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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
All that was left of the garage was a heap of charred and smouldering beams. In the driving seat of the burnt-out car were the remains of a body ...
An accident, said the police.
An accident, said the widow. She had been warning her husband about the danger of the car for months.
Murder, said the famous detective Lord Peter Wimsey – and proceeded to track down the killer.
This is vintage Sayers, a collection of her finest crime and detection stories.
A collection of 17 short stories, Wimsey fans will be disappointed that he only appears in the first two. ‘Absolutely Elsewhere’ riffs on the notion of an unshakeable alibi, although keen readers of Sayers’s work will get the twist early on. The same is true of the titular opening story, although there is more fun here in watching Wimsey get to the truth.
Montague Egg features in 5 of the stories. Although these are more mannered and Egg’s continued citation of rhyming couplets from The Salesman’s Handbook to explain how he discovers the truth can become irritating, the stories here are probably the most satisfying – especially ‘Bitter Almonds’, which is a neat twist on poisoning and ‘The Professor’s Manuscript’, which keeps you guessing until the end. Other Egg stories include ‘A Shot At Goal’, ‘Dirt Cheap’, and ‘False Weight’.
The rest of the stories are more of a mixed bag. Some, like ‘The Milk Bottles’ and ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ and ‘Suspicion’ suffer through their age, but the supernatural elements of ‘The Cyprian Cat’ is surprisingly effective and ‘The Inspiration of Mr Budd’ will have you sympathising with the protagonist’s dilemma.
All in all, it’s a fun read with something for everyone and definitely one for the list if you’re already a Sayers fan.
The Verdict:
There isn’t enough Wimsey in this for my tastes, but it’s still an interesting read and a must for Sayers fans.
All that was left of the garage was a heap of charred and smouldering beams. In the driving seat of the burnt-out car were the remains of a body ...
An accident, said the police.
An accident, said the widow. She had been warning her husband about the danger of the car for months.
Murder, said the famous detective Lord Peter Wimsey – and proceeded to track down the killer.
This is vintage Sayers, a collection of her finest crime and detection stories.
A collection of 17 short stories, Wimsey fans will be disappointed that he only appears in the first two. ‘Absolutely Elsewhere’ riffs on the notion of an unshakeable alibi, although keen readers of Sayers’s work will get the twist early on. The same is true of the titular opening story, although there is more fun here in watching Wimsey get to the truth.
Montague Egg features in 5 of the stories. Although these are more mannered and Egg’s continued citation of rhyming couplets from The Salesman’s Handbook to explain how he discovers the truth can become irritating, the stories here are probably the most satisfying – especially ‘Bitter Almonds’, which is a neat twist on poisoning and ‘The Professor’s Manuscript’, which keeps you guessing until the end. Other Egg stories include ‘A Shot At Goal’, ‘Dirt Cheap’, and ‘False Weight’.
The rest of the stories are more of a mixed bag. Some, like ‘The Milk Bottles’ and ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ and ‘Suspicion’ suffer through their age, but the supernatural elements of ‘The Cyprian Cat’ is surprisingly effective and ‘The Inspiration of Mr Budd’ will have you sympathising with the protagonist’s dilemma.
All in all, it’s a fun read with something for everyone and definitely one for the list if you’re already a Sayers fan.
The Verdict:
There isn’t enough Wimsey in this for my tastes, but it’s still an interesting read and a must for Sayers fans.
