I’m not an expert on British titles. With that caveat, let me quote Wikipedia
His brother is the Duke of Denver, true. I’m not sure what individual title Peter has, if any. Lord may just be a courtesy title for the child of a Duke. As a Lord, however, he seems to be automatically a peer. His children would be commoners, as I understand it, but he is not.
williambaskerville is correct. The Wikipedia definition is not completely accurate.
A peerage is conferred on an individual. It then passes through the generations of his family according to the inheritance rules under which it was created. So an aristocratic family like the Wimseys will have a peerage title within it, but at any given point in time only one member of the family holds the title and is thus a peer. All the other family members are commoners, albeit often with ‘courtesy’ titles that recognise their familial relationship to a peer.
In Sayers’ works it is Gerald Wimsey who is the peer since he is the current holder of the dukedom of Denver. Peter, as a younger son of a duke, is styled Lord Peter Wimsey. His sister, as a daughter of a duke, is Lady Mary Wimsey, later Lady Mary Parker. Neither of them is a peer, though they are members of an aristocratic family.
I did read all the Harriet/peter books at one point years ago and have no idea why. I remember both of them as characters without anything much to like…Peter was practically perfect and Harriet was just annoying. I also found Sayers too eager to show off her knowledge, as in the cryptogram chapter mentioned above. I would like to point out though that the chapter does not follow the “rules” as listed above; Peter decides in a flash of intuition what kind of cryptogram it is and whaddaya know, he’s right!
I find Christie much more appealing.
I’ll also second or third the Charles Paris novels as being close to the genre, and fun.
Dortmunder and the gang were hardly amateurs. They were highly skilled and competent (albeit unlucky) professionals. They still made a profit in about half the books.
The reason I’ve heard for the lengthy hiatus in the Parker novels (written as Richard Stark) is that Westlake in mid-manuscript decided that The Hot Rock was a comedy unsuitable for Parker, then just couldn’t get back into Stark mode for some twenty-five years.
Re the OP: a little while ago I started a thread expressing my liking of Ngaio Marsh (not cozies) and asking for recommendations. One of them was Dorothy Sayers. I’ve got to say: I didn’t like the two I read.
I wasn’t referring to the Dormunder books, but to the standalone comic mysteries he wrote from 1965 onward like The Fugitive Pigeon, The Busy Body, The Spy in the Ointment, God Save the Mark and several others that preceded The Hot Rock, but had him a top name in the field before Dortmunder was ever thought of. He published 21 books under four names from 1965 to 1969 (plus a collection of short stories), and then 6 more under 4 names in 1970 alone. He was on fire.
Westlake himself said this, so I have to assume it’s true.
a couple of Georgette Heyer mysteries are well worth reading, try Behold Here’s Poison or The Unfinished Clue.
There’s a issue here. Only in the British system is a (non-Peer) Noble or Aristocrat considered a “Commoner”. People would never call Lord Whimsey a “commoner” even if, technically he is one.
So, any thoughts on Asey Mayo?