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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
4 STARS
I'd never read any of Dorothy Sayers' fiction (I read and loved THE MIND OF THE MAKER though), so when I found this over my holiday break at a used bookstore, I decided to give it a go.
Part of the Lord Peter Wimsey series, this is a traditional old school whodunit and was generally a lot of fun. When a disagreeable and unliked painter is found dead on the rocky coast of a Scottish artist colony, Lord Peter Wimsey detects the evidence of foul play and sets off on an investigation into the lives and motives of six inhabitants of the town. Five of the suspects, of course, are red herrings, albeit compelling ones.
If you enjoy Agatha Christie, this would be a great fit for you (plus there are tons of books in the series available!). My only complaint was that, because there were six suspects, the book was a bit long. The way everything came together, though, made the payoff worth it.
I'd never read any of Dorothy Sayers' fiction (I read and loved THE MIND OF THE MAKER though), so when I found this over my holiday break at a used bookstore, I decided to give it a go.
Part of the Lord Peter Wimsey series, this is a traditional old school whodunit and was generally a lot of fun. When a disagreeable and unliked painter is found dead on the rocky coast of a Scottish artist colony, Lord Peter Wimsey detects the evidence of foul play and sets off on an investigation into the lives and motives of six inhabitants of the town. Five of the suspects, of course, are red herrings, albeit compelling ones.
If you enjoy Agatha Christie, this would be a great fit for you (plus there are tons of books in the series available!). My only complaint was that, because there were six suspects, the book was a bit long. The way everything came together, though, made the payoff worth it.
After a very long time, a murder mystery that kept me guessing until the end! I haven't enjoyed a mystery as much as I did Cat in the Pigeons by Dame Christie for a while now, and Dorothy L. Sayers brings it all back in a fine setting in rural Scotland, with a story that has an unlikeable victim, at least five suspects with rock solid motivation to murder and not so great alibis, a local police task force who doggedly tracks every lead and Peter Wimsey at his least annoying, not in the least because there are so many characters in the story; he doesn't have much time in the spot light.
Until the last chapter I couldn't make out which of the suspects was lying, and how the murder took place, with so many factors to its planning - stealing bicycling, swapping cars, faking a painting, trains, ticket collectors and just general luck.
Ms. Sayers has researched all the particulars so well - a key factor in the alibis is the punctilious attention to train time tables and distances travelled by bicycles on rocky roads etc.
Reading a broad Scottish dialect written directly was not easy at first, but by the middle of the book it becomes much easier and flows very well! I stayed up into the night to finish this story.
Until the last chapter I couldn't make out which of the suspects was lying, and how the murder took place, with so many factors to its planning - stealing bicycling, swapping cars, faking a painting, trains, ticket collectors and just general luck.
Ms. Sayers has researched all the particulars so well - a key factor in the alibis is the punctilious attention to train time tables and distances travelled by bicycles on rocky roads etc.
Reading a broad Scottish dialect written directly was not easy at first, but by the middle of the book it becomes much easier and flows very well! I stayed up into the night to finish this story.
3 1/2 stars. This is not my favorite of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories by any means, one reason being that all the verbiage rendered in dialect wears me down after a few pages. I also tended to get the suspects somewhat confused until later in the book, because they're not really described early on, just named. Wimsey is on point and his usual clever self, but Bunter and Parker make only cameo appearances here, and I miss them. Still, as usual in a Sayers novel, there are tiny gems of literary allusion and tongue-in-cheek witticisms that are delightful to uncover, and the mystery is well-constructed. One very sour note - the map at the beginning of my edition is largely unreadable even using a magnifying glass. I could only make out the largest labels. Why did they bother?
Probably one of the better, if not the best Wimsey book I have read. It's interesting and makes you keep guessing, unlike some similar books.
The only problem I found were the large amount of suspects and cast of characters, eventually I lost who was who and who was doing what when, and that lead to the solution being a bit less impactful than I thought it was.
There were a few bits of odd dialogue as well which I wasn't particularly a fan of.
The only problem I found were the large amount of suspects and cast of characters, eventually I lost who was who and who was doing what when, and that lead to the solution being a bit less impactful than I thought it was.
There were a few bits of odd dialogue as well which I wasn't particularly a fan of.
This is my first Sayers apart from a poor short story I read in a collection - I'm afraid this was in the same vein. Every possible thought and scenario is documented in full - oh for a Poirot doing it in his own head and just giving you the final correct answer! The fussing over train timetables was head spinningly boring and was difficult and almost pointless to follow in any case.
I persisted though, as the reason I bought this book is that it is set near Wigtown where I happened to be staying, so it's a souvenir of sorts. It has a nice map in the front for reference and all the place names are real, even if the railway lines are now defunct. But being a Scottish setting, Sayers insists on writing out the dialogue in its full (very broad) phonetics which was also unnecessarily tedious. Novice writers are told not to overdo dialect and that a light touch to give the suggestion is enough. Read this book and you'll see why this is sound advice...
I'm told there are much better Sayers - her best is Goudy Night I believe - so I may risk her one more time...but it's going to take a while to get over this. An OCD person or a railway buff might appreciate the obsessive minutiae but for a reader of general detective or crime novels it got so bogged down in detail, and as another reviewer notes, the five red herring characters so little distinguished, that they seem to all blend into one, that by the end you don't even care who did it. A sad outcome when Sayers is obviously a very clever plotter. If it wasn't a souvenir of my trip, I would have stopped after a few chapters, and I am a determined finisher of novels.
I persisted though, as the reason I bought this book is that it is set near Wigtown where I happened to be staying, so it's a souvenir of sorts. It has a nice map in the front for reference and all the place names are real, even if the railway lines are now defunct. But being a Scottish setting, Sayers insists on writing out the dialogue in its full (very broad) phonetics which was also unnecessarily tedious. Novice writers are told not to overdo dialect and that a light touch to give the suggestion is enough. Read this book and you'll see why this is sound advice...
I'm told there are much better Sayers - her best is Goudy Night I believe - so I may risk her one more time...but it's going to take a while to get over this. An OCD person or a railway buff might appreciate the obsessive minutiae but for a reader of general detective or crime novels it got so bogged down in detail, and as another reviewer notes, the five red herring characters so little distinguished, that they seem to all blend into one, that by the end you don't even care who did it. A sad outcome when Sayers is obviously a very clever plotter. If it wasn't a souvenir of my trip, I would have stopped after a few chapters, and I am a determined finisher of novels.
Well this a tricky one to review! It is my least favourite the series and technically it should only get 3 stars, but the ending was so much fun (chief constable playing corpse! Wimsey legging it from that one train through the station masters garden! The bicycle hitching a lift with the car!) that it absolutely earned an extra star. Honourable mention to the scene with the Inspector trying to get a handle on Alcock's name, I genuinely couldn't stop laughing for a good few minutes!
However. I never want to read another word about bicycles or the finer points of 1930s train timetables in the Scottish Borders. Blimey those chapters were interminable and interchangeable! And *that* passage, where Wimsey tells the police what to look for and we are left in the dark is the most frustrating thing I've ever read. Yes I guessed correctly (*smug face*), but I didn't find out for a good 300 pages and it bothered me the whole time!
So in all it was a mixed bag. It's very cleverly done, and extremely funny in places, but there's so much repetition and not nearly enough Wimsey. I'll have to hurry on to the next instalment because this didn't really feel like a Wimsey book at all.
However. I never want to read another word about bicycles or the finer points of 1930s train timetables in the Scottish Borders. Blimey those chapters were interminable and interchangeable! And *that* passage, where Wimsey tells the police what to look for and we are left in the dark is the most frustrating thing I've ever read. Yes I guessed correctly (*smug face*), but I didn't find out for a good 300 pages and it bothered me the whole time!
So in all it was a mixed bag. It's very cleverly done, and extremely funny in places, but there's so much repetition and not nearly enough Wimsey. I'll have to hurry on to the next instalment because this didn't really feel like a Wimsey book at all.
I still love Lord Peter mysteries, but this was honestly not my favorite. Maybe the heavy dialect at times affected it, but it felt like it dragged on at times. And there was one part at the beginning that felt like a little bit of a cheat to hide from the reader. Still love you, though, Dot! ;)
challenging
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Sayers was a brilliant author. Even a brilliant author can write one dull book. This is that book.
Unless you're an obsessive completionist like me, or you're interested in the art and fishing culture of 1930s Galloway in Scotland, you can safely skip this while working your way through the Whimsey novels.
Unless you're an obsessive completionist like me, or you're interested in the art and fishing culture of 1930s Galloway in Scotland, you can safely skip this while working your way through the Whimsey novels.
This has got to be the world's slowest rollercoaster. Somehow managed to be both tedious and exciting.
Not a massive fan of writing in dialects, but overall a very good story.
Best bit is probably the section that feels like the endings in the movie Clue.
Not a massive fan of writing in dialects, but overall a very good story.
Best bit is probably the section that feels like the endings in the movie Clue.