Busman's Honeymoon cover art

Busman's Honeymoon

Classic crime for Agatha Christie fans

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Busman's Honeymoon

By: Dorothy L Sayers
Narrated by: Jane McDowell
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £17.94

Buy Now for £17.94

Season's Savings | £0.99/mo for 3 months

£5.99/mo after 3 months - terms apply. Cancel monthly
THE MULTIMILLION-COPY BESTSELLING QUEEN OF CLASSIC CRIME, DOROTHY L SAYERS
_____________________________________________________________________

'An all-time classic whodunnit' Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'The best detective story writer of her generation' Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Dorothy L. Sayers is my favourite crime writer' Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'One of the "Queens of Crime" alongside Agatha Christie' Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
_____________________________________________________________________

The thirteenth book in Dorothy L Sayers' classic Lord Peter Wimsey series, introduced by crime writer Natasha Cooper.

They plan to have a quiet country honeymoon. Then Lord Peter Wimsey and his bride Harriet Vane find the previous owner's body in the cellar.

Set in a country village seething with secrets and snobbery, this is Dorothy L. Sayers' last full-length detective novel. Variously described as a love story with detective interruptions and a detective story with romantic interruptions, it lives up to both descriptions with style.
_____________________________________________________________________

'She has great fertility of invention, ingenuity and a wonderful eye for detail' Ruth Rendell

'A truly great storyteller' Minette Walters

'Part of the Golden Age of mystery writers working between the wars, Sayers is often credited as the most intelligent of them all' Guardian

'What elevated Sayers's debut to the upper ranks of the genre was the quality of her prose and the sense that her sleuth had more emotional heft than he displayed' The New York Times

'Lord Peter should become one of the best known and best loved among the many amateur detectives of fiction' The New York Herald
_____________________________________________________________________

Readers adore the legendary Lord Peter Wimsey series

'Dorothy L Sayers surely wrote some of the most intelligent and enjoyable detective stories of the Golden Age of Crime' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'If you haven't read this canonical mystery, you are in for a real treat' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'What tremendous fun!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Exceptionally clever, amusing and well written' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Vintage mystery, a classic!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'One of the very best' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐©1937 The Trustees of Anthony Fleming Biological Sciences Botany & Plants Crime Thrillers Gardening & Horticulture Mystery Outdoors & Nature Science Thriller & Suspense
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most relevant
Harriet and Peter are at last Married. Crime however follows them to their honeymoon. A motley cast of characters make for an enjoyable read.

an enjoyable follow up to the ongoing relationship between Harriet and Wimsey

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Enjoyable end Wimsey and Harriet's relationship. I enjoyed the narrator, despite the other negative comments. The stacatto delivery seemed to carry something of the diction of the era to me.

The end

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you try another book written by Dorothy L Sayers or narrated by Jane McDowell?

I've read all of D L Sayers' novels. They are superb. This narrator has managed to make them mediocre.

Who was your favorite character and why?

In this particular novel, the characters of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane are as usual outstanding

How did the narrator detract from the book?

A lacklustre narration; monotonous and strangely paced; totally unconvincing 'voices' and utterly lacking any sense of the period. So dull, in fact, that it sent me to sleep within minutes of pressing 'start', every time I tried to listen to it. And what on earth was the narrator thinking when she pronounced Lord Peter's name as Peter 'DETH BREDDON' Wimsey?

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Only if this narrator's voice featured in no way whatsoever.

Any additional comments?

I did hesitate about downloading this version, because I have Ian Carmichael's recordings of Strong Poison and Gaudy Night, the first of the Vane/Wimsey trilogy and the BBC dramatized versions of Busman's Honeymoon and The Nine Tailors and enjoy listening to all of them very much indeed. I saw that reviews of this new narrator on the Audible site were less than enthusiastic,but I decided to take a chance on listening to Busman's Honeymoon in the unabridged non-dramatized format . I really wish I hadn't bothered. The fact that almost all the Sayers Wimsey novels are now narrated by Jane McDowell sadly means I can't look forward to adding these novels to my Audible collection. I'm so disappointed.

What a disappointment

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It’s a crying shame to have let down Sayers’ meticulously crafted English with this halting, staccato narrator. Very odd pauses and inflections. Given that both Harriet & Peter are supposed to be fluent in French, the least that the publisher could have done is find someone who could make a decent stab at the language. The love scenes in French are painful to listen to. Not only is the pronunciation weak but the tone is not remotely sensual or affectionate. Turned a pleasurable book into an irritant.

Great story, poor narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you listen to Busman's Honeymoon again? Why?

Ok, so the narrator didn't use different expressions for the different characters but she did read it well. It was so wonderful to hear the unabridged story, particularly how the relationship between Peter and Harriet develops and change, great to hear a little more about Peter and Bunter too!

thoroughly enjoyed this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews