Strong Poison is a 1931 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers. It's the fifth book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series, and the first appearance of Harriet Vane.
Harriet is a novelist researching poisons for her next book. Her ex-lover Phillip Boyes dies, apparently of gastritis, after having coffee with her. The post-mortem reveals Boyes actually died of arsenic poisoning. Everyone suspects Harriet... except Lord Peter, who thinks Boyes may have killed himself. But he has very little time to prove it before Harriet is tried for murder.
The novel was adapted to television in 1987, and to radio in 1963, 1976, and 1999.
Contains examples of:
- Absence of Evidence: One suspect had absolutely no opportunity to poison the victim - everything they ate and drink was either shared, or preserved for testing. This convinces the detectives that they had something to do with it, and were deliberately shielding themself from suspicion.
- Acquired Poison Immunity: The murderer poisons a meal that he and the victim share after he has spent some time building up an immunity to the poison, which allows him to survive while the victim dies, all the while casting suspicion away from him. Notably this is also a case of
Science Marches On, since it is now known that one could not do this with the poison in question—arsenic—without suffering any noticeable ill effects. - Asshole Victim: Phillip Boyes, self-centred, manipulative, and emotionally abusive to the woman he purported to love. In the immortal words of Lord Peter, "If only that young man were alive today, how dearly I should like to kick his bottom for him."
- Bathroom Breakout: The murderer, realising the jig is up, asks to use the bathroom with the intention of escaping out the window. On discovering that the window leads to a sheer three-storey drop, he exits the bathroom in search of another exit and is immediately arrested by the waiting police.
- Bluffing the Murderer: Lord Peter tricks the murderer into thinking he's eaten poisoned food — which, if he was really the murderer, he would be immune to. Rather than feign illness, the murderer makes a run for it and is promptly arrested.
- Book Ends: The first chapter opens with a description of the courtroom on the last day of Harriet's trial, dwelling on details such as the flowers decorating the room. The last chapter opens with a parallel description of the courtroom on the first day of Harriet's retrial.
- Clear Their Name: The plot kicks off when Peter attends Harriet Vane's murder trial and realises that she's not guilty despite the apparently strong case against her.
- Cold Reading: Mrs. Climpson uses this on a credulous nurse in order to gain her help in securing vital evidence. She feels rather guilty (due to religious and ethical reasons) but justifies it due to the importance of the evidence, and to use her "skills" to persuade the nurse to stop visiting less ethical "psychics".
- Dead Artists Are Better: Lord Peter suggests this as a motive for murder: the murderess kills her lover, so his books become bestsellers. Then when she's arrested and hanged, her books will become bestsellers, too.
- Do Wrong, Right: Bill Rumm is a reformed burglar, who knows how wrong it is to break into safes. But if it should become necessary to break into a safe, the only way to do it is pick the lock. Blowing the door off is inartistic.
- Driven to Suicide: The grief-stricken Ryland Vaughan tells Peter his suicide plan, and shows him the drugs he intends to use. We never find out what happens to him.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: Discussed.Mr Pond: You're not afraid of mice apparently?
Miss Murchison: No. In your days I suppose all women were afraid of mice.
Mr Pond: Yes, they were, but then, of course, their garments were longer.
Miss Murchison: Rotten for them. - Foreshadowing: Several people who don't like the look of Norman Urquhart, including one of the few people who suspects him of the murder before even Lord Peter, single out his unnaturally sleek and glossy hair. It turns out that he's been taking small quantities of arsenic regularly to gain an Acquired Poison Immunity, and the state of his hair is one of the symptoms.
- A Friend in Need: Two of Harriet's friends stick by her through the trial.
- Geeky Turn-On: Having already fallen for Harriet from afar while watching her navigate the murder trial, Peter falls in love all over again during their first real conversation when he discovers she shares his penchant for literary quotations.
- Hanging Judge: The judge who tries Harriet really wants a guilty verdict in a capital case. Fortunately, he's stymied by an obstinate juror.
- I Remember Because...: Subverted; the servants remember in detail everything Boyes could possibly have eaten or drank in their house because the murderer is their master and he made sure they remembered, to create the impression Boyes couldn't have been poisoned on the premises.
- It's for a Book: Inverted. The suspicious behaviour that makes Harriet a suspect in Boyes' murder really was research for a book.
- Knight Templar: Lord Peter tells Norman Urquhart that he has just given him a massive dose of arsenic and asks why he isn't showing symptoms. This prompts Urquhart to break down and confess that he has made himself immune to arsenic, and so was able to kill his cousin by splitting an arsenic-laced omelette with him. Then Parker arrests him. Of course, Peter says that he was lying about the arsenic in the sweets, but there's also a possibility that he wasn't...
- Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: The Hon. Freddy saw a man who knows a fellow who has it from a chappie that the villain is in financial trouble. The man owed Freddy a favour, and can have the fellow put him in touch with the chappie in exchange for another favour — for the chappie, that is, not for the fellow, or the man. Y'see?
- Literary Allusion Title: "strong poison" is from "Lord Rendal" (Child Ballad 12H), in which a man dictates his will after being poisoned by his lover.
- Little Old Lady Investigates: Miss Climpson investigates solo for part of the book.
- Luck-Based Search Technique: Miss Murchison attempts to open a secret wall cavity by pressing anything that looks like it might be a concealed switch, with no success during a quarter-hour's concerted effort. Then she trips and falls against the wall and hits the switch entirely by chance.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Who knows who is the father of the children born to an infamous actress?
- Never the Obvious Suspect: Harriet is the obvious suspect in the poisoning of Philip Boyes — so much so that the story starts with a judge summing up the evidence for the jury at Harriet's trial. After the jury returns a hung verdict, Lord Peter has thirty days to prove that Harriet didn't do it.
- Notably Quick Deliberation: Subverted when Harriet is on trial for murder. Everybody in the gallery expects a quick deliberation, but it drags on for hours and the jury foreman eventually reports that they've been unable to agree on a verdict.
- Once for Yes, Twice for No: Climpson stages a séance using this at the climax.
- Only One Plausible Suspect: It's clear to the reader from quite early on which character must have done the murder; the suspense is maintained because it's less clear how and why.
- Plot Hole: The chapters that send Miss Climpson to Windle assume she is unfamiliar with the Vane case - Peter refers to Mr Urquhart as if she wouldn't know him, and she later refers to Harriet as "someone she had never seen". Except, of course, she was one of the jurors in the case and had participated in the investigation from the beginning, and had seen both Urquhart and Harriet many times.
- Poison Is Evil: Much discussed. Mystery novelist Harriet Vane is tried for poisoning her lover Phillip Boyes with arsenic. Despite a mistrial, she is widely assumed to be guilty and vilified on that account. Norman Urquhart's cook comments on this to Bunter, "...but the horrors of slow poisoning, that's the work of a fiend."
- Quitting to Get Married: This is how Lord Peter was able to get one of his staffers from his typing bureau to infiltrate Norman Urquhart's law office. The office manager complains to him that the last female secretary was overcome by "a whim" and she ran off to get married. Lord Peter advises Miss Climpson to instruct the replacement to "make sure her skirts are the regulation four inches below the knee" because the manager is "feeling anti-sex appeal".
- Rage Against the Reflection: Defied — Lord Peter, frustrated with his lack of progress, is tempted to smash the mirror and throw a tantrum. But he quickly overrules the instinct, on the grounds that it wouldn't help at all with the problem at hand.
- Rogue Juror: At the beginning, Miss Climpson is the jury holdout in the murder trial of Harriet Vane, and convinces a couple of other jurors to hold out with her. This leads to a hung jury and a retrial, allowing Peter time to find the evidence to clear Harriet.
- Second Love: Harriet, for Lord Peter (his first love was Barbara, to whom he briefly alludes). And possibly vice versa, though in retrospect she would probably decline to dignify her feelings for Philip Boyes as "love".
- Self-Poisoning Gambit: This is how the murderer was able to provide his alibi — he ate and drank the exact same as his victim, after all.
- Shout-Out: One of the characters refers to the advertising slogan "Guinness is good for you." Guess who came up with that slogan? (If you go into an "Oirish Pub" and see one of those old Guinness ads with zookeepers and toucans, you may be satisfied to learn that that was Sayers, too.)
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: A variation. Though it isn't considered real evidence, the discovery of the lengths Norman Urquhart went to avoid any possible opportunity to poison the victim is what convinces Parker of his guilt.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Unsurprising, considering the title. It was in the cracked egg.
- The Vicar: The Reverend Boyes is long-suffering, poor and notably tender-hearted.
- Who's on First?: Lord Peter needs three attempts to tell Miss Murchison Bill Rumm's name, because she thinks he's saying his name is rum (as in "strange, peculiar").
- The Wicked Stage: A major element of the Back Story is Rosanna Wrayburn, aka "Cremorna Garden", who ran away to go on stage and fully lived up the reputation of actresses.
