A Presumption of Death (2002)

A Presumption of Death is a 2002 Lord Peter Wimsey–Harriet Vane mystery novel by Jill Paton Walsh, based loosely on The Wimsey Papers by Dorothy L. Sayers. The novel is Walsh's first original Lord Peter Wimsey novel, following Thrones, Dominations, which Sayers left as an unfinished manuscript, and was completed by Walsh. A Presumption of Death is written by Walsh, except for excerpts from The Wimsey Papers.

Plot

Harriet (Lady Peter Wimsey) has evacuated her family to the Wimseys' country house, Talboys in Hertfordshire, taking her two children, along with the three children of her sister-in-law, Lady Mary, and Peter's venerable old housekeeper, Mrs Trapp. Peter and Bunter are away on an undercover assignment.

During an ARP drill, a young woman is murdered in the village, and Superintendent Kirk (who last appeared in Busman's Honeymoon) recruits Harriet to help solve the murder, as the police are short-staffed due to the war and Harriet, as a crime novelist and the wife of a detective, is felt to be the best-qualified available person to find the murderer.

The murdered girl, Wendy Percival, had come from the city as a Land Girl, to do agricultural work and help the war effort. She was killed in the village street while most people were in the village's two air raid shelters during the drill, and much of the investigation turns on who had been, or could have been, outside the shelters when the murder was committed. Patient investigation leads Harriet to eliminate several potential suspects, including two young men in the village with whom Wendy flirted and the RAF pilot who was last with her on the night she died. She also establishes that everyone in the shelters is accounted for, and that there was no way for anyone to leave either shelter unnoticed during the drill. Glumly, she reflects that her list of possible suspects has been reduced to a random "wandering maniac".

Returning home from one of her investigations, Harriet encounters "Bungo", Peter's old school friend and now a high-ranking officer in British Intelligence, who has received a coded message from Peter which Peter had said only she could decipher. The message is based on a book code, and after thinking carefully she realises that the key to the code is the sonnet which she started and Peter completed in Gaudy Night. The decoded message says that Peter and Bunter have accomplished their mission, but their danger is now great and they must come home separately. They require assistance to get home, and the message says which routes they will be taking. By solving the cipher, Harriet has saved Peter's life, just as he once saved her life. The message also instructs Harriet, in the event of his death, to read the letter he left for her in his bureau. Handling the unopened letter, Harriet reflects ruefully on the years she spent avoiding Peter's proposals of marriage, when all she wants now is to be with him again. Then she realises that she married him when the time was right for her, and that to have "settled" on the wrong terms would have been disastrous for both of them.

Bunter returns

On a brief trip to London to meet the Wimsey family solicitor, Harriet is trapped in the basement of her old home by a sudden air raid, and is surprised to encounter a dishevelled Bunter, returned home from his and Peter's mission. He says he has no word from Peter. The following week, he appears at Talboys to resume service with the household, since he has been denied permission to re-enlist in the army because of his age.

At the suggestion of Peter's sister Mary, Harriet summarises her progress in the murder investigation in letters to Peter, which she does not send. While writing one of these letters, Harriet realises that there is one person she has overlooked: an RAF pilot named Alan Brinklow, billeted in the village while recovering from a broken ankle. Not being a villager, he would not have been in either of the air raid shelters, but not being posted to any of the surrounding air bases, he would not have been expected there either. Although she has no reason to suspect Brinklow of having a motive to kill Wendy, Superintendent Kirk agrees to question him.

Peter returns

Peter returns, alive and well, to Harriet's immense relief and joy. A short time later, Kirk returns to Talboys to report that Brinklow's dead body has been found buried behind a farmer's shed. Peter is confused, saying he recognises the name Brinklow from his own mission and the man is already long dead.

Bungo is summoned to Talboys, and is present as Peter explains that Alan Brinklow was shot down over the North Sea some weeks ago; his body was recovered by a British patrol boat, whose captain decided to plant some false papers on the body and send it drifting into enemy territory, hoping to mislead the enemy. The ploy worked, but the Germans decided to infiltrate an enemy agent into Britain, using Brinklow's name, as they thought the British were unaware that the real Brinklow was dead. The "Brinklow" who had been living in Paggleham for the past few weeks was actually a German spy.

Bungo explains that "pseudo-Brinklow" is unlikely to have been killed by anyone from British Intelligence, as they would want any enemy agent captured alive. Kirk is at a loss for any other suspects, until Harriet suggests that the real Alan Brinklow might have had an enemy for some reason. In Brinklow's records, Peter and Harriet trace the name of a young woman, Joan Quarley, living in Northumberland. When they confront Joan's brother, an RAF pilot named Jeff, he admits that Alan was his squadmate, and that he and Joan fell in love, and she became pregnant with his child before his last mission.