Clouds of Witnesses by Dorothy L. Sayers

I think this is my first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery. Or is it my second? I'll have to go check. Anyway, in a bid to read more of the Golden Age of Mystery authors, I picked this up at the library.

Lord Peter Wimsey is a fairly respected (well, does work with a few police officers) amateur sleuth whose mannerisms remind me of a British version of Ellery Queen. Kinda flippant, if I'm making sense. When he's back from a holiday, he discovers that his brother is under the suspicion of murder and refusing to give an alibi. So Lord Peter investigates, and he finds out that not only his brother is has a secret, but his sister too.

Clouds of Witnesses is very cleverly written, and I did not figure out who the murderer was. Or rather, I couldn't figure out how it was done. At any rate, I enjoyed reading it, especially the climatic scene in the courtroom that I shan't spoil for you.

As for the characters, I liked most of them well enough, but Lord Peter feels rather dated (in a charming way, of course). I find that my memory of Poirot and Miss Marple feel more current than Lord Peter, possibly because I'm not familiar with how the upper class of Britain were at that time. So a lot of this felt rather new to me.

Still, I enjoyed this and I'll definitely be on the look out for more Lord Peter Mysteries.