I always marvel at Dorothy Sayers’s ability to juggle so much material—so many clues, alibis, double identities—and create out of them one coherent storyline. I have to admit that she loses me on the ciphers, and I certainly cannot fault the logic of Lord Peter Wimsey or Harriet Vane, even when they are initially on the wrong track. This famous novel turns on Vane’s discovery of a dead man who had bled out on a coastal rock feature; she does use her little Brownie to document the body, but by the time she returns with help, the tide has carried the body away, hence the title ‘Have His Carcase,’ or ‘habeas corpus.’ The deceased, Paul Alexis, is identified through her photos, and Wimsey and Vane begin to piece together his life. The plot involves a must unlikely cast of characters, which makes it all the more fun: some former actresses, some gigolo-ballroom dancers, an itinerant barber, and so on. Sayers’s references to the popular and high literature of the day—Ruritanian romances, Russian literature, Shakespeare, and penny novels, as well as some of her real-life fellow crime writers—make this an even more interesting read. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable way for me to spend my spare moments during the Christmas season.