In which we discuss the novels of Dorothy Sayers’s famed sleuth. I will be back later with a brilliant explanation of why The Nine Tailors is not simply the best of her work, but the best detective novel ever written, but I have to set up the poll first.
Sayers writes well, but I tire of her in long doses, so I voted for the short stories. What kind of doughnuts?
I voted for Murder Must Advertise; it is the one that I re-read the most often. I am trying to characterize why I like it better than the others, and I am kind of drawing a blank. The cricket match is terrific (far better than actually WATCHING a cricket match, I am certain).
I look forward to Skald’s treatise on The Nine Tailors, which is also an excellent choice, as are all of the others except for The Nine Red Herrings, which blows.
Chocolate cream, but you have to specify a particular story first.
The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste in which we have the matter of determining which Lord Peter Wimsey is the true one, by virtue of his oenological savvy.
I have some affection for Strong Poison, since I figured that one out the first time I read it, but I agree about The Nine Tailors being simply the best.
I voted for Gaudy Night, I think it is the book that best shows Sayers as a writer of ideas. It’s a funny choice because there isn’t very much Peter Wimsey in it, and there isn’t even a murder. It’s brilliance is also dependent on having read the previous books, or at least those featuring Harriet. I would agree that The Nine Tailors works much better as a stand-alone.
But still, despite all this, I think Gaudy Night is the best for showcasing Sayers’s talents. It’s the book that reads as the most important to her.
In quick notes, I also love rereading Murder Must Advertise, because I think it’s one of the funniest, and Have His Carcase, in which I like seeing Harriet and Peter really coming together as a team. The only one I hardly ever return to is The Five Red Herrings, because it’s just too constructed around the stereotypical time tables that I can never be bothered to keep straight in my head (but even that one is better than most other detective novels).
Gaudy Night for the absolute win, runners up Nine Tailors and Murder Must Advertise (mostly because of the fascinating look at the advertising business of the time.)
I think that the Ian Carmichael series made in the 1970s improved this story greatly. The timetable parts are still there but deemphasized and don’t sound quite so much like a Monty Python sketch, the Scottish accents that are nearly incomprehensible written down are charming when spoken, and the suspects are all of distinct physical types so they’re easier to keep straight. The writers of the episode did a good job of laying out the evidence against each of the six men to help the viewer. Plus, the exterior shots are the same Scottish countryside where the story is set. I’ve watched a lot more often than I’ve read the book.
I voted for ***The Nine Tailors ***because, quite apart from the mystery, it presented a delightful (if, perhaps, overly idealized) portrait of small town English life and a small town church.
It was extremely hard for me to choose. I finally went with the Nine Tailors, perhaps because it was the one I most recently reread. Perhaps because of the line, “It does my old heart good, Bunter, to know there is something you can’t do (when Bunter admits that he knows nothing about ringing.)”
I do want to mention that at a dinner party a number of years ago I was seated next to a man who, after I had mentioned I enjoyed Dorothy Sayers’ writing, went on and on about how Sayers clearly knew nothing about ringing church bells. I finally took his leave with the comment, “It is sad then, that she not you has written the greatest detective story ever written featuring church bells.” He responded with complete seriousness. “It is, isn’t it?”
Sarcasm is wasted on some people.
As much as I like the atmosphere in *Gaudy Night *and Murder Must Advertise, I have re-read Strong Poison the most often. I think it’s a better mystery.
I was very amused and sad to discover on a recent trip to Oxford that there isn’t a Shrewsbury College. She wrote so convincingly; I really wanted to go see it, and even sneak into the fellows garden if I could.
I didn’t vote, because I have only read The Nine Tailors. But, wow, I did very much adore that book. I actually read it, knowing all the secrets and answers and the ending, and was thus able to study how elegantly Sayers diverted the reader from perceiving the really key data and thus the solution. Brilliant! A stage magician couldn’t have done better!
I actually don’t like Lord Peter. Too annoyingly perfect in every way.
Please send me my doughnuts.
Thank you,
Ulf
This. It’s just Sayers writing on and on about her fantasy man. He’s so smart, and so brave, and such a perfect gentleman, and so incredibly rich. . . holy crap. I can’t take it.
That said, I’m a fan of Sayers (at least based on what I’ve read of her work). The Mind of the Maker is a really good meditation on the Christian idea of a trinitarian god.
Lord Peter has some nerve problems, but yes, he doesn’t have nearly enough flaws to make up for his strong points.
While I like Sayers in small doses, I sometimes have to struggle through her use of dialects. Maybe the way she wrote made sense to her contemporaries, but often I have to stop and try to sound out what she’s written, and then figure out what the character might have been saying. By then, I’ve been yanked out of the story and it’s hard to get back into it. Note that I’m quite used to stories that are set in different times and places, it’s just that I can’t frigging make out what some of Sayers’ characters are saying.
Also, I want cinnamon donuts.
I voted Murder Must Advertise because it was the first Wimsey I read, and the first TV adaptation I saw and I fell in love, most like with Ian Carmicheal, but also with 1920s British upper class. Funny, just last night I was thinking I need to reread Strong Poison.
I love all these books (esp. Nine Tailors and Gaudy Night), but I’ll confess to having to take notes to keep all the characters and their motivations and alibis straight. No other set of my books have the inside covers full of scribbled lists and questions. I’m embarrassed to lend them out…
I’m just sayin’, I’d hit it.
I really have to pick just one? I don’t think I can.
Thinking back on which of them I’ve read the most (and I’ve read them all multiple times), I guess Gaudy Night wins, with Murder Must Advertise and Nine Tailors right behind, and Busman’s Honeymoon in there too. But Who’s Body is a fun read, and I love the characters in Five Red Herrings and Clouds of Witness.
Well, I picked Gaudy for the poll, but really I love them all, shorts too, for different reasons.