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tokengeekgirl 's review for:
The Five Red Herrings
by Dorothy L. Sayers
This one gets better the more times you read it. Unfortunately, the first time I read it I got so confused with the large cast of characters and the ever changing stories that I nearly put it down. Twice.
This was a pretty big disappointment after Strong Poison. What worked for me, after I read the novel, was to listen to the BBC radio play. Then re-reading the novel became much easier and more fun.
Let's start with the premise. Peter's up in Scotland to do some finishing, and he breaks up a fight one evening between his (English) friend and the local Scottish hell raiser, Campbell. Come to find out that Campbell has managed to piss off nearly everyone in this small town. Then he shows up dead the next day. Well. There is no dearth of suspects. In fact, there are six. Five red herrings and a murderer.
And it is murder, despite the murderer making it seem like an accident.
So we have 6 threads to unravel, and the stories constantly change. And we go over them again and again and again. Sayers pulls a fast one on the readers, by not revealing the important clue until the very end, even though Peter saw it immediately. Sometimes I like that kind of thing, but here it was just annoying, because he kept referring to it but never explaining.
However, there are good things about this! The police force is excellent, and not just as a backdrop for Peter to hang his genius upon. There are some great interactions between Bunter and Peter, and the way they trap the murderer is a grand piece of drama that would never happen in a book today. Once I started to make sense of all the connecting threads, it was SO MUCH easier to just sit back and enjoy Sayers' lovely writing.
Also, the backdrop of this whole story was great, and Sayers portrayed it so well. The language of the characters all fit perfectly with their characterization, without making it difficult to read, and the descriptions of scenery were excellent.
So, not as great as some others, but perfectly acceptable for the series. And much better on a second read, even though you already know the ending.
This was a pretty big disappointment after Strong Poison. What worked for me, after I read the novel, was to listen to the BBC radio play. Then re-reading the novel became much easier and more fun.
Let's start with the premise. Peter's up in Scotland to do some finishing, and he breaks up a fight one evening between his (English) friend and the local Scottish hell raiser, Campbell. Come to find out that Campbell has managed to piss off nearly everyone in this small town. Then he shows up dead the next day. Well. There is no dearth of suspects. In fact, there are six. Five red herrings and a murderer.
And it is murder, despite the murderer making it seem like an accident.
So we have 6 threads to unravel, and the stories constantly change. And we go over them again and again and again. Sayers pulls a fast one on the readers, by not revealing the important clue until the very end, even though Peter saw it immediately. Sometimes I like that kind of thing, but here it was just annoying, because he kept referring to it but never explaining.
However, there are good things about this! The police force is excellent, and not just as a backdrop for Peter to hang his genius upon. There are some great interactions between Bunter and Peter, and the way they trap the murderer is a grand piece of drama that would never happen in a book today. Once I started to make sense of all the connecting threads, it was SO MUCH easier to just sit back and enjoy Sayers' lovely writing.
Also, the backdrop of this whole story was great, and Sayers portrayed it so well. The language of the characters all fit perfectly with their characterization, without making it difficult to read, and the descriptions of scenery were excellent.
So, not as great as some others, but perfectly acceptable for the series. And much better on a second read, even though you already know the ending.