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crack_van2009-12-10 01:46 pm
azdak.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2009-12-10 01:46 pm
Entry tags:
Death in the Tuileries by Dafna Greer (PG13)
Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: None
Length: 4,400
Author Website: None that I know of
Why this must be read:
One of the hardest things to find more of, even in a fandom based on detective stories, is plot. Admittedly, even Sayers had trouble constructing a decent mystery within the constraints of the short story form, so perhaps it's not surprising that fic writers generally prefer character studies or vignettes to fully-fledged criminal investigations. Death in the Tuileries is a notable exception to this rule. Peter Wimsey, as a newly-minted lieutenant in Paris, is given two days to investigate the (apparently) accidental drowning of a young officer with friends in high places. In addition to a neat plot, the fic offers the bonus of Wimsey and Bunter's first meeting (refreshingly low-key and devoid of portentous hints about their future), and a well-realised wartime atmosphere. There is a nit or two to be picked – the dialogue is rather counter-intuitively laid out in places – but the story as a whole more than makes up for such lapses.
The lieutenant colonel looked over the fair-haired young man in front of him and decided it could have been worse. He had the semi-dazed look of all new officers, but his face wasn't quite as scrubbed raw as the university recruits, and at 24, he was positively mature compare to some.
"You were at Eton with one of the support company officers?"
"Major Morris, yes, sir."
"Good, well, he suggested you might be our way out of this ..."
The lieutenant colonel paused to think of a word that would adequately convey what he felt at being ordered to find time in the middle of a war to investigate the death of an aristocratic sot fool enough to drown himself in two feet of water.
"... situation," he finished, finally.
Death in the Tuileries
Pairing: None
Length: 4,400
Author Website: None that I know of
Why this must be read:
One of the hardest things to find more of, even in a fandom based on detective stories, is plot. Admittedly, even Sayers had trouble constructing a decent mystery within the constraints of the short story form, so perhaps it's not surprising that fic writers generally prefer character studies or vignettes to fully-fledged criminal investigations. Death in the Tuileries is a notable exception to this rule. Peter Wimsey, as a newly-minted lieutenant in Paris, is given two days to investigate the (apparently) accidental drowning of a young officer with friends in high places. In addition to a neat plot, the fic offers the bonus of Wimsey and Bunter's first meeting (refreshingly low-key and devoid of portentous hints about their future), and a well-realised wartime atmosphere. There is a nit or two to be picked – the dialogue is rather counter-intuitively laid out in places – but the story as a whole more than makes up for such lapses.
The lieutenant colonel looked over the fair-haired young man in front of him and decided it could have been worse. He had the semi-dazed look of all new officers, but his face wasn't quite as scrubbed raw as the university recruits, and at 24, he was positively mature compare to some.
"You were at Eton with one of the support company officers?"
"Major Morris, yes, sir."
"Good, well, he suggested you might be our way out of this ..."
The lieutenant colonel paused to think of a word that would adequately convey what he felt at being ordered to find time in the middle of a war to investigate the death of an aristocratic sot fool enough to drown himself in two feet of water.
"... situation," he finished, finally.
Death in the Tuileries