Gaudy Night

by Dorothy L. Sayers

This mystery takes place in 1930's in Oxford.  A previous scholar, now a mystery book writer, comes back to Oxford to attend a Gaudy celebration.  Strange, threatening things start to happen after the event.  The author finds a threatening note, composed of cut out letters glued to a page, tucked into her gown sleeve.  Other women also receive threatening messages and someone is defacing the buildings, burning gowns, etc.

The college wants to keep the news about these events out of the press.  They ask the author to try to find out who is perpetrating the threats.  She tries to figure out who the guilty party is but is not successful and the threats continue when classes resume in the summer.

The author has a tragic past, her former lover was murdered and she was almost hung for the crime.  The lawyer who saved her from the gallows is now a close friend and suitor.  He keeps asking her to marry him but she keeps declining.

A good part of the book involves the story of the women's college, the challenge of women getting an education at that time, debates about marriage versus a career and the value for women of getting an education.  It is of course largely the story of the wealthy and privileded but some poorer women are featured including the woman who is found to be the criminal.  Her husband is dead, she is working at the college and has to farm her kids out to another family to raise.  She blames one of the scholars for her husband's academic demise and evenutal death.

The main character struggles with the marriage proposals because she wants to be independent and not feel beholding to any man, especially her saviour, but in the end she calls him in for help with the crimes and it is he who identifies the guilty part.  In addition to the main story there are side stories about some young men scholars also, this added to the complexity of the novel and as far as I can see wasn't  essential to the story.

I found the book very long winded with all the academic discussion, class and society discussions, etc.  I was particularly disappointed that a book that seemed to be somewhat feminist with its subject matter ends up by having a man solve the crime and in the end she decides that she really does love him and will marry him.
So for all the talk about women's independence the book ended very traditionally.