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A review by tombomp
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
3.0
I mean, fine mystery with some clever identity play and misleading stuff. How much you enjoy it will depend on how much you enjoy Sayers' style. And bell ringing talk.
I have to say something about the ending
And then at the end of the book, when there's no sign there's going to be any charges pressed against him or anything, he dies. He's working on a sluice gate, it bursts with plenty of warning so I don't know why they didn't get off, someone falls in the river, he jumps in after them, both die.
The death feels entirely futile, both from a moral and narrative standpoint. He's left behind a wife and kids, the wife widowed for the 2nd time. He was a labourer and presumably barely left any money for them. He could have left the sluice before it burst. But none of this is gone into. He just dies. It's a bizarrely miserable end where it feels like Wimsey's exertions did nothing but ruin the lives of a working class family. But hey, the daughter of the county squire got extremely rich so everything's fine! Bizarre.
Also the cipher here is pretty ingenious but it's both cracked way too easily and also gone into more detail than most people would be interested in. Have His Carcase had the same problem.
I have to say something about the ending
Spoiler
In the end, the murder is revealed to be a complete accident, although it's maybe not surprising that leaving a guy in a room of 8 big bells is not exactly conducive to his health. The victim was a murderer and thief who ruined the lives of multiple people - and weirdly didn't even see any profit from it. And before his identity was discovered everyone thought he was dead anyway. So the discovery of the body and Wimsey's identification of him just made everything worse, a fact he muses on a bit. The person with the most responsibility for the death didn't intend to kill him - he was married to the man's wife and had realised that if he was still alive then their marriage was bigamous, and was going to give him money to leave the country to avoid a scandal for the wife. He got struck down by flu before he could carry out his plan and left him in the belfry, which killed him.And then at the end of the book, when there's no sign there's going to be any charges pressed against him or anything, he dies. He's working on a sluice gate, it bursts with plenty of warning so I don't know why they didn't get off, someone falls in the river, he jumps in after them, both die.
The death feels entirely futile, both from a moral and narrative standpoint. He's left behind a wife and kids, the wife widowed for the 2nd time. He was a labourer and presumably barely left any money for them. He could have left the sluice before it burst. But none of this is gone into. He just dies. It's a bizarrely miserable end where it feels like Wimsey's exertions did nothing but ruin the lives of a working class family. But hey, the daughter of the county squire got extremely rich so everything's fine! Bizarre.
Also the cipher here is pretty ingenious but it's both cracked way too easily and also gone into more detail than most people would be interested in. Have His Carcase had the same problem.