Divine Justice and Holiness

Dorothy Sayers was a devout Christian and theologian, and one of the themes of this novel is based in her beliefs: the idea of holiness and righteousness.

The most obvious way that the theme of righteousness is expressed in this novel is that a wrongdoer is punished for his crimes that he would otherwise have "got away with". Jeff Deacon was a thief, a cheat, a bigamist, a blackmailer and a murderer, and he would have been able to profit by all his crimes - returning with either the emeralds or Will's life savings to France - safely (Will was not in a position to hand him over to justice), but a series of accidents and coincidences lead to Jeff Deacon facing death, which would have been the legal punishment for his crimes (murder carried the death penalty in England during the time the novel...