Clouds of Witness

Clouds of Witness is a mystery novel by the English writer Dorothy L. Sayers, published in 1926 and the second in her series about Lord Peter Wimsey. It appeared in the United States the following year under the title Clouds of Witnesses.

The Duke of Denver has taken a shooting lodge at Riddlesdale in Yorkshire, and in the middle of the night Captain Denis Cathcart, engaged to Wimsey's sister Lady Mary, is found dead outside it. Mary, who was leaving the house at three in the morning for reasons she declines to give, is the one who finds her brother kneeling over the body.

The circumstances are bad for the Duke. The bullet came from his revolver, he had received a letter informing him that Cathcart had been caught cheating at cards, and he admits they argued about it. He will not say more than that he came across the body while returning from a walk on the moors. Wimsey arrives to investigate with his friend Inspector Charles Parker, and the two of them work through the grounds, the household and a set of clues that do not immediately fit together.