The Late Scholar

The Late Scholar is the fourth Lord Peter Wimsey detective novel to be written by Jill Paton Walsh. It was published by Hodder & Stoughton on December 5, 2013 in the UK, and on January 14, 2014 in North America.

The Late Scholar features the former Lord Peter Wimsey — now the Duke of Denver — and his wife, the former Harriet Vane, and is set in a fictional Oxford college called St. Severin's in the 1950s (probably 1953 or 1954).

Wimsey discovers that along with a dukedom he has inherited the position of Visitor of an Oxford college. St Severin's finds itself in the middle of an acrimonious dispute over whether or not to sell a valuable manuscript (a copy of The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, with annotations which some believe to be by Alfred the Great) to finance the purchase of a piece of land which might or might not be worth a lot of money if planning permission can be obtained on it. Two of the Fellows appeal to him to resolve the dispute, and before he has even arrived there, some of the Fellows turn up on his doorstep to try and convince him of the wisdom of either course of action.

Peter and Harriet quickly set off to spend some time in Oxford. But the dispute turns out to be embittered. The voting is evenly balanced between two passionate parties — evenly balanced, that is, until some of the Fellows unexpectedly die, and others are attacked but survive. The Warden has the casting vote, but the Warden has disappeared. And both the successful and unsuccessful attacks on the Fellows each bear an uncanny resemblance to the murder methods in Peter's past cases — methods that Harriet has used in her published novels.

A side plot concerns the decision of Peter and Harriet's eldest, Bredon, to break with the family tradition and not attend Oxford - but rather study estate management at Reading University. While far from stupid, Bredon is not as brilliant as his father, and at Oxford unfavourable comparisons would have been inevitable. Harriet realises that Bredon is not only the son of Peter, but also the nephew of Peter's brother Gerald - who was deeply attached to the land and to the cares of its daily management, in a way which Peter never was.

Paton Walsh writes with the co-operation of Sayers's estate and with their approval.