A review by arachan
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

challenging emotional informative mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is part of my attempt to (re)read the Lord Peter Wimsey books.  I find Sayers a very talented, observant writer but this really does not read like a murder mystery.  It feels disingenious to call it a murder mystery at all.

There is a dead body, there is a mystery around how the dead body came to be a body in the place that the body was.  But it's not the focus of the book.  The focus of the book is a love letter to a small town Anglican priest and the small village life right on the cusp of the Second World War.  

I found the explanations of bell-ringing and the snapshots of deeply traditional people and a very specific moment in time.   All of that was beautiful but it made the 'mystery' much less compelling than the story of the church and the bells.