the unpleasantness at the bellona club television show

The book opens at the Armistace Day commemorations at the rather crusty Bellona Club. Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the story is its hook – the way Lord Peter becomes involved in the case. Even though the production values are rather dated, I still regularly rewatch it out of a mixture of appreciation for the performances and nostalgia for that first viewing. While it has been years since I had last read the book, I remember it really clearly because the excellent 1970s television adaptation with Ian Carmichael was one of the very first televised mystery stories I ever watched. This is the book I was waiting to get to in my big reread of Dorothy L. As the nation celebrates and suspicions run riot, Lord Peter must discover what kind of soldier would have the nerve to murder a general. Across town, his sister dies on the same day, throwing the General’s half-million-pound inheritance into turmoil. The aged General Fentiman-a hero of the Crimean War-expires sitting up in his favorite chair. And this Armistice Day, death has come to join the festivities. Though he acts jolly, Lord Peter Wimsey finds the holiday grim. Veterans of the Great War gather at the Bellona not to hash over old victories, but to stare into their whiskies and complain about old injuries, shrinking pensions, and the lingering effects of shell shock. Its atmosphere is that of a morgue-or, at best, a funeral parlor-and on Armistice Day the gloom is only heightened.

Even the Bellona Club’s most devoted members would never call it lively.

The unpleasantness at the bellona club television show