This omnibus edition of all the Lord Peter Wimsey short stories consists of the stories from _Hangman's Holiday_, _In the Teeth of the Evidence_, _Lord Peter Views the Body_, and _Striding Folly_ (the final 3 stories of _Lord Peter_), those of _Striding Folly_ being the most difficult to get outside the omnibus edition. See reviews of the individual collections if you want a more detailed discussion of the contents. If you get the omnibus _Lord Peter_, be aware that it contains the complete text of _Lord Peter Views the Body_, while HH and Teeth contain non-Wimsey stories that are worth having. If you're interested in an unabridged audio version, check out those for the individual volumes that have been cannibalized for the omnibus edition; Ian Carmichael has narrated unabridged recordings of most of the short stories, with the exception (so far) of a few that turn on visual clues given in the text.

I find the 2 stories from Teeth uninteresting, but those from HH are enjoyable. The stories from _Lord Peter Views the Body_ all predate the events of _Strong Poison_ - that is, they occur years before Lord Peter met Harriet Vane. In fact, some occur within two years of the end of WWI, such as "The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran", set in June 1921. For the most part, most of my favorite Lord Peter short stories fall into this group, with the exception of "The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention", an enormous (and to me, tedious) novella wherein the will of a recently deceased old reprobate was deliberately designed to create bad blood between his sons. Apart from that, we have such gems as the Attenbury diamond case, mentioned in later years as having started Lord Peter on his hobby of detection, a case featuring Lord St. George as a child staying in the Piccadilly flat (and featuring the first appearance of Bill Rumm, who later appeared in _Strong Poison_). We even have "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will", wherein Lady Mary persuades her brother to help a friend with Red politics find her uncle's missing will. (It's much more entertaining than Hercule Poirot's only foray into a case of this kind, and more sophisticated than Jane Marple's only such case - Uncle Meleager had a wicked sense of humor.)

Harriet Vane appears only in the last two stories, both from _Striding Folly_: "The Haunted Policeman" and "Talboys", neither involving murder and both set after the events of _Thrones, Dominations_.

Each story is self-contained, but there is progression.
Lord Peter himself, and most of the other characters are self-efacingly described in a very endearing way.
The plot twists are mostly "high-brow" and often quite technical. Especially impressive the the female author of her time period so astutely describes such stereotypically manly things such as motorcycle enthusiasts, smoking-room society, poker playing, etc.

This book has a selection of short Lord Peter stories that are as entertaining as always, but the reason to buy it is the glimpse it offers of Harriet and Peter as parents. The final story takes place at Talboys, and it centers around the Wimseys' domestic life. Lord Peter's eldest does not disappoint in his spirit or his intelligence, and Peter and Harriet fulfill all expectations as they lovingly handle their children.

While Sayers is clearly a gifted writer and thinker, this book comes across as something less than it could have been. I found it to be more of a curiosity than a theological or doctrinal heavyweight.

First off, the entire work is fairly well encapsulated in its time. While Sayers was certainly prescient with regard to the new age mysticism that permeates the West, one cannot help but receive "Creed or Chaos" in its temporal setting; stiff & palsied nobility embracing meaningless nothingness vs. staunch but outnumbered traditionalists warning of the perils of neopaganism.

Secondly, there are unfortunate diversions into the doctrine of War and Economics that flaw the work. Sayers begins well enough with exegesis, and transitions into some interesting apologetics, but as she deeper into her discourse she seems to lose her way, making a disconcerting leap from Augustine to Britain-At-War that is thoroughly unconvincing. Her revulsion for the industrialized state leads to various equations of capitalism with the deadly sins, which is common enough for social-justice types. This cursory economics is, however, dragged stillborn into her simplistic analysis of War, particularly with regard to the temporal context of the book: "...the root causes of conflict are usually to be found in some wrong way of life in which all parties have acquiesed, and for which everybody must, to some extent, bear the blame." Sadly, Sayers gets ever more unreasonable as she launches into a strange diatribe to justify this statement.

Doctrinally, Sayers stays pretty well in bounds, but utlizes a social justice perspective that falls somewhere between Teddy Kennedy and Phil Donahue. Nevertheless, she is adept in her denunciations of relativism and her defense of absolutism in the realm of Christian reality.

Overall, the work is an intriguing, and entertaining ramble. Sayer's vehemence in defense of her positions is commendable, and the book is checkered with unique insights that still resonate more than half a century after its publication. But in the final analysis the book serves neither as apologetics nor as theology, but only as "Dorothy Sayers."

This short work is well worth the time of any Christian. What exactly is our claim? Has the church complacently allowed a post-modern relativism to separate us from the great doctrines of the creeds? Why is modern Christianity so diverse and perverse? These are the critical questions Sayers attempts to answer. Her uncompromising passion for objective truth is refreshing and she conveys that righteous passion with eloquence. Again, this short work is well worth the time. The only caveat I will make to my enthusiastic approval of her book is it seems to end after the fourth chapter. Chapters five through seven are dedicated to things outside the primary concern of the work, embodied in the first four chapters. While the later are of some value as well, the first four chapters are the heart of the work and they are what I enthusiastically praise.

The last chapter of this book (chapter 7 - "The Other Six Deadly Sins") is alone worth the purchase price; an analysis of the seven deadly sins, and how, be it grossly or subtly, we commit them every day. This chapter can serve as a good guide for those who wish to examine their own consciences. We tend to dismiss our own sins by comparing ourselves to those who have sinned worse, but this is not part of Christian life. Our sins, even the small ones, adversely affect ourselves and a lot of other people. So, it is imperative for moral Christians to, with brutal honesty, ask themselves, "What sins, no matter how small, am I committing?"

But then, how does one know what is and is not a sin? That's where creed comes in. Without a creed, a Nazi can say that it is not evil to kill Jews, and who can tell him authoritatively that he is wrong. Without a creed, a slave-trader can say that it is OK to enslave human beings, and even use the Bible alone to justify it (as slave owners in this country did). Who can tell him authoritatively that he is wrong?

It is not surprising at all to hear so many people who say that the author sounded Catholic (one reviewer even mistakenly said that she WAS Catholic); this because her views DO sound very Catholic. This "call to holiness" is exactly what we teach, and we have a firmly established creed to follow.

A good book for Catholic and protestant alike.

"Be careful what you wish for---"

Lord Peter makes a light-hearted wager with friend Charles Parker. To win, he was must prove a murder was committed in the death of a wealthy, elderly lady who had terminal cancer. Said lady, Miss Agatha Dawson, had made no will, and the medical certificate said "heart failure."

True, her young doctor was unhappy about the situation. He had thought Miss Dawson's death entirely too sudden and had made strenuous inquiries, so many in fact, the people of her village turned against him, and he had to give up his practice there. In fairness, it must be stated that the good doctor did seem rather egotistical, and perhaps he was just miffed that his prognosis of six more months was a shade too optimistic.

Further investigation divulges that Miss Dawson's young ex-servant has died mysteriously of a heart attack in a meadow. The more Lord Peter investigates, the more the injuries and mysteries pile up. A young lawyer has a near miss, Lord Peter is drugged, a young village lady is murdered while vacationing by persons unknown, and Lord Peter's associate is held hostage.

Lord Peter wins his wager, but at what a cost! The reader is left with an interesting moral dilemma. Is it better to let a complacent murderer be to avert the consequences of his or her obsession?

This is one of the earlier Lord Peter Wimsey books. It has a great deal of banter---what some would call silly dialogue, and poor Charles, Peter's brother-in-law to be and Scotland Yard detective, looks a bit like a stuffy fool. But in this book the mystery is real and the stakes are high. This will be good news to some Sayers readers who feel cheated when they find nothing of import has happened at all! I was relieved to note "Unnatural Death" is pre-Harriet Vane, as I find her perfection tiresome; other readers may miss her. This is a complex tale and will keep you turning the pages.

I turned to Dorothy L. after exhausting most of Agatha Christie's works (yes, she wrote about eighty novels and plays, and I've read the majority of the novels, primarily the Poirot and Marple tales, as they are my favorites). I was pleased by Sayers's methodical and thourough spinning of a detective story, as well as the charm and wit of her hero, Lord Peter Wimsey.

Unnatural Death has become one of my favorite Wimsey tales. It has the suspense and threat of danger that some of her other books lack. Wimsey and Parker's unravelling of an intricately woven plan of crime is really a literary feat.

If you felt that suspense and chills were lacking in some of the other Sayers tales, give this one a shot. I will grant you, it takes a little while to dig into this story before it really gets going, but it is well worth the effort!

I found this book to be probably the best of all of Dorothy Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. The plotting is tight and all the threads are pulled together for the reader. A nice touch is that neither Lord Peter nor Parker are superhuman detectives who miraculously discern the truth at every step. Instead, they are allowed to make mistakes and even be a bit slow sometimes in getting to the truth, which makes them completely believeable. But the best part of the book was the great atmosphere - Ms Sayers brings 1920's England vividly to life so much so you feel you are actually there. I liked the way the story shifts back and forth between London and the countryside. Also, what fun to be introduced to Mr. Murbles and Miss Climpson - surely some of the most entertaining characters ever created in detective fiction! I read all the mysteries written subsequently and was a little disappointed that their characters are not more fully developed in later books - both appear in other novels but not to the extent I would have wished. All in all, it's an unputdownable mystery - try it and you will be hooked!

At her best, Sayers used a complex style to create complex characters in complex settings and playing out a complex plot, and such novels as MURDER MUST ADVERTISE, GAUDY NIGHT, and BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON are classics of the mystery genre. But few authors seem able to create both excellent novels and excellent short stories, and Sayers is no exception to the general rule.

Her wordy style simply does not show as well in the short story form as it does in a novel-length work, and she has considerable difficulty in actually constructing plots for these stories that might in any way be described as "mysteries" per se. While most of the stories collected here are readable in a general sort of way, they read more as 1920s pulp-adventure than as "mystery." Fans of the Lord Peter Wimsey series (myself among them) will certainly enjoy them, and have fun noting that Sayers later expanded some of these short story ideas into more substantial work, but newcomers will likely be unimpressed. Recommended for hardcore Sayers fans only.

'Lord Peter Views the Body' comprises twelve short stories of mystery. They are well-structured, well-written little puzzlers, though some are definitely more engaging than others. There are no bad stories here (of course not! this is Dorothy L. Sayers, after all), but a couple leave only a mark of complancency, rather than intrigue.

With these twelve little morsels, Sayers shows a side of Wimsey not often explored in the full-length novels. We see Wimsey, the affable protagonist, involved in cases ranging from the flimsy, to the bizarre, to the positively horrific. There are stories concerned with solving crossword puzzles, preventing a theft, witnessing a ghostly apparition in the form of a headless horseman carriage, and even a tale which includes THREE Lord Peter Wimseys!

My paperback copy professes, on the rear teaser, that Wimsey views the body in twelve different ways. This is somewhat misleading, as not every one of the twelve stories is an actual *murder* mystery. Some are just fun adventure/spy dramas. All of them are sturdy tales, some better than others.

Relish the well-done 'Lord Peter Views the Body'. It is one of the best golden age mystery collections out there.

The otherwise excellent 'unabridged' audio edition (read by Ian Carmichael, who portrayed Lord Peter in most of the adaptations of Sayers' novels) actually omitted 3 of these 12 stories, although the rest were indeed unabridged.

The complete set of short stories can only be found in the _Lord Peter_ collection; apart from that, this volume is the largest single batch. They don't overlap with _Hangman's Holiday_ or _In the Teeth of the Evidence_, which contain both Wimsey and non-Wimsey stories.

"The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers" - Varden, an American actor and a guest of one of Lord Peter's friends at the Egotists' Club, tells a story of an encounter with a mysterious stranger years before. A good story; Sayers' rare American characters are much better than, e.g. Christie's, although Varden does slip occasionally into British colloquialisms.

"The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question" - Omitted from the 'unabridged' audio edition, Heaven only knows why. The affair of the Attenbury diamonds, so often mentioned elsewhere as the beginning of Lord Peter's career in detection. A word of warning - Sayers never provided English translations of French dialogue unless forced to do so by her publishers, so part of one scene may be incomprehensible to the reader.

"The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will" - "A woman who pretends to be serious is wasting her time and spoiling her appearance. I consider that you have wasted your time to a really shocking extent. Accordingly, I intend to conceal this will, and that in such a manner that you will certainly never find it unless by the exercise of a sustained frivolity." This letter threw down a gauntlet for Hannah Marryat, one of Lady Mary's terribly earnest Radical friends (who will otherwise lose the money to the Primrose League via an earlier will). Very enjoyable; a shame it wasn't included in the audio edition (it involves a visual clue).

"The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag" - One motorcyclist chases another all along the Great North Road, followed by Lord Peter's Daimler, in pursuit of a small bag. But instead of the Dowager's jewelry stolen from Lord Peter in Piccadilly, the bag contains a woman's severed head. Which of the denials of ownership is a lie?

"The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker" - Mrs. Ruyslander is the victim of the bald-faced theft of two items: the 'Light of Africa' (a diamond necklace of 115 stones), and a small portrait 'with an inscription that nothing, *nothing*, could ever explain away.' Lord Peter tackles the job of retrieving them from the thief without exposing Mrs. Ruyslander's secret.

"The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention" - ENORMOUS, for a 'short' story, and not really worth the trip. Lord Peter's hosts are on the stuffy (and in one instance, spiteful) side, and gossipy, which gives us the background on the local rich old reprobate whose funeral is on the morrow. The mystery here isn't about the death, but who steals the body, and why. Sayers throws in a good bit of supposedly supernatural hocus-pocus for trimming. Although the old man's sons are named Martin and Haviland, they're not related to the 'Haviland Martin' in _Have His Carcase_. (This one *wasn't* cut from the audio edition; I'd have traded it gladly for the 3 that were, visual clues notwithstanding.)

"The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran" - On a hot June day in 1921, Lord Peter and Bunter have called at the home of a medical friend, a Bloomsbury G.P. who appreciates Bunter's photography of his experiments. Throughout their conversation and the meal, Lord Peter notices the footsteps of the doctor's neighbours on the floor overhead - which end in murder.

"The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste" - One of Lord Peter's government errands, for the War Office this time; he is to purchase a formula for poison gas. Some bright person sold out, however; two Lord Peters show up at the scientist's country estate in France (as a titled Royalist, he offers no allegiance to the upstart French government). The story follows Death Bredon, a 3rd party carrying a letter of introduction. Le comte proposes to find the real Lord Peter with an impromptu wine-tasting competition.

"The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" - Introducing St. George, staying with his uncle Peter during an outbreak of measles at prep school, as well as Lord Peter's first meeting with Bill Rumm. St. George buys a damaged rare book (nearly all the double-page maps having been torn out) which the bookseller picked up at an estate sale. The audio edition omitted this story, probably because the "treasure map" on which the story turns is a visual clue.

"The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach" - 95-year-old Great-Uncle Joseph left medical student Thomas Macpherson only one thing - his digestive system in a bottle - before jumping out a 6th-storey window after a stroke. "He left a letter. Said he had never been ill in his life and wasn't going to begin now." Lord Peter takes an interest after Mac (a fishing buddy) mentions that cousin Robert, the residuary legatee, can't find most of the old man's assets. You really should listen to Carmichael's narration of this one. :)

"The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face" - A strangler left the corpse on the beach at East Felpham, face mutilated beyond recognition. The story begins with several strangers on a train discussing the newspaper headlines - one of whom turns out to be Lord Peter, and another the inspector in charge of the case.

"The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba" - Begins with a newspaper account of Lord Peter's will, mentioning his death at age 37 in a hunting accident in Tanganyika. Rogers, upon reading the story, breathes a sigh of relief and proceeds with his plans to join a criminal mastermind's burglary & blackmail organization. The story follows Rogers, rather than the efforts of the Law.

This book was actually my introduction to Dorothy Sayers. Her life, her passion for excellence, her humanity and wit were inspiring. I loved this book.

"You were right in supposing that it is a husband that I really want, because I become impatient of the beastly restrictions which 'free love' imposes. I have a careless rage for life, and secrecy tends to make me bad-tempered..."
- Sayers in a letter to John Cournos after their breakup, mid-1920s

Personally, I prefer this biography to that written by Janet Hitchman; while Hitchman was one of the first to uncover certain information about Sayers' personal life - most notably her blood relationship with her adopted son - Hitchman's _Such a Strange Lady_ has less meat in it. Where Hitchman drew much of her analysis of Sayers' character from her published writings (hard to say, since Hitchman's biography has neither references nor footnotes), Coomes draws more on Sayers' vast correspondence of private letters, and *does* identify his sources, without becoming boring.

Coomes wisely lets Sayers' own words speak for her as much as possible, so quality writing and zest are both present.

Coomes' opening chapter offers to beguile the reader - not with the predictable gambit of Lord Peter, nor even jumping to Sayers' last and next most famous project, translating Dante. Instead, we're treated to the controversy surrounding _The Man Born to Be King_: Sayers' dramatization of the Gospels in modern idiom for the BBC, broadcast beginning in December 1941. Offstage, Sayers did battle with the Sunday Children's Hour team who were first responsible for producing the plays, then with organizations like the Lord's Day Observance Society, who worked themselves into transports of outrage based solely on rather misleading newspaper reports - without having *read* a single script. Needless to say, Sayers not only carried the day, but had the satisfaction of seeing most of the protesters slink quietly away after the first broadcast.

But this is the same lady who in 1936 lectured upon "The Importance of Being Vulgar", and in a private letter in 1944 discoursed upon "the distinguishing marks of True Bedworthiness in the Male" - no milksop, she. Even when earning the equivalent of a First Class Honours with Distinction in Modern Languages at Oxford in 1916, she wasn't burying her nose in dusty academic tomes. (Women didn't actually *receive* degrees until 1920, when Sayers was one of the first.)

When Coomes, having secured the reader's attention, moves on to Sayers' youth, he draws on two of Sayers' unpublished manuscripts (_My Edwardian Childhood_ and _Cat o'Mary_, autobiography with and without a veneer of fiction, respectively) as well as more mundanely available sources. She herself, having grown up as a vicar's daughter saturated in religion rather credited Chesterton's later influence with making Christianity interesting for her.

In a later chapter, we receive more insight into the solemn rituals of the Detection Club than one can get out of _The Floating Admiral_'s introduction, when the members, including Chesterton and Sayers, created a mystery by writing successive chapters without revealing the planned solution. The Club's oath would have been hard luck on Leslie Charteris' vintage Simon Templar years, and positive death for Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu; those who renege are cursed solemnly with "may other Writers anticipate your Plots, may your Publishers do you down in your Contracts, may Total Strangers sue you for Libel..." :>

We get our expected and obligatory material on the creation and feeding of Lord Peter, but not merely in one large expository block, particularly when considered in light of things in her life that served as raw material. I warn the reader that as Lord Peter was abandoned by Sayers halfway through her writing career, the last of Lord Peter is seen at about the halfway point of the book. However, Sayers' own personality and character are interesting for their own sake. For those who have read other writers of Sayers' acquaintance, their interaction in correspondence is an added bonus - notably with C.S. Lewis, not merely about religion, but about her take on nuts-and-bolts authors' concerns with _The Chronicles of Narnia_.

I would not suggest reading this one as a "stand alone." With The Inferno as the most horriffic place Dante's ever been & The Paradiso as the most wonderful, you can imagine (and you'd be correct) that Purgatory is the most middle-of-the-road. It's essential to the Divine Comedy as a whole, if you intend to follow & understand Dante's journey... but it's also the least impressive piece of the puzzle.

It was always hard for the majority of readers to feel purgatory just like the inferno. That the own Dante knew, he wrote about this in "Purgatory" because here, differently from "Inferno", Dante desired a crescent climax with connected episodes, the specific episodes are not passionate as inferno`s, that is the purpose: those in purgatory do not feel passions as desirable, "isn't it one more irony of Dante?". Think about it for solving more this enigm of the Divine Comedy.

Contrary to the previous reviewer, I think that part II of The Divine Comedy is very thought provoking and I would definitely never say that it lacks the fervor of the Inferno. I especially liked the fact that the translation by Sayers is very professional and not as hard to read as I anticipated. I can not wait to read part III.

In writing this book, I believe Sayers intended to make the Gospel stories of Jesus more accessible. She says she wanted to 'tell that story to the best of my ability, within the medium at my disposal - in short to make as good a work of art as I could.' Although she sought to maintain a 'determined historical realism', I was disappointed with the historical inaccuracies.

For example, at one point her character says 'he was allowed to cry, 'My stirrup, Elazar!' regardless of the date at which stirrups were introduced into Palestine(p.19). She sacrifices historical accuracy for the sake of art and the ease of stroy telling. Another example is found on page 90. There is a conversation among supposedly ... people at the Wedding at Cana. One says 'But my mule cast a shoe, so I had to get a lift from Ezras.' Only very wealthy Jews could afford a mule, and they proably wouldn't because where not allowed to breed them, do to the mule's mixed parentage (Lev. 19:19). The first century Roman army was only just beginning to experiment with shoes their horses, and a mule would not have had shoes. It is a small point, but what artistic significance was contributed by this historical inaccuracy?

I was also bothered by her Anglo-centric idioms and assignment of various English accents to certain characters. I find her description of the Jewish Matthew, with stereotyping, almost offensive; 'He is a vulgar little commercial ... as ever walked Whitechapel, and I should play him with a frank Cockney accent.' She goes on to describe his 'oily black hair and rapacious little hands . . . ' What is the artistic contribution here?

Reality is better than artistic fluff, I find little in this book to interest me.

I came to this play-cycle not knowing what to expect, as did almost all of Sayers' contemporaries. There was a political firestorm when the project was proposed. Clergymen of every stripe rose up to denounce it as un-Christian, distorted, dishonorable. Needless to say, they had not read the script or heard the audio plays, which aired on the BBC during World War Two.

These plays inspired ordinary dock-workers and High Church bishops alike to examine the Christian faith. People who never gave a second thought to some guy named Jesus were confronted with a living, throbbing reality in these plays.

Sayers did her work conscientiously, as in her translation of Dante, by not making any use of any terms which were theologically inaccurate but dramatically potent. That is, she was faithful to the letter and spirit of her original- the Gospel story of Jesus. These plays contained, at times, shocking insight- and at times, human warmth.

Just as Jesus is supposed to be the meeting of Godhood and manhood, these plays are where entertainment and theology, the natural and the supernatural meet. Miss that, and you'll miss the same thing which soon caused thousands of English to arrive late for church service because they were waiting to catch the last moments of these plays on the wireless.

I found that the dramas forced me to imagine the movements of characters and plot as on a stage, something more difficult to do with the Biblical text itself. That made these stories come alive for me, and refreshed and enriched my grasp of these stories, "old bones in new flesh".

After reading this play cycle, you'll never look at the Gospels in the same way again. Sayers writes in her introduction that she believed the story "should be handled, not liturgically or symbolically, but realistically and historically: 'this is a thing that actually happened.'" It is this matter-of-fact treatment of the story that makes her plays different from almost all the "Jesus movies" that we know today. We're confronted with the shattering truth that God actually came to earth, in a time very much like ours in many ways, and lived among us. We also have to face the fact that humanity -- for reasons of politics and personal pride -- rejected and killed God. So much for the theory that man is basically good! Yet as Sayers writes, "Short of damnation ... there can be no Christian tragedy," and she clearly shows how the love and hope offered by the risen Christ can save us from ourselves. I've been a Christian for many years, and I can still say that this book changed my life. If you have questions or doubts about Jesus of Nazareth, please give it a try.

THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT THE BELLONA CLUB wasn't the best mystery novel that I've ever read, but it was certainly enjoyable enough that I didn't feel I was wasting my energy. The characters are, at times, clichéd, but I was entertained by all of them enough not to be too bothered by any lack of real substance. It's a tale of murder, deceit and money, but is told with enough whimsy to make it fully enjoyable.

Despite some initial false assumptions on my part, the plot managed to keep me mostly surprised much of the time. At first glance, I thought that I was in for a fairly tedious journey, as I wasn't very far into the book when I suddenly figured out what I assumed was a large part of the mystery. Faced with the prospect of having to read through the entire rest of the story pretending not to know how the murderer had gotten away with it, I began to wonder if perhaps the remainder wouldn't be worth reading. To my great surprise, while the portion of the mystery that I figured out was fairly well signposted, it didn't turn out to be as important as I had anticipated, and I was greatly pleased that Lord Peter figured out the puzzle not long after I did. This allowed the story to turn into directions that I hadn't anticipated, and brought me back into the narrative. There are several clever little moments of storytelling that successfully managed to keep my on my toes, which is an ideal situation for any detective story.

This was the first Dorothy Sayers book that I've read, and I was surprised at how much of the story was conveyed purely through the dialog. There is almost no description at all and there were times where it seemed as though I was reading a television or a film script. (Incidentally, this is probably why the series translates so well to visual mediums.) This did contribute to a feeling of triviality, but it did make the book pass by much more quickly. This is not a book to be slowly picked apart, but rather one to be enjoyed quickly, in large gulps. The fast-pace adds to the fanciful flavor and allows the story to rapidly wash over the reader.

I found THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT THE BELLONA CLUB to be a fun and enjoyable, if light, detective adventure. It's a great little piece of fiction to read on a lazy afternoon, and it should be recommended to any fan of mystery novels. A short, and fairly unambitious novel, but definitely quite enjoyable.

This book shows the charming and dry British humor. The setting: an old austere British club in 1928. On Remembrance Day, three men are sitting down to lunch. One notices an old soldier sitting not far away. He has a newpaper in front of him and a drink to his side. He is quite dead, and so the Unpleasantness begins. Wonderful

When Lord Peter Wimsey comes down to the Bellona club to dine with an old friend he little expected to find the 90 year old General Fentiman sitting quietly by the fire in full rigor mortis. Nor, did he expect to be confronted with a case about which one of the General or his sister, Lady Dormer, predeceased the other. But, seeing that it was a matter of some half million pounds he was delighted to oblige old Mr. Murbles, the family solicitor.

It turns out that establishing Fentiman's time of death is going to be a major feat. No one, including his heirs, the staff of the Bellona Club and most of London seems to recall what the General was doing that morning, or when he showed up, opened his newspaper and promptly expired. Worse, what few facts that Wimsey can put together convince him that something was very, very wrong with Fentiman's timely ticking off. Suddenly this is no longer a case of friendly detection but a serious investigation into a murder.

'The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club' was one of Dorothy Sayers' early smash hits. It shows off Wimsey's charming urbanity against the gemlike setting of his friends and cohorts, only striking serious chords when grim necessity rears its monocled head. Wimsey doesn't act quite as foolish as he was prone to in past novels, which makes him likeable as well as witty. The other regular characters have also acquired some extra depth that makes everyone a bit more believable. Everyone but the bit players, of course. Each of those is, as usual, a quick, delightful pastiche, one of Sayers greatest talents.

This is one of Sayers' most memorable books, and, despite a plot that is a little too transparent, is one of her most re-readable. The odd thing about a Sayers mystery story is how unimportant it is whether you know or can guess the murderer. 'Who' is less important than 'how' in these tales, and neither is as important as the balletic interaction of the players, most of whom you would like to find in your sitting room - it you had a sitting room large enough, that is.

This is also the first book that displays Wimsey's softer nature with the ladies. While Marjorie Phelps is not destined to become Lord Peter's great love, we see glints of the Peter to come. He shows a fair and attentive style without a hint of macho that will serve him well in his trials to come. I am tempted to say that, if you don't enjoy this book, there is no hope for you as a Sayers fan. That's not completely true, but ' The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club' is a completely representative Sayers effort and one of my perennial favorites.

Dorothy L Sayers provided some of the great treasures to be found in the so-called "Golden Age of Detective Fiction". A classical scholar with a formidable intellect, she was an eminent practitioner and an eloquent critic of detective fiction. Her feisty, detective fiction writing character, Harriet Vane, and her aristocratic, monocled, amateur detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, may be found together for the second time in her 1932 novel "Have His Carcase".

On a walking holiday, while recovering from a court case in which she was alleged to have killed her lover, Harriet Vane discovers the body of a man. It is lying on rocks on a beach, close to low tide level. The evidence suggests suicide. After taking photographs with her camera, finding a cut throat razor and removing a shoe from the corpse, Harriet vainly tries to enlist help in moving the body before it is washed away by the incoming tide. The local police force is alerted and so is Lord Peter Wimsey.

This is a long novel. Interest focuses not only on the solution to the mystery but also on the likelihood of Wimsey succeeding with his wish to marry Harriet. There is witty dialogue, there are fulsome reports from a range of eccentric characters, there are descriptions of the human anatomy and how it responds to the throat being cut, there is an interminable attempt to decode a ciphered letter, and there are classical quotations provided at the start of each chapter. There is little dramatic tension, no suspense, and no thrills. Dorothy L Sayers was a cultivated, fluent writer, sometimes boring but never banal.

If your tolerance of boredom is low, but your credit balance at the bank is high, then invest in the audio tape reading of the book provided by Ian Carmichael. English actor Ian Carmichael has had great success associated with various adaptations of the novels of Dorothy L Sayers. He brings wonderful energy and gusto to this full-length reading, enough to keep you delighted for more than fifteen hours.

All of Dorothy Sayers' mysteries are worth reading. She has a command of English and a story-telling ability that makes her, in my opinion, one of the two greatest mystery writers of the twentieth century. Most of Ms. Sayers' mysteries feature Lord Peter, second son of the Duke of Denver. He is one of the most delightful characters in English literature and well worth meeting in any of Ms. Sayers books. Most of the Lord Peter mysteries stand alone and can be read without worrying about sequence. However four of the mysteries involve Harriet Vane, and for maximum enjoyment, those four mysteries should be read in order. Strong Poison describes the first meeting between Harriet and Lord Peter. Have His Carcase explores the relationship between the two of them as they investigate the death of a man whose body Harriet discovers while hiking along a deserted beach. The interaction between the two of them can best be understood and appreciated if Strong Poison is read first. Have His Carcase may be the least enjoyable of the four romance-mysteries involving Harriet, but this book leads to the final two books in the series, and those two books are the finest romance-mysteries ever written.

Personally I have always been an Agatha the Christie fan. My first encounter with Dorothy L. Sayers was the Mobile Mystery Theater series showing on PBS. Unfortunately I did not realize that my video player was also a recorder until the "Gaudy Night" was on Mystery Theater. In that sense I was lucky to copy the complete three hour "Gaudy Night." However it was too late for "Strong Poison" and "Have His Carcase". They never produced "Busman's Honeymoon".

Naturally the TV media cannot fill in all the details that you would pick up from reading the book. So I read the book. This added more depth to the story, but now I appreciate Dorothy L. Sayers more than Agatha Christie. But Dorothy not only fleshes her characters out better but her side trips into philosophy and psychology make the story that much more interesting. And just when you say what is the relevance to this conversation it is wrapped up in the final solution.

We are in luck as this is an unabridged tape of "Have His Carcase" The reader Is Ian Carmichael the first TV Lord Peter Wimsey. It makes a good compliment to the book.

This is the second of the book series. The story is complete and can be used as a stand-alone story. The notorious Harriet Vane is out for a walk and takes a nap. She wakes up and finds (you guest it) a body. If not for her trusty camera no one would believe her. As it is the authorities think it was suicide. Wimsey thinks it is murder. Naturally everyone, especially the main suspect has an airtight alibi. The real interests is the interaction between Lord Peter and Harriet.