The cover page is adapted from Shadows, a painting completed in 1922 by Fred Leist. The cover and title pages feature the League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by The League of Moveable Type. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Leistwww.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
Unnatural Death
Chapters (26)
- Part I: The Medical Problem 0:00
- I: Overheard 0:16
- II: Miching Mallecho 18:39
- III: A Use for Spinsters 32:25
- IV: A Bit Mental 56:17
- V: Gossip 1:15:16
- VI: Found Dead 1:34:31
- VII: Ham and Brandy 2:08:13
- VIII: Concerning Crime 2:29:52
- IX: The Will 2:48:56
- Part II: The Legal Problem 3:01:34
- X: The Will Again 3:01:44
- XI: Crossroads 3:32:33
- XII: A Tale of Two Spinsters 4:05:55
- XIII: Hallelujah 4:27:48
- XIV: Sharp Quillets of the Law 4:44:20
- XV: Temptation of St. Peter 5:09:06
- XVI: A Cast-Iron Alibi 5:28:05
- XVII: The Country Lawyer’s Story 5:41:44
- XVIII: The London Lawyer’s Story 6:02:58
- Part III: The Medico-Legal Problem 6:27:11
- XIX: Gone Away 6:27:28
- XX: Murder 7:00:26
- XXI: By What Means? 7:19:22
- XXII: A Case of Conscience 7:47:07
- XXIII: —And Smote Him, Thus 8:20:41
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Unnatural Death, published in 1927, is the third novel written by Dorothy L. Sayers featuring her aristocratic detective Lord Peter Wimsey.
The story begins with a conversation in a restaurant between Wimsey, his friend Detective Inspector Charles Parker, and a doctor who tells them about a situation he was involved in: an elderly lady, suffering from a slow-acting cancer, died suddenly and unexpectedly with no obvious immediate cause of death. She died intestate, but her great-niece, with whom she was living, was set to inherit the considerable estate. Suspecting something wrong, the doctor demanded an autopsy, which showed nothing unusual, but stirred up such local animosity that the he was forced to abandon his practice. Wimsey, sensing a mystery, decides to investigate—but his investigation triggers a series of deadly events.
One of the delights of the book is the introduction of a new character in Miss Alexandra Climpson, a middle-aged spinster whom Wimsey employs as an investigative agent, and whose effusive reports of the gossip she picks up in the town are very amusing.
Unnatural Death is notable for its inclusion of one clearly lesbian character—a decision unusual in detective fiction at the time—and the very sympathetic treatment by Wimsey of a black character (though offensively racist terms for him are used by others in the book).
An adaptation of the book was made for BBC radio in 1975.