Book Description

Customer Reviews (30)

An enjoyable visit with old friends.
Those who love Dorothy Sayers should enjoy this book. Jill Paton Walsh is a good steward of Sayer's legacy, and the further adventures of Peter, Harriet, and Bunter are as satisfying as anyone has a right to expect.

I sincerely hope a third Wimsey book will follow soon.

Better than "Thrones Dominations"
Jill Patton Walsh once again adds to Agatha Christi's Lord Peter Whimsey/Harriet Vane series.She has done a better job on this book.If you have read "Busmans Honeymoon" you will meet a lot of familar characters.
This story is set in the beginning of WWII, and Harriet has retreated to Talboys, the house where Peter and Harriet spent thier honeymoon.Ms. Walsh not only does a good job of expanding on the village residents introduced in "Busmans Honeymoon" she captures Ms Christi's style a lot better than in "Thrones, Dominations".She also does a good job of capturing the feeling of England at this very difficult time.
Lord Peter does not appear until almost half way through, but Harriet keeps you attention until then.
Despite what could be a very heavy setting, this story is lighted hearted where it is not inapprioate.
Well worth buying.I hope Jill Patton Walsh does another story soon.

Seems like a Sayer's collaboration
This book takes place mainly in a small village in the countryside of England. The time, Wartime England, covering the end of 1939 through early 1940. While the village has its first air-raid practice, a crime is committed. They return to the streets to find a young lady murdered.

Lord Peter Wimbsy is off on a Secret Mission for his country. Leaving the short-handed police to turn to his wife for assistance, Writer and amateur detective Lady Peter Wimsey, known before her marriage as Harriet Vane.

We follow Harriet as she tries to solve this mystery. The story is well woven and just when we figure out who did it, we are thrown a curious twist. The cast of characters in the village makes for a fun read. We are also given a good look at life in England during the early part of World War II.

lord peter review
Great book.I loved all the lord peter books.Thanks for takeing me back to a time I wanted to learn more about.Great read great book.

Another View of Some Old Friends
I'm glad to read, in these reviews, that not every reader was so scrupulous about comparing Sayers and Paton/Walsh. I was so delighted to be returned to the locale and the characters, it didn't bother me at all that Paton/Walsh's style was different. It was as though another friend of the characters,writing about them in her own way, gave us the opportunity to visit with them once again. ... Read more

Amazon.com
When advertising executive Victor Dean dies from a fall down the stairs at Pym's Publicity, Lord Peter Wimsey is asked to investigate. It seems that, before he died, Dean had begun a letter to Mr. Pym suggesting some very unethical dealings at the posh London ad agency. Wimsey goes undercover and discovers that Dean was part of the fast crowd at Pym's, a group taken to partying and doing drugs. Wimsey and his brother-in-law, Chief-Inspector Parker, rush to discover who is running London's cocaine trade and how Pym's fits into the picture--all before Wimsey's cover is blown.Book Description
When ad man Victor Dean falls down the stairs in the offices of Pym's Publicity, a respectable London advertising agency, it looks like an accident. Then Lord Peter Wimsey is called in, and he soon discovers there's more to copywriting than meets the eye. A bit of cocaine, a hint of blackmail, and some wanton women can be read between the lines. And then there is the brutal succession of murders -- 5 of them -- each one a fixed fee for advertising a deadly secret. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Good, but lacks "atmosphere"
I don't know where Dorothy L. Sayers got the idea for this one but I do consider it one of her lesser works. It probably had notably more positive impact in England, during the period in which it was written, where Lord Peter Wimsey getting a "regular job" would have been a real knee-slapper. Still, the mystery itself is well-written. If you can live without spooky houses, murder on the moors, and those sorts of cool English cliches, this one will probably work for you. Otherwise, read Sayers' "Unnatural Death."

Classic British Mysteries
Fun to read, awesome vocabulary..be entertained and gently reminded of the learning we Americans did not get in Vocabulary class.

Lord Peter at work
Like PG Wodehouse or the early Agatha Christie, this offers a window on a bygone British world (perhaps largely fictitious even then) in which every class had its place and its peculiar argot, and true noblesse oblige consisted in the ability to transcend such differences. At least this is one of the most likeable characteristics of the detective hero Lord Peter Wimsey, temporarily working under a pseudonym at a London advertising agency. This allows for an amusing send-up of the publicity business, at a time when success was measured by the ability to coin a catchy jingle. But you do need to be a Brit or a dyed-in-the-wool Anglophile to make much of it; the climax, for instance, depends on the detailed description of a cricket match. And as a mystery, this is one of Sayers' least successful, with the suspects insufficiently distinguished from one another, and the ending much less of a surprise than it ought to be.

An intriguing look at advertising, a mediocre mystery

The presence of Dorothy Sayers's aristocratic super detective Lord Peter Wimsey is not plainly evident when this book starts. Although you'll spot him, his actual identity isn't revealed for about 60 pages, but this leads to an interesting look at advertising in 1930's London. The settings and dialogue ring true as the characters gossip and work up ad campaigns for their clients. Then Lord Peter makes his official appearance and the book develops a split personality. The tale meanders to the London party scene and the plot folds under the weight of all this superfluous material. If Sayers had kept the mystery in the office it would have been great, but once we leave the comfy confines of Pym's Publicity, the story gets messy and Lord Peter's escapades as the mysterious Harlequin are basically pretty laughable.

What ho!Another delightful mystery novel from Sayers!
Lord Peter goes undercover as an advertising copywriter to investigate a mysterious death.His detective work leads him to explore the wild party scene of the 20's where he discovers a cocaine ring.

Lord Peter must exercise his considerable charm and social skills to penetrate what appears to be an accident and is in fact an almost perfect crime.He takes his middle names--Death Bredon--as his pseudonym, and his predilection for chit-chat is utilized to the utmost.He develops another alter ego to penetrate the cocaine ring that is as dark and mysterious as Bredon is civilized and chatty.

Like most of Sayers stories this book provides a slice of life from a time long past.The lives, relationships and values of middle class advertising employees are cleverly and sympathetically portrayed. In addition, there is an ingenious murder that must be solved by Lord Peter's intuitive and intensely analytical mind.Great stuff! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Medieval vision of the afterlife
This was required reading for a graduate course in medieval history.
"The Divine Comedy" describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman epic poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and another of his works, "La Vita Nuova." While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and scholarship to understand.Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" - "at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

Dante wrote the Comedy in his regional dialect.By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression, and simultaneously established the Tuscan dialect as the standard for Italian. In French, Italian is nicknamed la langue de Dante.Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break from standards of publishing in only Latin or Greek (the languages of Church and antiquity).This break allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience - setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future.

Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy".In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be comedic in nature.Furthermore, the word "comedy," in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good.By this meaning of the word, the progression of Dante's pilgrim from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings.Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines.The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination.Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."

Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic.

Paradiso
After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology.Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction.The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it.Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God.Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul.That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others.This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience him above other things).It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in literature and medieval history.

DANTE THROUGH DOROTHY: IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS
please read the life and works of Dorothy L. SAyers to appreciate fully the effort she made here, her final writing, posthumously completed (no, not with any seance, which she adequately lambasted in her detective stories).

Her total translation of the Commedia is worth the price of admission (Do not abandon all hope, as she will bring you home to the beatific vision).

There are several translations of varying usefulness and grace, but Dorothy is the rock upon which to stand when comparing the rest.

Hame one cannot give 6 stars...
This is not the most up - to - date translation: however, it is one of the more worthy bits of the history that has grown up around the Comedy, and its perspective is still of practical use. (She actually tries to avoid Freud, for example). Her misunderstandings are ones we can overlook, and she could evenhelp to correct any new ones (not that I do not have full faith in our, er, "currentness", of course!) that might arise.
As for the work of the Master himself, what can one say? Its the best book in world history (have not read any better: and I am, in all humillity, considered something of a reader).
Simply put, its Heaven.

Quella che m'paradisa la mia mente
The elevated sound of poetry are here heard. Not fisical reality, but the ideal; In the Paradiso, ideas and feelings are visible. Dante sees God's unexpressible force: love. ... Read more

Book Description
The mystery writer Harriet Vane, recovering from an unhappy love affair and its aftermath, seeks solace on a barren beach -- deserted but for the body of a bearded young man with his throat cut. From the moment she photographs the corpse, which soon disappears with the tide, she is puzzled by a mystery that might have been suicide, murder or a political plot. With the appearance of her dear friend Lord Peter Wimsey, she finds a reason for detective pursuit -- as only the two of them can pursue it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

A Detestable Burden of Gratitude
Carcase is a variant spelling of carcass.To be tried for murder is good publicity for a crime writer.Harriet Vane was busy.

In June Harriet went on a walking tour.On a beach she discovered a corpse.The tide was coming in.She was eight miles from Wilvercombe.Harriet took pictures of the discovery, of particular interest since the body was liable to be carried away on the tide.After walking six miles she called the police and the newspapers to report the existence of the dead body.

Lord Peter arrived to meet Harriet at her hotel, much to her surprise.A journalist had rung him up, it seems.The dead man had been a professional dancing partner, a police inspector told Harriet and Peter.A Mrs. Weldon, friend of the deceased man, sought Harriet's company.She claimed she and the decedent were to be married.

The murder weapon was an Endicott razor with an ivory handle.Wimsey learned from a Mr. Endicott that ivory-handled ones were in short supply.The notion that a bearded man had in his possession an old-fashioned razor of good quality presented a problem.

When the body came to shore there was an inquest, and the investigation of shifting identities began.As in real life, the story thread meanders.

The most interesting aspect of this book is the relationship of Hariet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey and the author's philosophy of female independence in which their relationship is cast.

Have His Carcasse
Dorothy Sayers had the gift of respecting all of her characters.Any one of them (including the villains) could be a member of your family.All were flawed with humanity.The mystery is always secondary to the individuals involved.This is a great read that gets better with each reading.

Going Around in Circles
The mysteries of Dorothy L. Sayers are intricate and intelligent, models of perfectly maddening puzzles that readers can barely solve."Have His Carcase" is no exception, a fine round and round-about mystery that keeps readers (and the two detectives) searching till the final chapter.

The story finds Harriet Vane, recently acquited of murder, on a walking vacation.Mystery has a way of following her, and she encounters a dead body on the beach.Was it suicide or murder?Knowing that the tide is about to come in, Harriet takes pictures and clues to preserve what she can, and searches out the local authorities.Lord Peter Wimsey, gentleman detective, comes to Harriet's aid and also delves into the crime, a case of murder with a baffling array of suspects and alibis.Every clue and every alibi makes a strong case for suicide, but Wimsey knows it to be a murder, if only he could prove it.

"Have His Carcase" is a story with a lot on its plate; the wide cast of characters creates a web of further mystery and cluelessness around the death.This is all layered in with the flirtation between Wimsey and Vane, a delectable pairing of romance and comedy, as Harriet rebuffs Wimsey's marriage proposals at every turn.Sayers is perhaps almost too intelligent in her mysteries, giving her detectives almost unlimited knowledge on a wide range of topics.The chapters involving ciphers are particularly hard to decipher, but do little to distract from the excellent mystery at hand.And while the story does seem to go round and round, it comes full circle in the end.

Great adaptation
I love the entire Peter Wimsey series and this is a great adaptation of Ms. Sayers' work.I particularly enjoy Mr. Carmichael's rendition because he has a lovely range of accents and vocal patterns that easily differentiate the characters.His characterization remains solid throughout the entire series -- all of which he has performed for the audio market -- and each returning character's voice is instantly recognizable.

Wonderful mystery entertainment!
Sayers once again delivers a solid, old-fashioned mystery story set in the English countryside.The body of a gigolo is discovered by Harriet Vane, who was recently rescued by Lord Peter from being wrongly convicted for murder.Vane is supposedly on vacation--on a walking tour to recover from her ordeal, but ends up investigating a murder instead.Lord Peter is madly in love with her but she does not return his affections.

Vane discovers the bloody body on the beach as the tide is coming in.She rushes to town as quickly as possible to notify the police but is unable to do so before the body is swept away on the tides.Lord Peter comes to stay at the seaside resort to investigate the crime and continue his courtship.While working on the mystery together, Vane's feelings for Lord Peter vary from irritation to camaraderie to a reluctant affection.

Lord Peter is a charming, intelligent sleuth who has met his intellectual match in Harriet Vane.This further installment of his adventures evokes the nostalgic atmosphere of an English seaside town during the early 1930's.It also provides an intricate murder mystery and the growing pains of a passionate relationship.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
Rustic old Riddlesdale Lodge was a Wimsey family retreat filled with country pleasures and the thrill of the hunt -- until the game turned up human and quite dead. He lay among the chrysanthemums, wore slippers and a dinner jacket and was Lord Peter's brother-in-law-to-be. His accused murderer was Wimsey's own brother, and if murder set all in the family wasn't enough to boggle the unflappable Lord Wimsey, perhaps a few twists of fate would be -- a mysterious vanishing midnight letter from Egypt...a grieving fiancee with suitcase in hand...and a bullet destined for one very special Wimsey. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Somewhere in the lower-middle of Sayer's works
Here we have another Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, (before his marriage to Harriet), where his brother, The Duke of Denver, is brought to trial for murder. And it is an unusual trial indeed since members of the British nobility who were charged with murder, during the era of Lord Peter Wimsey, had to be tried, not at the Old Bailey, but rather by the full House of Lords!

The Duke of Denver, ("Jerry" to his friends), has purchased a small hunting lodge on the edge of the moors and his guests are in for some bird shooting. But on a cold, rainy night, the Duke's prospective brother-in-law, Lady Mary's dubious gold-digging fiance, ultimately becomes the victim of an apparent murder.

At the inquest, one lie after another is proffered by the Wimsey family and the jury brings in a murder indictment against the Duke for his clear skullduggery in the matter. Lord Peter is away on an extended vacation to the European continent but rushes to his brother's aide when he hears of the fiasco. Lord Peter then teams up with his Scotland Yard pal, Inspector Parker, to find the real killer and thus free his brother -- but Lord Peter gets shot for his trouble!

WARNING TO READERS -- SEMI-SPOILER AHEAD!!!


Now, the most compelling caveat of this Sayers entry is the fact that, in this one, the stogy Duke of Denver (Jerry) is having an affair with the wife of a very nasty character, a farmer who also happens to be the Duke's neighbor! If that were not enough, Lord Peter and his lawyer make every effort to get the Duke off the hook without disclosing to his wife that she's been cheated on, and they SUCCEED in that devious endeavor!!! I mention this as Sayers treats this indiscretion in a notably cavalier manner and many women readers might not exactly savour this particular caveat of the book. These days, we are not surprised by similar writings but, in the 20s, Sayers was clearly breaking new ground, sort of in an anti-feminist way.

I enjoyed the book, all around, but it's far from being Sayers' best work. If you are new to this renowned author of British mysteries, you might want to read either "Whose Body?" or, "The Unpleasantness at the Belonna Club" first. They are her two best, in my opinion.

Cloudy "witness"
The worst nightmare for a detective is having a solid case... against a member of your own family. Dorothy Sayers imagined such a story for Lord Peter Wimsey in her second mystery novel, "Clouds of Witness," a solid, twisting whodunnit full of lies, affairs and deception

Peter is on vacation when he finds out that his brother, The Duke of Denver (informally "Gerald"), is on trial for murder -- he had a blowup with his sister Mary's fiancee, Denis Cathcart, upon learning that Cathcart was a former cardsharper. The next morning, Cathcart was found shot through the heart by Gerald's gun, with Gerald bending over the body. The Duke stubbornly refuses to explain why he was out in the rain at three in the morning.

Peter is determined to solve the case, and quickly finds plenty of clues and odd little details, including the fact that Mary keeps lying -- and changing her lies. There are too many clues, and not enough logical motives. Now to save his brother, Peter must unravel plenty of lies and red herrings, and discover who wanted to do away with Denis Cathcart -- and why.

"Clouds of Witness" is an excellent whodunnit, with lots of quirky characters and a very twisty murder mystery -- in fact, it's not even clear whether it's even a murder. And Sayers seemed to be more at ease in this mystery, since it unfolds in a more gradual manner, as if she were more sure of herself than in "Whose Body."

If there's a flaw, it's that her writing can be slightly uneven -- we get lots of descriptions of Mary, but I still have no idea what Bunter looks like. But Sayers can craft a spectacular plot, with lots of red herrings and odd twists, especially since most of the people involved are telling lies, usually about romantic affairs.

The general feeling is unusually taut even for a mystery, since Peter is trying to help his stuffy brother. But Sayers also sprinkles in some comedic moments to lessen the tension, such as when Peter dines with a flaky, chic socialist who thinks it's thrilling when the police raid them. The dialogue is also enjoyably quirky, especially when Peter is doing the talking ("I should be crucified upside down for anemia of the brain!").

The cast is made up of all sorts -- weaselly socialists, flaky socialites, the stuffy Gerald and his equally stiff wife, and the rambling yet clever Dowager. And Peter is the center of all this, a detective who acts like Bertie Wooster and thinks like Hercule Poirot -- he has loads of brains and reasoning ability, but you'd never guess it by how he acts.

"Clouds of Witness" is a clever, twisty murder mystery with a likably eccentric hero, and one of Dorothy Sayers' best mystery novels. Definitely a good, solid read with a colourful cast.

Really Enjoyable
The story is a good one, but it is the dialogue that makes this a really great story.

"The romantic soul at war with the realistic brain"
Lord Peter Wimsey is one of the great English sleuths of literary history.His creator was Dorothy Sayers, one of the first women to receive a degree from Oxford University.

Wimsey is a complex yet agreeable character, a peer of the realm who has a witty, urbane facade which can slip to reveal a steely resolve as well as a tender and sometimes fragile psyche."The essential Peter," Sayers once wrote, "is seen to be the familiar figure of the interpretative artists, the romantic soul at war with a realistic brain."

In this second of eleven Lord Peter books, the accused is Lord Peter's brother, the Duke of Denver, suspected of murdering his sister's fiance after discovering he is a cad.The Duke refuses to share his whereabouts the night of the murder, so Lord Peter must solve the mystery in record time in order to prevent his brother being executed for murder.

This is a well devised mystery plot with enough emotional involvement to make it a page turner.In addition the portrayal of English culture of the 1920's is enjoyable.

The further adventures of Lord Peter
Lord Peter needed to get away after the stresses he encountered solving a case a few weeks earlier (Whose Body?).He and Bunter went to the wilds of Corsica to relax.On their way back to civilization they discover that while they were gone the fiance of Lord Peter's sister, Lady Mary was murdered.Worse, the murder took place at a shooting party hosted by their older brother, Gerald the Duke of Denver.Worse still Gerald is the prime suspect!

Peter and Bunter hurry home to try to solve the crime only to find that there are many mysteries about what happened that night.Why isn't Mary more upset about the death of her fiance?Why was their engagement called off that very night?Where exactly was Gerald that evening?Who left a suitcase in the conservatory?

Gradually Peter begins to find answers to the various questions and raise a few more along the way.He and Bunter of course eventually save the day but not before having a few adventures along the way.

This is an exciting mystery, it is well plotted and fairly laid out, all the clues are there for the reader.There are a few coincidences but nothing that overly strains possiblities.For fans of the series we are treated to a lot more insight into that wonderfully eccentric Wimsey family.

So why four stars instead of five?First the book does tend to drag just a bit in places.Compared to later books in the series this is one of the lesser works.If you are a fan of the series this is a must read.I would also recommend it if you are a fan of mysteries of the '20's and '30's definitely read this one. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Dorothy L. Sayers mystifies us from the beginning
From the very beginning we are capture by her writing style and characters. She only gets better from here. It is the interaction and relationship of her characters that make the story come alive.

We start off with two mysteries at once. A naked man wearing sunglasses is found in someone else's bathtub. Across town an important person goes missing. The local policeman had figures it out already (or has he). He has even nabbed the suspects. Lord Peter (armature sleuth) and friend of Inspector Parker must figure out if one plus one is one or two.

Whose body?

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Last completed novel containing Harriet Vane.
The title "Busman's Honeymoon" is sort of a play on words. Look up busman's holiday in the dictionary. In fact it was a play that was also made into a movie "Hunted Honeymoon" (1940) starring Robert Montgomery and Constance Cummings. There are still some short stories and a novel finished by someone else; however Busman's Honeymoon is the last of the novel series containing Harriet Vane. Some of the short stories are "The Haunted Policeman" and "Talboys."

The book starts off with a series of letters from well-known friends of the couple, described previous in Dorothy L. Sayers' novels. They bring you up to date while describing the wedding of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. Some of the charters are just referenced yes it ought on and you will have to have read the previous novels for fuller detail.

The primary thrust of this novel is the relationship between Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. With exquisite descriptions of their life and the English environment in which they live. Oh yes, there is also a mystery. However the mystery does not overshadow the rest of the story.

One of the most important overlooked items in most descriptions of this book is the expanded explanation of the history and relationship of Bunter to Lord Peter.

... Read more

Book Description
British novelist and playwright Dorothy L. Sayers, best known for her Lord Peter Wimsey detective novels, possessed the unique combination of keen theological sense, tremendous writing skill, and a deep concern with how ordinary people understand Christian life. She stands, along with C. S. Lewis, among the most vigorous and popular twentieth-century defenders of Christianity for her work in relating theological themes to everyday concerns. Creed without Chaos performs a service for readers by providing a careful introduction to Sayers's writings from a theological rather than a literary perspective. Laura Simmons further provides a powerful argument for Sayers's continuing relevance to the church. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent treatment of the Christian Sayers
Most people, when they hear of Dorothy Sayers, immediately think of her delightful detective novels based around Lord Peter Wimsey. But she was much more than another Agatha Christie. She was also a superb thinker and committed Christian. A contemporary of C.S. Lewis and T. S. Eliot, Sayers was a first-rate thinker who had a passionate belief in the importance of Christian doctrine and theology.

Unfortunately she has tended to be overshadowed by the likes of other famous Christian laypeople from England: Lewis, Eliot, Tolkien, Muggeridge and Chesterton. But she was in many ways their equal, and she can rightly be described as one of our most important Christian intellects and authors of recent times.

Sayers was appalled at the general lack of doctrinal knowledge amongst most believers, and she wrote extensively on the need to develop a Christian mind. And she strived to make theological truths accessible to the common man. It is her theological interests that make up the theme of this important book.

Laura Simmons is well versed in the writings of Sayers. Indeed, she spent one summer reading through the 30,000 pages of letters written by and to Sayers. This book demonstrates that Simmons has a very good grasp indeed of the mind and writings of Sayers.

The title of Simmons' book refers of course to the 1940 essay by Sayers, Creed or Chaos? In that important tract Sayers demonstrates her clear grasp of the importance of right belief as the basis of right living. Orthodoxy, in other words, precedes orthopraxis. We cannot rightly live the Christian life if we do not have a right understanding of basic Christian doctrines and teaching.

Simmons examines a number of theological concerns that Sayers addressed over her important career. Sayers wrote on many theological issues, on the nature of words and language, on women's issues, and creativity and art. Simmons explores all these vital topics in depth.

The very extensive bibliography of both primary and secondary sources shows that Simmons' has deeply mined the works of Sayers, and those written about her. Hers is a first-rate treatment of a first-rate Christian thinker and writer.

Simmons deserves praise for bringing the theological side of Sayers back into the public spotlight.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A cross-section of Wimsey's career, but could've been better organized
For anyone new to Lord Peter, this book would not be an ideal introduction; the introductory material contains spoilers for the main text, and in any case the selection and order of the individual stories herein isn't ideal for a stem-to-stern readthrough. That said, I myself first made his lordship's acquaintance through STRONG POISON, the first story in this omnibus, and have yet to suffer by it. :) So while the book *could* be closer to perfect, the fact that it contains a triple dose of Lord Peter is sufficient to justify its existence, particularly since it will resist being worn to shreds longer than the individual paperbacks do.

Rather than discussing the individual novels in detail - each is still in print in its own right, and I recommend consulting their individual reviews - I'll discuss this omnibus edition in particular. Discussing them individually is a problem in any case, as the personal complications of STRONG POISON (the first entry) bear directly on HAVE HIS CARCASE (the second).

Often called ON THE CASE WITH LORD PETER WIMSEY, this omnibus edition of STRONG POISON (1930), HAVE HIS CARCASE (1932), and UNNATURAL DEATH (1927) contains not only the full text of each book - including individual tables of contents, author's notes, chapter headings, and the Dawson family tree for UNNATURAL DEATH - but is prefaced by the text of Lord Peter's entry in Who's Who / Burke's Peerage, complete with a partial drawing of the Wimsey coat of arms (the Saracen supporters are missing, but the motto and crest are there). The text of the entry contains a major spoiler for the later Wimsey novels, unfortunately, since it was taken from a post-1936 edition.

The book also contains a separate "Biographical Note, communicated by Paul Austin Delagardie", which dates from 1935, the same year as GAUDY NIGHT. Mr. Delagardie, brother of the Dowager Duchess of Denver, explains how he took charge of his nephew's social education as a youngster only to watch him suffer a disastrous engagement and cruel breakup at the time of the Great War. The fallout was far worse than the "I took up sleuthing as a cure for wounded feelings" patter that Lord Peter himself usually serves up on this topic. However, I warn new readers that as Uncle Paul was writing five years after the events of STRONG POISON, his information can better be appreciated after reading the first two novels in this omnibus.

ON THE CASE WITH LORD PETER WIMSEY has no overlap with its sibling omnibus THREE COMPLETE LORD PETER WIMSEY NOVELS (WHOSE BODY?, MURDER MUST ADVERTISE, and GAUDY NIGHT). Taken together, the grouping of the stories in these two volumes annoyed me very much when they first came out, since GAUDY NIGHT logically should be in the volume before you as the third story, completing the trilogy of Wimsey/Vane courtship novels. As an alternative, swapping the positions of UNNATURAL DEATH and MURDER MUST ADVERTISE would've made sense, as it is the novel following HAVE HIS CARCASE. Even putting UNNATURAL DEATH first rather than last in this book would help, since an associate of Lord Peter's who is introduced in UNNATURAL DEATH has a significant role in STRONG POISON.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the two omnibi naturally go together, and can be a godsend to those seeking to replace disintegrating paperback copies of the individual books. However, anyone wishing to follow Lord Peter's career from the beginning will need to skip back and forth between the two omnibi, with forays into other Wimsey books not included in either collection.

A very good collection, thanks to the excellence of the ingredients, qualified by minor perfectionist grumbling as stated above. Well worth getting and keeping. ... Read more

Book Description
In this delightful collection of Wimsey exploits, Dorothy L. Sayers reveals a gruesome, grotesque but absolutely bewitching side rarely shown in Lord Peter's full-length adventures.

Lord Peter views the body in 12 tantalizing and bizarre ways in this outsanding collection.He deals with such marvels as the man with copper fingers, Uncle Meleager's missing will, the cat in the bag, the foosteps that ran, the stolen stomach, the man without a face...and with such clues as cyanide, jewels, a roast chicken and a classic crossword puzzle.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Lord Peter Always Comes Out On Top
This collection of a dozen short stories showcases the depth of Dorothy Sayers' versatility and demonstrates the breadth Lord Peter's sleuthing skills. By covering the gamut of the mystery genre - from treasure hunt to espionage, from cypher (in a devilishly hard crossword) to ghost story, with an occasional straightforward dead body thrown in for old times' sake - Lord Peter is in danger of eclipsing Bunter as the World's Greatest Overachiever.

As is frequently the case, trying to match wits with Wimsey is often an exercise in futility. Unless you are fluent in French you'll miss one villain's slip of the tongue (I caught the gist of the conversation in "The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question," but nowhere near enough to keep up with Lord Peter). In the crossword puzzle mystery I answered a whopping one of the sixty-four clues correctly. Still, there are a couple stories where you can get there ahead of Wimsey, and a few where you can at least see where he's going even if you can't beat him there.

My favorite of the twelve is "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" not only because I deduced the location of the buried treasure ahead of Wimsey, but because his avuncular counsel of young Gherkins is priceless. "The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face" seems to be the genesis of Sayers' later novel Have His Carcase, but with Wimsey solving the case solo (and without the maddening cypher). It's in short stories such as these that we are able to fully explore Lord Peter's character and appreciate Sayers' craft.

All of these stories are gems. Not all are equal, however. There are a few carbuncles among the diamonds, but all are much better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Don't worry if you feel at sea at the beginning of some of these stories (only one brief scene in one of the stories actually takes place at sea): Lord Peter is not always revealed immediately, nor is what's going on always eminently clear. Patience pays off and stick-to-itiveness is always rewarded.

For Hardcore Dorothy Sayers Fans Only
At her best, Sayers used a complex style to create complex characters in complex settings and playing out a complex plot, and such novels as MURDER MUST ADVERTISE, GAUDY NIGHT, and BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON are classics of the mystery genre.But few authors seem able to create both excellent novels and excellent short stories, and Sayers is no exception to the general rule.

Her wordy style simply does not show as well in the short story form as it does in a novel-length work, and she has considerable difficulty in actually constructing plots for these stories that might in any way be described as "mysteries" per se.While most of the stories collected here are readable in a general sort of way, they read more as 1920s pulp-adventure than as "mystery."Fans of the Lord Peter Wimsey series (myself among them) will certainly enjoy them, and have fun noting that Sayers later expanded some of these short story ideas into more substantial work, but newcomers will likely be unimpressed.Recommended for hardcore Sayers fans only.

The best of Wimsey's short stories
The otherwise excellent 'unabridged' audio edition (read by Ian Carmichael, who portrayed Lord Peter in most of the adaptations of Sayers' novels) actually omitted 3 of these 12 stories, although the rest were indeed unabridged.

The complete set of short stories can only be found in the _Lord Peter_ collection; apart from that, this volume is the largest single batch. They don't overlap with _Hangman's Holiday_ or _In the Teeth of the Evidence_, which contain both Wimsey and non-Wimsey stories.

"The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers" - Varden, an American actor and a guest of one of Lord Peter's friends at the Egotists' Club, tells a story of an encounter with a mysterious stranger years before. A good story; Sayers' rare American characters are much better than, e.g. Christie's, although Varden does slip occasionally into British colloquialisms.

"The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question" - Omitted from the 'unabridged' audio edition, Heaven only knows why. The affair of the Attenbury diamonds, so often mentioned elsewhere as the beginning of Lord Peter's career in detection. A word of warning - Sayers never provided English translations of French dialogue unless forced to do so by her publishers, so part of one scene may be incomprehensible to the reader.

"The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will" - "A woman who pretends to be serious is wasting her time and spoiling her appearance. I consider that you have wasted your time to a really shocking extent. Accordingly, I intend to conceal this will, and that in such a manner that you will certainly never find it unless by the exercise of a sustained frivolity." This letter threw down a gauntlet for Hannah Marryat, one of Lady Mary's terribly earnest Radical friends (who will otherwise lose the money to the Primrose League via an earlier will). Very enjoyable; a shame it wasn't included in the audio edition (it involves a visual clue).

"The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag" - One motorcyclist chases another all along the Great North Road, followed by Lord Peter's Daimler, in pursuit of a small bag. But instead of the Dowager's jewelry stolen from Lord Peter in Piccadilly, the bag contains a woman's severed head. Which of the denials of ownership is a lie?

"The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker" - Mrs. Ruyslander is the victim of the bald-faced theft of two items: the 'Light of Africa' (a diamond necklace of 115 stones), and a small portrait 'with an inscription that nothing, *nothing*, could ever explain away.' Lord Peter tackles the job of retrieving them from the thief without exposing Mrs. Ruyslander's secret.

"The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention" - ENORMOUS, for a 'short' story, and not really worth the trip. Lord Peter's hosts are on the stuffy (and in one instance, spiteful) side, and gossipy, which gives us the background on the local rich old reprobate whose funeral is on the morrow. The mystery here isn't about the death, but who steals the body, and why. Sayers throws in a good bit of supposedly supernatural hocus-pocus for trimming. Although the old man's sons are named Martin and Haviland, they're not related to the 'Haviland Martin' in _Have His Carcase_. (This one *wasn't* cut from the audio edition; I'd have traded it gladly for the 3 that were, visual clues notwithstanding.)

"The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran" - On a hot June day in 1921, Lord Peter and Bunter have called at the home of a medical friend, a Bloomsbury G.P. who appreciates Bunter's photography of his experiments. Throughout their conversation and the meal, Lord Peter notices the footsteps of the doctor's neighbours on the floor overhead - which end in murder.

"The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste" - One of Lord Peter's government errands, for the War Office this time; he is to purchase a formula for poison gas. Some bright person sold out, however; two Lord Peters show up at the scientist's country estate in France (as a titled Royalist, he offers no allegiance to the upstart French government). The story follows Death Bredon, a 3rd party carrying a letter of introduction. Le comte proposes to find the real Lord Peter with an impromptu wine-tasting competition.

"The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" - Introducing St. George, staying with his uncle Peter during an outbreak of measles at prep school, as well as Lord Peter's first meeting with Bill Rumm. St. George buys a damaged rare book (nearly all the double-page maps having been torn out) which the bookseller picked up at an estate sale. The audio edition omitted this story, probably because the "treasure map" on which the story turns is a visual clue.

"The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach" - 95-year-old Great-Uncle Joseph left medical student Thomas Macpherson only one thing - his digestive system in a bottle - before jumping out a 6th-storey window after a stroke. "He left a letter. Said he had never been ill in his life and wasn't going to begin now." Lord Peter takes an interest after Mac (a fishing buddy) mentions that cousin Robert, the residuary legatee, can't find most of the old man's assets. You really should listen to Carmichael's narration of this one. :)

"The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face" - A strangler left the corpse on the beach at East Felpham, face mutilated beyond recognition. The story begins with several strangers on a train discussing the newspaper headlines - one of whom turns out to be Lord Peter, and another the inspector in charge of the case.

"The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba" - Begins with a newspaper account of Lord Peter's will, mentioning his death at age 37 in a hunting accident in Tanganyika. Rogers, upon reading the story, breathes a sigh of relief and proceeds with his plans to join a criminal mastermind's burglary & blackmail organization. The story follows Rogers, rather than the efforts of the Law.

A Delightful Collection
'Lord Peter Views the Body' comprises twelve short stories of mystery. They are well-structured, well-written little puzzlers, though some are definitely more engaging than others. There are no bad stories here (of course not! this is Dorothy L. Sayers, after all), but a couple leave only a mark of complancency, rather than intrigue.

With these twelve little morsels, Sayers shows a side of Wimsey not often explored in the full-length novels. We see Wimsey, the affable protagonist, involved in cases ranging from the flimsy, to the bizarre, to the positively horrific. There are stories concerned with solving crossword puzzles, preventing a theft, witnessing a ghostly apparition in the form of a headless horseman carriage, and even a tale which includes THREE Lord Peter Wimseys!

My paperback copy professes, on the rear teaser, that Wimsey views the body in twelve different ways. This is somewhat misleading, as not every one of the twelve stories is an actual *murder* mystery. Some are just fun adventure/spy dramas. All of them are sturdy tales, some better than others.

Relish the well-done 'Lord Peter Views the Body'. It is one of the best golden age mystery collections out there.

A good reading of 9 of the 12 stories in the original
It is a Golden Age when Acorn Media is turning out Poirot and Wimsey videos and Audio Partners is doing the same for books on tape with the very same stars, David Suchet and Ian Carmichael. Now we have from the latter company a complete reading of 9 short mysteries from Dorothy Sayers' anthology (61218).

Strictly speaking, this is not quite an "Unabridged" set on 6 cassettes since the original book holds 12 tales. One of them is based around a crossword puzzle, so I can see how very difficult that would be to work into a reading. Still we should be grateful to have the 9 Audio Partners has treated us to.

One of them will recall "House of Wax," except this time it is metal plating ("The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers"). Most of the stories have a light tone, as you can tell from the titles: "The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag," "The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention," "The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach" (in which you will guess the solution early on), and so on.

To me, the most interesting were "The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste" in which two (or is it three?) Peter Wimseys show up to purchase secret documents, and "The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face" in which the first half is concerned with Wimsey's theoretical reconstruction of a murder as reported in the papers and the second with the actual facts. The most unusual is the last, "The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba," in which Wimsey comes very close to being killed when he poses as a member of a secret organization.

Carmichael, as the movie ads say, IS Peter Wimsey---and his voice is flexible enough to be all the other characters as well. Beautifully done. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Best known for her Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, Dorothy Sayers was alsoa playwright, essayist, and a translator of Dante. C.S. Lewis said that he liked her "for the extraordinary zest and edge of her conversation--as I like a high wind." The reader gets a fair taste of that wind in this book, her study of the human (and divine) creative process. Beginning with some stingingly humorous words for the education process (which has produced, she says, "a generation of mental slatterns") she then explores the Trinitarian nature of creativity. Here she identifies the Christian concept of the Holy Trinity--God, Son, Holy Spirit--with three elements of creation. First, the Idea: "passionless, timeless, beholding the whole work complete at once, the end in the beginning"; then the Creative Energy: "begotten of that idea, working in time from the beginning to end," manifesting the Idea in matter; and finally the Creative Power: "the meaning of the work and its response in the lively soul"--in essence, what she calls "the indwelling Spirit."

In a plain, matter-of-fact style that readers will recognize from her mysteries, she reflects on the question of free will and miracle, evil, and, ultimately, "the worth of the work." It is especially here, I think, in this final chapter that the book remains both timeless and profoundly timely. The artist stands for the true worker, she writes, who, while requiring payment for his work, as an artist "retains so much of the image of God that he is in love with his creation for its own sake." So too, ultimately, should it be for all human work: "That the eyes of all workers should behold the integrity of the work is the sole means to make that work good in itself and so good for mankind. This is only another way of saying that the work must be measured by the standard of eternity." --Doug ThorpeBook Description
This classic, with a new introduction by Madeleine L'Engle, is by turns an entrancing mediation on language; a piercing commentary on the nature of art and why so much of what we read, hear, and see falls short; and a brilliant examination of the fundamental tenets of Christianity. The Mind of the Maker will be relished by those already in love with Dorothy L. Sayers and those who have not yet met her.

A mystery writer, a witty and perceptive theologian, culture critic, and playwright, Dorothy Sayers sheds new, unexpected light on a specific set of statements made in the Christian creeds. She examines anew such ideas as the image of God, the Trinity, free will, and evil, and in these pages a wholly revitalized understanding of them emerges. The author finds the key in the parallels between the creation of God and the human creative process. She continually refers to each in a way that illuminates both. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

The Masterful "Mind of the Maker"
If you are interested in an airtight, supremely reasoned, brilliantly explained, and determinedly impersonal description of what Christians state in their creeds, this is the book for all time.Beware, Unbelievers...**

**Of all the silly things written in the name of "atheism," probably the silliest is that God is the product of our minds.Well, duh.... How are we to know God except through our human minds?How are we to describe God except through our language and actions?It's only a question of which came first - God or the human capacity for an idea of something greater than ourselves who must have created us.I am infinitely more interested in the thoughts and writings of those who have studied and labored over a subject for all of their lives and built on the ideas of those who have done the same since the beginning of self-conscious thought.I am bored to tears with the ravings of those who just can't accept as the result of, say, several weeks - or a lifetime - of intermittent, random thoughts that there is something greater than themselves and with rules that go along with this being.So, on the grounds of depth, completeness, longevity, and logic, I prefer "The Mind of the Maker" not only to anything ever written denying God but to all other books about God.

INSIGHT
She had an amazing insight to what the Christian life is all about.A worth while read.

Thinker's Classic
The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers is a classic for a reason. She is an excellent writer and a wonderfully deep thinker. At times I honestly got lost in the depths but, as I look back, the truths and nuggets of "ah ha"s are worth a few head scratches.

She opens the book explaining that it is not an explanation or a defense of the Christian faith. The book is her attempt to "demonstrate that the statements made in the Creeds about the Mind of the Divine Maker represent, so far as (she is) able to check them by (her) experience, true statements about the mind of a human maker." (preface) There is a universal truth found in the act of someone who creates and the Creator of all things.

She explains how Father, Son, and Spirit can be well understood by the creative mind's "Idea", "Energy", and "Power". She mainly focuses on the illustration of the writer (her occupation and obviously greatest experience). The essential nature of an idea working its way with the energy of a person writing with its connected power that is released is an incredible thought. I've been meditating on it often.

Many times, as a follower of Christ, I focus on "just" one aspect of our God: the Father or Son or Spirit. I too often miss and do a vast injustice to Him as I do not focus on the eternal relationship that they all together forever work. Sayer has given me a new way of remembering and reflecting on my Love and Hope which has affected me.

I believe that being creative can be a spiritual discipline. This book will be my "proof text". We are most like our God when we exhibit his love and work in a finite yet glorious way while we create something. Be it a new song, photograph, painting, story, etc. Hmm, maybe even creating another blog entry... a bit.

I highly recommend The Mind of the Maker even if you can't run through it, it is worth a slow soak. Don't be afraid to put it down and ponder. This book isn't for the "fast food" reader but it is accessible to all.

A glimpse of God, but a full-dress study of Man
Contrary to popular belief, this is not primarily a book about God. Sayers wisely does not try to tell us about God directly, but about what is godlike in ourselves. 'The characteristic common to God and man,' she says, is 'the desire and ability to make things.' She draws a vivid and detailed analogy between the Christian Trinity and our own creative imagination. In working out the details of this analogy, she tells us a great deal about them both; but, inevitably, more about our own minds than God's.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit correspond to what Sayers calls the Idea, Energy, and Power. For a writer, the Idea is the book as he first imagines it; the Energy is the book as actually written; the Power is the impression it makes in the mind of each reader. The analogy applies equally well to all art forms. Sayers makes the Trinity seem as plain and familiar as a conversation. If you ever knew what you wanted to say but couldn't find the words, you felt the difference between the Father and the Son. If someone took your words to mean something you never intended, you felt the distance between the Son and the Spirit. Critics may say the Trinity is not real, but they can never again call it incomprehensible.

The rest of the book concentrates on the purely human maker. The longest chapter, 'Scalene Trinities', discusses the ways that the creative imagination can go wrong, and classifies them as failures of the Idea, the Energy, or the Power. I find this the most useful part of the book. Whatever kind of work we do, we find it all too easy to become obsessed with technical details (the Energy). We almost forget that we are trying to express an Idea, and so our work loses the Power to benefit other people. We need to be fully aware of all three parts of the process.

The Mind of the Maker is a brilliant book. But if you read it just for its theology, you will miss two-thirds of the brilliance. It has still more value as a guide to human creativity. If you are a Christian, or if you do any kind of creative work, this book will do your mind good.

Fascinating Insights
Sayers starts with the orthodox concept of the Trinity and suggest that the mind of man as creator is analogous.By examining the mind of man as creator and the work he creates, we can acquire a better understanding of the Holy Trinity.While this might seem outlandish at first, it works! When you think about theological concepts just as concepts, they can be very hard to grasp.But Sayers uses concrete examples to illustrate theological concepts, and avoids the temptation to overextend her analogy.She concentrates mainly on the writer-creator, since she herself is a writer.Her insights on the creative process of writing are almost as interesting as the light they shed on the nature of God.These insights go well beyond the concept of the Trinity--she offers an interesting perspective on the existence of evil, free will, and much more. I've never read anything like this. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (39)

The "Tailors" don't sew
This tale finds Lord Peter Wimsey and his ever-present butler, "Bunter," on a driving tour of the English countryside when Lord Peter, (who is a bit of a klutz at times), crashes the car, which keeps the two stranded for a day or so in a great and atmospheric rural location, of course, to launch into another great double-whammy mystery: an old jewel theft and murder.
Wimsey and Bunter end up staying overnight at a friendly old preacher's home and Peter gets "roped" (yes, a pun...) into an all-night bell-ringing vigil to ring in the new year at the local church, due to the reported serious illness of one of the bell-ringing team. The bells themselves are the Nine Tailors of the title, each having a separate formal name.
I'll stop there, except to say that Lord Peter ultimately has to return much later to solve the theft and the murder mysteries.
The story is expertly crafted by Sayers, a master of the mystery-writing art, and few folks will guess the ironic ending. Here are some things that I like about this mystery: It's English; it takes place early on in the 20th Century; there are "crusty" characters; the location is very good; I learned a LOT about church-bell ringing, clearly an art-form that I was previously unaware of, and; the story has a satisfying conclusion. So, what didn't I like? Well, those are mostly my own hang-ups because these are things NOT so much found in this story, but I savor mystery cliches such as creepy old houses, lots of rain, and a clear nemesis throughout such sagas.
Also, I will assert that Dorothy L. Sayers wrote BETTER mysteries than this one, (e.g., "The Unpleasantness at the Belonna Club," her best mystery ever), so I'm sort of rating this one solely against her own works. Still, this is a fine mystery and I recommend it to others who enjoy the genre.
It's also available on Audiobook and that version is VERY good, rendered by an excellent reader. I definitely recommend that you read the book first, though, because there are tons of intricate details and clues in this one that are otherwise easily missed in the audiobook version.

Ingenious Plot with Bells, Jewel, and War!
This novel of Dorothy L. Sayers would have deserved five stars, if Ian Carmichael's performance as the 20s aristocratic sleuth in the TV mini-series, Lord Peter Wimsey - The Nine Tailors, has not been so spectacular, and the story seems more effective when it was told in a chronological order in the film. Those who are interested in more recent aristocratic sleuths may want to check out Sir Philip Wild and the Emerald Necklace, an intriguing mystery novel with similar storyline and an attractive baronet as a private detective.

Ding! Dong! Go the Bells
For those interested in the intricacies of church bell ringing, look no further. This novel drones on and on about the clangers in a manner that displays Sayles' need to show off her extreme research. Cut out these 50 or so pages, and you might have a rather fine read indeed.Wimsey and his servant Bunter are endearing characters, and there are several other fine creations, including a lively parrot. Yet the mystery itself seems at times to be a wedged-in afterthought.And then there's the Superintendent's line: "She's got a stack of money and the meanness of fifty thousand Scotch Jews rolled into one." This is pure anti-Semitism and it isn't that favorable to the inhabitants of Scotland either. Truly this is one of the more overrated books I have ever read. As for Sinclair Lewis stating that this mystery might be better than Dickens' Bleak House, it makes you shudder. Either Lewis was in bed with Sayles, they were pals, she had reviewed one of his books favorably, or the man had gone crackers. I'm sticking with Dickens and Agatha Christie.

great book
I literally ordered it and got it so quickly!I also love the author and her books.

Dorothy Sayers at her best
This novel by Dorothy Sayers represents her considerable literary skills at their best.She skillfully weaves her mystery within a highly educational and entertaining presentation of bell chaining, a unique custom of the Church of England.Lord Peter Wimsey is the man! ... Read more

Book Description
The grotesquely grinning corpse in the Devonshire shack was a man who died horribly -- with a dish of mushrooms at his side. His body contained enough death-dealing muscarine to kill 30 people. Why would an expert on fungi feast on a large quantity of this particularly poisonous species. A clue to the brilliant murderer, who had baffled the best minds in London, was hidden in a series of letters and documents that no one seemed to care about, except the dead man's son. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Bad Reading Habits
I hope I am not holding a grudge against The Documents in the Case for not having Lord Peter Wimsey in it. As in many classic mysteries, the jacket reveals the identity of the victim and his cause of death, in this case a wild mushroom enthusiast who dies from consuming deadly Amanita mushrooms.The murder doesn't take place until more than halfway through, leaving plenty of time to set the scene.Perhaps inspired by Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, the main part of the story is told by letters written by the different characters who are proximate to the murder.Unfortunately all the characters are very self-absorbed and long-winded in a way that I did not find engaging.For social historians, The Documents in the Case highlights 1929 attitudes toward class, feminism, and the new ideas of chemistry, biology, physics, and psychology that were beginning to gain popular currency.

Loyal Dorothy Sayers fans who find this less well-known novel after reading her other books will recognize a proto-Miss Climpson and echoes of the feckless "artistic" set that Harriet Vane ran with before her murder trial.

Hard core Sayers fans will get some pleasure from this book even without His Lordship but its main value is as a period piece and exhibit in the history of detective fiction.

No Wimsey, but plenty of good old-fashioned murder
"The Documents in the Case" is a departure from Dorothy Sayers' excellent Lord Peter Wimsey series. In the first half ("Synthesis"), the reader is introduced to the characters (married couple George and Margaret Harrison, roommates Lathom and Munting, and the disturbed Miss Milsom) through a series of letters from and to the characters. The basis for the crime is laid out early in the book, and the murder is solved in the second section ("Analysis").

(This book should be a must-read for organic chemistry students, who will appreciate the solution to the mystery.)

Besides furnishing the method of the murder, then-contemporary science plays a huge part in this book, with characters discussing the works of Einstein, Eddington and others. To the modern reader, this seems quaint and rather naive. "Glands" are discussed multiple times, with the implication that all human behavior would be explained in the near future as a result of "heredity and encrocine secretions, economics and aesthetics and so on." Another character comments that "Nature's only a rather clumsy kind of chemist . . . rather a careless and inaccurate one." This over-confidence was hardly justifies by future developments--1930s scientists could hardly have predicted the immense complication of the interactions of "heredity and endocrine secretions", and their effects on human behavior, nor the immense difficulty in organic sythesis, or the DNA revolution.

There a couple of real scientific howlers here, notably where one character describes light as a vibration in the aether, a theory that has been completely de-bunked (the "lumineferous aether" was supposed to be the propagation medium for light). Still, keeping in mind that this book was written in 1930, it's an interesting look into contemporary mindset and theories, and an absorbing mystery.

Lord Peter Wimsey is off the case
In a departure from her trademark Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane stories, Dorothy L. Sayers presents what is essentially an epistolary novel with this book. Ostensibly a collection of 40-some letters and 2 long written statements, the book details the events leading up to the murder of George Harrison (not *that* George Harrison), and the efforts of the victim's son and a reluctant ally to get to the truth of matter.

While it's not exactly Rashomon, unreliable narrators abound, and fixing just what's what as letters contradict each other is the reader's challenge in the first half of the book. In the second half, Paul Harrison details his efforts to find his father's killer and pulls in budding author John Munting to assist him. Their investigation proceeds in fits and starts until it hits the brick wall of knowing *who* committed the murder, and even *why* and *how*, but not being able to prove any of it. As the number of pages dwindles, you begin to doubt if Sayers can get out of the corner she's painted herself into. Without answering whether she does or not, I will say the ending doesn't disappoint.

One suspects that Sayers' late-1920's audience got more out of this novel than today's readers. Unless you're well versed in D.H. Lawrence, R.U.R., and other then-current artistic works, you - like me - will miss what I suspect are some rather satirical asides. Nonetheless, this remains a highly enjoyable book by one of England's best mystery writers. (Robert Eustace, Sayers' co-author, is the pseudonym of Dr. Eustace Robert Barton, who likely provided her with much of the scientific material for the story; he also collaborated with several other mystery writers in the first third of the 20th Century.)

One of Sayers Best
Documents in the Case is unlike Sayers' other mysteries. It is in the form, first of all, of documents: letters, newspaper clippings, etc. Secondly, it does not feature Lord Peter Wimsey.

It is, however, an intensely interesting book. The characters, with the exception of the femme fatale (who is convincing butentirely unlikable), are portrayed sympathetically and the reader comes away with a sense of the complexity of human nature in general and of the novel's characters specifically. No one is all good or all bad or all anything. The victim--a fussy, middle-class, conservative husband--is drawn with great insight and compassion. Equally so, the murderer, for all the cruelty of the murder, is not unlikable and even pitiable.

The main narrator has many of the same personality quirks as Lord Peter Wimsey--a reluctance to get involved, oversensitivity and feelings of self-doubt--but his motives are, I think, more convincing. His quirks are less mannerisms and more part and parcel of his character (as eventually happens with Wimsey). Like all the other characters, he is flawed but comprehensible.

In fact, the book is a most unpretentious novel. I enjoy Sayers very much and consider myself a Wimsey fan, but Documents in the Case is, to my mind, a far more realistic and thoughtful mystery than some of Sayers' better known works. The mileau is middle-class. The victim's son (who is collecting the documents) is noble-minded but imperfect: hard to like even when you want him to "win". And the characters are truly impacted by the murder.

The murder itself is interesting enough but much more interesting is the theme that runs alongside the murder: the "lop-sidedness" of life in general, the idea that living things can never achieve the cookie-cutter perfection of synthetic creations.

Recommendation: Give it a try if you are interested in Sayers' work beyond Wimsey (and if you don't mind reading books in letter or document form).

Very thrilling!It's a nice book to curl up with
This book was the first I have read by Dorothy Sayers, and it was verygood.There were times when it was a little slow, but other than that, itwas very well-written.I look forward to reading more mysteries by thisauthor! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Terrific spiritual classic
After seeing Dante referred to by so many Christian authors over the years, I finally decided I'd better read this "timeless spiritual classic."I was expecting a dry, dull slog.
Fortunately, I consulted a friend who is a Classicist.I told him I wanted to read Dante for spiritual value, not just as great literature (I'm no poetry expert, nor do I speak a word of Italian).He recommended Dorothy Sayer's translation.
Wow.Reading Dante during Lent is one long, detailed examination of conscience!It is great, and Sayers' explanations and commentaries are terrific: erudite, informative, drily witty, and full of spiritual insight.

Poetry even for us monoglots
Let's begin with Dante. Called "the divine poet" (hence the adjective attached to his humbly titled Commedia), it is a difficult moniker to argue with, not because Dante is writing of heaven but because his imagery, his imagination, and his humility are true imitations of the creative activity of God. Dante is a sublime "sub-creator" to use the coinage of JRR Tolkien. If you can read theCommedia and not be moved to tears, one is tempted to doubt your humanity for Dante portrays the race in all its beauty and putridness and denies neither. He neither celebrates mankind's faculties and achievements beyond their due nor fears to recognize the vileness of which humans are capable.