[Bookpossum]

It seems to me that much of what was written between the wars in the UK was an escape from the fairly grim realities of life for many people, and I see the romantic notion of charming aristocrats such as Lord Peter very much in that vein.

I think also there is a reason for this being the “golden age” of murder mysteries. People who enjoy them like them as much as anything for the fact that the chaos of violent death is returned to order by the authority figure who solves the puzzle. People were (and of course still are) living in a chaotic world. All the certainties of earlier times had been turned upside down by the Great War and its aftermath. So a murder mystery was a comfortable book to read (they are even referred to as “cosy”) because the violence was off-stage and the enjoyment was in the puzzle solving and the restoration of order.