A New Lord Peter Wimsey Novel

The new Hodder catalogue has arrived today with details of a new Lord Peter Wimsey novel by Jill Paton Walsh. The Late Scholar will be published on 5 December 2013. This will be Jill Paton Walsh's fourth Peter Wimsey, the previous three had varying degrees of input from Wimsey's originator Dorothy L Sayers from half a book (Thrones, Dominations), some letters (A Presumption of Death) to the mention of a case (The Attenbury Emeralds).

The blurb from the catalogue:

Peter Wimsey is pleased to discover that along with a Dukedom he has inherited the duties of 'visitor' at an Oxford college. When the fellows appeal to him to resolve a dispute, he and Harriet set off happily to spend some time in Oxford.

But the dispute turns out to be embittered. The voting is evenly balanced between two passionate parties - evenly balanced, that is, until several of the fellows unexpectedly die.

The Warden has a casting vote, but the Warden has disappeared. And the causes of death of the deceased fellows bear an uncanny resemblance to the murder methods in Peter's past cases - methods that Harriet has used in her published novels...

The Attenbury Emeralds - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK covers for Jill Paton Walsh's The Attenbury Emeralds.

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHS) covers? Which would entice you more to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Jill Paton Walsh's books?

If you have read it, how well do the covers suit the story?

Read the Euro Crime review by Lizzie of The Attenbury Emeralds.

New Peter Wimsey novel

Jill Paton Walsh mentioned to this at last year's Harrogate Crime Writer's Festival - that she was working on a third Wimsey novel. The news is confirmed today at BookBrunch, though the finished result won't be available until autumn 2010:

Hodder has bought THE ATTENBURY EMERALDS, Jill Paton Walsh’s third Lord Peter Wimsey novel, from Bruce Hunter of David Higham Associates on behalf of the estate of Dorothy L Sayers. The story is set after World War II, but its roots go back to 1921 and Lord Peter Wimsey’s first case, in which the Attenbury Emeralds were stolen – a mystery alluded to by Sayers in a number of novels but never resolved.

The Sayers’ trustees asked Paton Walsh, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for her novel Knowledge of Angels, to complete an unfinished Sayers’ story, Thrones, Dominations, which had been found in the offices of her agent. It was published in 1998 to considerable acclaim, and was a Sunday Times bestseller. Like that novel, The Attenbury Emeralds will follow closely Sayers’ own writing about Lord Peter Wimsey, as told in her 11 novels and five collections of short stories. Publication is scheduled for autumn 2010.

As well as completing Thrones, Dominations, Walsh also wrote A Presumption of Death which was based on Dorothy L Sayers' letters.