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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
Okay, so after two bad experiences (Five Red Herrings and a short story) I nearly gave up on DLS, but I decided to give one of the much admired ones a go. This was a big improvement. Still a lot of minutiae about bell tolling technicalities (who would have thought it from this modern age??), but I grudgingly admit she's damned clever about making it part of her solution. She does go for complexity, it seems. And quite a dramatic ending. Okay, alright... I'll try another one!
Well THAT was ingenious! I figured out several twists along the way (much to my own satisfaction) but I didn't see the final one coming at all. Bravo!
This is in competition with Gaudy Night as Sayers' best novel, and sometimes appears in lists as the best murder mystery novel of all time (even ahead of Agatha Christie's novels).
That said, a couple of warnings:
1. Do *not* read the Wimsey novels out of order; it won't work (unlike with Christie's novels). You'll have to read the others, first.
2. Like Gaudy Night, this one goes into a lot of technical information (in this case, around water management in the Fenlands and the English practice of change ringing).
Christie includes just the minimum technical information needed to keep her plots moving, but Sayers absolutely revels in it. If you don't enjoy that kind of thing, you might not like this novel. Obviously, however, many people have enjoyed it. As far as mood and atmosphere go, it's unsurpassed in mystery writing.
That said, a couple of warnings:
1. Do *not* read the Wimsey novels out of order; it won't work (unlike with Christie's novels). You'll have to read the others, first.
2. Like Gaudy Night, this one goes into a lot of technical information (in this case, around water management in the Fenlands and the English practice of change ringing).
Christie includes just the minimum technical information needed to keep her plots moving, but Sayers absolutely revels in it. If you don't enjoy that kind of thing, you might not like this novel. Obviously, however, many people have enjoyed it. As far as mood and atmosphere go, it's unsurpassed in mystery writing.
This is a traditional 1930's murder mystery novel, taken from the `Golden Age’ of crime fiction as they call it. It features Lord Peter Wimsey and a remote Fenlands Village, Fenchurch St Paul where Lord Peter fetches up one New Years Eve (with butler in tow of course). They’re just about to ring the New Year in with an extended peal of bells and the bells do take on their own personality in the book, it’s a classic book if you happen to like bell ringing – and even if you don’t actually. I've always thought the bells on New Years Eve have a timeless antiquity about them, particularly as its midnight at the darkest time of the year and you know people have listened to those same peals for centuries. It really does bring a tingle to the spine and Sayers brings that part of the story to life very well.
Anyway then comes the body in the churchyard and the hunt for his killer. The story is tied up with the mysterious theft of some emeralds twenty years before. The book flounders a little at this point I thought, the character of Lord Peter doesn’t do anything for me, good socialist that I am. All that doffing of caps and yes m’Lord and no m’Lord, and smug superiority…I half expected the criminals to say `It’s a fair cop guv….I’m just a common oik!.. .I’d always avoided Dorothy Sayers books for that reason but I know it’s very much of its time and you can hardly criticise her for being stranded when the national zeitgeist moves on. Its better written than Agatha Christie say, although Christie at her best has more pizzazz than Sayers.
The book has an excellent ending when its connection with the bells is wrapped up neatly. It’s a good description of the desolate fens too, and so timeless it seems that Cromwell’s and the Dutchmen's efforts to drain the fens was almost just round the corner instead of three hundred years previously. Not an area of the country I know at all, should visit one day….
Anyway then comes the body in the churchyard and the hunt for his killer. The story is tied up with the mysterious theft of some emeralds twenty years before. The book flounders a little at this point I thought, the character of Lord Peter doesn’t do anything for me, good socialist that I am. All that doffing of caps and yes m’Lord and no m’Lord, and smug superiority…I half expected the criminals to say `It’s a fair cop guv….I’m just a common oik!.. .I’d always avoided Dorothy Sayers books for that reason but I know it’s very much of its time and you can hardly criticise her for being stranded when the national zeitgeist moves on. Its better written than Agatha Christie say, although Christie at her best has more pizzazz than Sayers.
The book has an excellent ending when its connection with the bells is wrapped up neatly. It’s a good description of the desolate fens too, and so timeless it seems that Cromwell’s and the Dutchmen's efforts to drain the fens was almost just round the corner instead of three hundred years previously. Not an area of the country I know at all, should visit one day….
I think this is one of the better Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. The cast of characters was interesting and very differentiated, and the topic of bell-ringing was entirely new to me. I found the solution to the mystery genuinely surprising, in a good way. I had suspected a piece of it from the beginning, but the way in which the pieces fit together was new and worked very well. I also really liked the descriptions of community togetherness during the flood. It was nice to read about for obvious current-events reasons.
While I found the murder mystery aspect competent, if not very compelling, I was disappointed in how little presence Wimsey had. He didn't feel very fleshed out as a character; I don't need all my detectives to be Poirots, full of quirks and cute little sayings, but a little personality to identify with would be nice. This, coupled with a slow start that went into far too much description about bells and an ending that made me think that Sayers had been reading too much George Elliot, made for a bit of a disappointing read for me. On the plus side, I did like the gentle Rector very much, and had figured out a couple of major bits long before they were revealed-- always a good feeling. :)
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
For me the fenland environment is one of the main characters in this Lord Peter Wimsey novel. It's a slow burner that takes a year to be resolved. But that adds a level of realism that is usually missing from the whodunnit genre.
Really solid interesting mystery but all the bell ringing details dragged this down a bit for me.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I think it was a case of wrong book wrong time. Feeling very grossed out and depressed, which is NOT the normal reaction to Sayers!