q2

[dubdobdee]

2.

i: Who took prizes with canaries?
ii: Who was the victim of a cactus booby-trap?
iii: Who provided details of cadaveric rigidity from his copy of Dixon Mann?
iv: Which product of the Royal Free was thought to have administered air emboli?
v: Who lost his gold pince-nez in a stranger’s astrakhan collar during the rush-hour at Victoria?
vi: Who was one of the most exclusive hairdressers in the West End who produced an ivory-handled razor that travelled via Stamford?
vii: Which air pilot, carrying vital evidence from New York, came down near Whitehaven?
viii: Which Boer war veteran died from arsenic poisoning on 10 November?
ix: Who died as a result of acoustic bombardment by Batty Thomas et al?
x: Who was saved by a dog-collar?

COMPLETED (with controversy!):
i: SIR IMPEY BIGGS, the brilliant barrister who appears more than once in the books
(googled by dubdobdee)
ii: is NOAKES, who the newly married Peter&Harriet bought their dreamhouse TALLBOYS from (they find his body in the cellar when they take possession, in Busman's Honeymoon)
(guessed by dubdobdee, name googled ditto)
iii: is one of the constables in Five Red Herrings, theorising via his dad's copy of Dixon Mann how Campbell might have been killed earlier than the doctor has supposed
(known by jeff_worrell)
iv: in Unnatural Death, the emboli are bubbles introduced to the great aunt's bloodstream via hypodermic by personal nurse WHITTAKER
(guessed by dubdobdee, name known by katstevens)
v: This is from Whose Body?: SIR JULIAN FREKE murders Sir Reuben Levy and -- as he has access to bodies thanks to his dayjob as a surgeon -- switches them round so that Levy's ends up in the dissection room and the anonymous body from the hospital ends up in someone's bathroom, naked, with the pince-nez perched incongruously on his face. This was Dorothy Sayers' first Wimsey book and the central plot device is really quite like a Chesterton Father Brown story (where it's heads from the guillotine being switched, by a similar character). In both cases there's an unnecessarily long admission letter by the villain.
(Guess and google-confirmation: dubdobdee)
vi: In Have His Carcase, the victim -- who deluded believes he's heir to the Russian Empire -- has his throat cut (rather nastily) by his middle-aged lady-love's son: the razor is inadvertantly supplied by ENDICOTT's of the West End
(known by jeff_worrell)
vii: pilot is LORD PETER WIMSEY, book is Clouds of Witness, his ridiculous brother the Duke is in the dock, the dock is in the House of Lords
(known by dubdobdee)
viii: If it's arsenic this ought to be Harriet Vane's lover PHILIP BOYES -- though I can't find internet confirmation he was a Boer War vet, which seems mildly out of character, and he died in June not November. GENERAL FENTIMAN in The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club *did* die on 10 November, poisoned (by Dr Pemberthy, who was courting his estranged niece), but with digitalin not arsenic, and he was too old to be a Boer War vet.
(current rival theories: kerrypolka vs jeff_worrell).
ix: Batty Thomas is the largest -- and most cursed -- of the bells in The Nine Tailors, responsible for several deaths, including that of the disgraced butler who is trapped in the bell tower and killed by sonic waves. The disgraced butler's name is DEACON.
(reference recognised and google-checked by dubdobdee; WILL THODAY (mentioned by alextiefling) is responsible for the manslaughter, by dint of leaving Deacon tied up in the bell tower; Thoday redeems himself when he drowns attempting to save another man in the floods at the climax of the book)
x: in Gaudy Night, Harriet Vane is saved from being strangled by a "sturdy leather" collar
(known by alextiefling)

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

Ooh I know the theme for this *and* elements of the answers w/o looking up: they're all from Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books. LOTS OF SPOILERS IN THESE ANSWERS btw (tho more in answers which included the actual details requested)

i: dimly recognise this but that's no good is it?
ii: is the man the newly married Peter&Harriet bought their dreamhouse from (they find his body in the cellar when they take possession, in Busman's Honeymoon
iii: might be Have His Carcase? But "cadaveric rigidity" plays a role in more than one book, so need to check the exact phrasing
iv: in Unnatural Death, the emboli are bubbles introduced to the bloodstream via hypodermic -- is the murderer a personal nurse? Long time since I read it.
v: Whose Body? features a pince nez, but I don't recall this detail
vi: p sure this is Have His Carcase: the victim has his throat cut (rather nastily) but I'm not sure if it's his own or the murderer's
vii: pilot is Wimsey, book is Clouds of Witness, his brother is in the dock, the dock is in the House of Lords
viii: don't recall his name, he's the elderly victim in The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
ix: Batty Thomas is the largest -- and most cursed -- of the bells in The Nine Tailors, responsible for several deaths, including that of the disgraced butler who is trapped in the bell tower and killed by sonic waves
x: don't remember this at all, it sounds Father Brown-y

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

ix: My rusty memory suggests that the exact name they're looking for in ix is Will Thoday.

x: This is Harriet Vane, in Gaudy Night - it's not a clerical dog collar, but a sturdy leather one that saves her from being strangled.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I just read iv! Miss Whittaker is an ex-nurse who knocks off her dying great aunt early, to bypass the new inheritance laws that would come into place if said aunt lived much longer. She nearly gets the better of Miss Climpson by the same method.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i <3<3<3 miss climpson, she writes as if tumblr existed 100 years ago!

also she might be the answer to (i)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

No, iii. is from Five Red Herrings - one of the constables (Duncan, I think, if not him then Ross) theorised that Campbell was killed the night before and produced his father's copy of Dixon Mann in support, arguing that onset and duration of rigor mortis might be longer than the doctor had suggested.

[kerrypolka.livejournal.com]

Yeah Sayers! Not that I know many of them.

vi. is definitely a plot point from Have His Carcase but I can't remember the name of the hairdressers!
viii. must be from Strong Poison right?
x. is Harriet Vane in one of the weirder BDSMy bits of Gaudy Night as I remember it

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

re viii: yes i think yr right, the Bellona Club fellow is much too old to be a Boer War vet and is killed by a too-strong dose of heart medicine (digitalis i think)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Referred to my copy of Strong Poison. Philip Boyes died in June, not on 10 November! I'm wondering if this is Bellona Club related after all, as date ties in with Armistice Day (wasn't the story set around then?)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

yes, it opens on armistice day and that's when they discover GENERAL FENTIMAN'S body -- and he does die the night before, poisoned by his grandson.

BUT he isn't a Boer War vet (he fought in the Crimean war and was explicitly too old for the BW) and digitalin is what kills him!

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

wait, not by his grandson, by dr pemberthy, who has been courting his estranged niece ann dorland

[(Anonymous)]

vi. Looked it up (in the book): Endicott was the hairdresser (who preferred to describe himself as a barber)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Anon comment re Endicott was me - hadn't realised I wasn't logged in

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

GOOGLED (but shd have remembered given my avatar and cognomen):

i (viz the canaries) = SIR IMPEY BIGGS, who has also never lost a case in the criminal courts <-- he defends harriet vane in strong poison

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

ALSO GOOGLED:

This (as correctly guessed but not well remembered) is from Whose Body? Sir Julian Freke murders Sir Reuben Levy and -- as he has access to bodies thanks to his dayjob as a surgeon -- switches them round so that Levy's ends up in the dissection room and the anonymous body from the hospital ends up in someome's bathroom, naked, with the pince-nez perched incongruously on his face. This was Dorothy Sayers' first Wimsey book and the central plot device is really quite like a Chesterton Father Brown story (where it's heads from the guillotine being switched, by a similar character). In both cases there's an unnecessarily long admission letter by the villain.