Sayers claimed that she had developed Harriet Vane as such a strong woman character in Strong Poison (1930) that she could not end the book by having her marry Lord Peter as originally intended. The Wimsey novels that followed without Harriet as a character were written in part to develop and deepen Lord Peter's character to make him worthy of her. Lord Peter, however, shows all the depth and sensitivity needed from his first appearance in Whose Body? (1923). It is, in fact, Harriet who develops and changes in the two novels in which she appears between her trial for murder in Strong Poison and her honeymoon adventure.

In Strong Poison Harriet Vane is on trial for having murdered her lover.

Miss Climpson creates a hung jury and then aids Lord Peter in uncovering the evidence that clears Harriet. Despite her notoriety, Harriet is really something of a...