The novel in which dashing amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey first encounters his formidable future partner in love and crime-solving: the mystery novelist Harriet Vane. <p/>Noted crime writer Harriet Vane claims to have been purchasing fatal poisons under assumed names for an entirely innocent reason: as research for her next novel. Unfortunately for her, the purchases occurred just before her former lover was murdered by arsenic--and she was apparently the last person to see him alive. <p/>Lord Peter Wimsey, amateur sleuth extraordinaire, is initially drawn to the case by curiosity, but upon visiting Harriet in prison he becomes convinced of her innocence--and falls in love with her. Harriet's first trial ends in a hung jury, and Peter must race against time to find the real killer before his beloved's second trial concludes.
