interesting as you age. The mystery LPW is called on to investigate is the time of death of ancient, doddery General Fentiman, which will make a big financial difference to one or more of three potential heirs. Of course things turn out to be way more complicated than the natural death of a very old soldier...This novel is set against the background of the aftermath of World War I, hence its more realistic, sober tone than the earlier novels. LPW comes very well out of this book, with far fewer fantastic speeches or superhuman feats of everything than some of the Wimsey novels are prone to. I feel, though, that the writing's a little rougher than usual, as if Sayers were on a short deadline. Another thing that struck me this time round (and I may be completely wrong) is that Ann Dorland, one of the heirs and thus a potential suspect, was a prototype of Harriet Vane, who will turn up in the next novel as LPW's love interest. Ann is an unhappy woman because she's been crossed in love, is a murder suspect but underneath it all (as LPW tells her) is a fine person with good taste. Does that sound familiar, Wimsey fans? Can't help thinking that at some point Sayers thought "hey, there's a little spark there. I could develop it for the next novel".A good mystery, of course: Sayers is nothing if not ingenious (although this is two times in quick succession that the victim has been an elderly person who would soon die anyway...) But it's the brooding, foggy feel of the book that really gives it its worth. Even Parker (inside whose head we dwell rather disconcertingly at times) seems to be permanently depressed, and the end of the book sort of drifts off into the mist. One to read by a cheerful log fire with a glass of old brandy...

[dknippling_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A reread. I love this book as a mystery - all kinds of classic stuff - but by the time you figure out the first mystery, you're thrown into a second. A small problem - When did the dead gent at the club die? - becomes gradually more and more complex, until it all collapses into a solution at the end of the book. It's a lovely piece of music :)

[nohablo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very clever and very sharp.

[julesjones_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The fourth Lord Peter Wimsey book. It's Armistice Day, and ninety-year-old General Fentiman is found dead in his favourite armchair at his club. Unsurprising for a man of his age, but it turns out that the exact time of death determines who inherits a very large sum of money, for his sister died on the same day. Lord Peter happens to be on the scene, and thus gets involved when it seems merely a matter of sorting out the inheritance, but the case gradually takes on a more sinister aspect as Lord Peter realises that he may be investigating a murder.That the case begins on Armistice Day is directly relevant to the plot, because Lord Peter isn't the only shell-shock victim amongst the cast. The book was written and set in 1928, the tenth anniversary of the end of the war. As with the first book of the series, there is a fine and chilling description of what the Great War did to some of the survivors, but here it's not just one scene. The whole book is suffused with the after-effects of the war, not just on the soldiers who served in the trenches, but on their whole society. There's an entertaining mystery to be had here, but it's wrapped in a superb portrait of 1928 England. The book is by turns heart-breaking and heart-warming, as Sayers turns in a virtuoso display of showing rather than telling what has happened to even the characters who on the surface seem unscathed.

[vivl_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It must be noted from the onset that from me 3.5 stars to DLS is equivalent to 5 stars for most other writers. I hold her very high in the firmament of writing in general, hence my standards for her are appreciably higher.One issue for me in terms of this most recent rereading was that I partly remembered whodunnit and why, probably because I watched the Ian Carmichael Wimsey series not so many years ago. Blessedly, my memory is flimsy enough that the ultimate crux of the matter escaped me completely, so from about the halfway point onwards I was as much in the dark as I was on first encountering this novel too many decades ago for me to care to count.Putting aside that small inconvenience, I was happy as usual to be lead hither and thither through Sayers' complicated and intelligent plot-line, with the puzzle aspect immeasurably enriched by flashes of almost cheeky humour and stunning moments of intensely insightful observation, on human nature and the human condition. The most incidental of Sayers' characters have flesh on their bones to a remarkable degree.The most enjoyable fleshing out for me, as ever, is that of our favourite characters: beloved Wimsey, of course, but also Parker and Bunter. The crumbs are coming together, the leavening is working its mysterious power, the dough is inexorably rising, I am mixing my metaphores like a mad thing, and the Wimsey loaf is beginning to show its bloom.

[ngmoore_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My second Wimsey novel. Not bad, but not superb, either. A good murder mystery is "about" something other than the murder. The death is always just a route into some normally closed-off world -- a family, a class, an institution, a profession, whatever -- upended and exposed by the presence of the corpse. In the much better Murder Must Advertise, for example, the true subject was office work, and the ad industry.This novel didn't quite work, because it didn't open any doors in this way. One minute we're learning about old-time London "clubs", then about D.H. Lawrence-style bohemians, then about the gulf between the British military of the Empire's glory days, and the shell-shocked post-Great War one...there's no thread running through the book strong enough to unite all this disparate stuff. So: enjoyable but ultimately unsatisfying. But I'm not giving up on Sayers -- I've seen her do better.

[pgchuis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

General Fentiman is discovered dead in his chair at his club and Lord Peter is asked to try to work out exactly when he died, since his rich sister also died that day and the order of their deaths affects who inherits her fortune. Very well plotted with unexpected twists for the most part, although the last third gets a bit less realistic. I found Ann Dorland's acceptance of what happened to her disappointing - Miss Climpson wouldn't have put up with it! Also, the way the murderer was treated at the end was unacceptable (at least to my modern sensibilities). The relationship between George and his wife was well-observed and I'm glad Ann got her happy ending.

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

To me, one of the better Wimsey novels, chiefly for its setting in an ultra-British club for military men on Armistice Day (the place and time both being significant clues to one aspect of the mystery) , though the murderer reminds me of the one in Whose Body; also there is some depressingly realistic material about the effects of the war on a young British officer and his long-suffering wife.

[fuzzi_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While at his club Wimsey stumbles upon a body of an elderly man who died while reading the paper...or did he? The author does a good job of educating the reader with information better known by physicians, coroners, and devoted mystery readers, and without being boring. Good read.

[ashleytylerjohn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sort of a high 3, rounded up. I prefer #3 (in Goodread's list, #4 is linked short stories, #3 was the last novel) to #5 as the characters were more engaging, especially the delightful Miss Climpson. This one's good, just not quite as good. Worth reading! (Or in my case, re-reading).

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).

[jennybeast · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A convoluted, time and location based mystery, absolutely in keeping with Whimsy's other adventures.

[leslie398 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

2020 reread via audiobook narrated by Ian Carmichael:Much of this 5th entry in the Lord Peter Wimsey series epitomizes Lord Peter's character and the reader sees once again the dilemma he faces between his desire to find out the truth versus his dislike of being responsible for what occurs as a result.