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Fiction. Mystery. HTML: An irresistible collection of "truly remarkable" stories from the master of classic mysteries, featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg (The New York Times). Most noblemen would prefer to avoid a charred corpse in a garage. But Lord Peter Wimsey has never seen such a body, and cannot resist the opportunity when it comes along. The corpse is burned beyond recognition, but the watch it wears remains pristine�??stopped precisely at seven minutes past nine. These are the sorts of clues that great murder cases are built around, and few detectives are more adept at finding them than Wimsey, the famous creation of Dorothy L. Sayers. In this volume, two classic Wimsey stories appear alongside five starring Montague Egg, an eccentric wine salesman whose powers of deduction could give His Lordship a run for his money. A handful of other glittering puzzles round out the volume, serving as testament to Sayers's enduring status as a star of crime fiction. In the Teeth of the Evidence is the 14th book in the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries, but you may enjoy the series by reading the books in any order. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dorothy L. Sayers including rare images from the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College.… (more)
User reviews
I admit, I have never read a Lord Peter Wimsey novel. But since I have heard about them so much on LibraryThing lately, when I saw this collection of short stories on the library sale's "fill a bag for a dollar" day, I thought it would be worth a try.
The first two stories involve
How times have changed, by the way. The scenes enacted in the charades include Jezebel and Jehu, and Naaman and Elisha. How many people nowadays would even know those stories?
Included in
If you enjoy the work of Agatha Christie or Margarey Allingham, you will also enjoy this Dorothy Sayers offering.
I thought it gave a good idea of the range of Dorothy L. Sayers' crime fiction writing.
I particularly liked the Lord Peter Wimsey stories and enjoyed meeting Montague Egg who was new to me. Many of the
If a full length mystery novel is
Which is why, I think, that there are very few "great" detective short stories compared to novels by the great authors. Dorothy Sayers is no exception.
The present collection, even though enjoyable, fails to present us with any "great stories" (except one - Suspicion - which is excellently spine-chilling). The first two stories, featuring the famous Lord Peter Wimsey, are only average: in fact, the mystery in the first can be solved by any discerning reader immediately. The next five, featuring the travelling salesman Montague Egg, are only interesting with regard to their unusual sleuth - the stories are rather pedestrian. The remaining tales are all stand-alone stories, with two or three humorous ones where a dire secret is promised only to end in a comic whimper. While this is enjoyable once or twice, it does become stale when repeated too often.
The last two stories do not belong to the conventional mystery canon. The penultimate one straddles reality and fantasy: the last one is an out-and-out horror story. They are interesting, but nothing to write home about.
Overall verdict: a nice book to curl up with at the end of a tiring day.
Peter Wimsey is a familiar character to me, and it was a pleasure to read of his cases. It’s been a while since I
Montague Egg is a new character to me. He is a travelling salesman for Plummet & Rose Wine & Spirits. He isn’t dashing or imposing, but rather a salesman who knows his clients well and does good business for the firm. He frequently quotes for “The Salesman’s Handbook” in references to happenings in his life. He also guides his life and business from it. Egg also considers himself a bit of an amateur detective. He is very observant, logical and, as I said, a good salesman.
There are five stories in his section. The cases arise at various stops on his sales route.
The third section is an assortment of characters. A number of them have some strange twists in them. “The Cyprian Cat” has a supernatural/fantasy feel. It isn’t your traditional mystery. “Suspicion” deals with paranoia and a serial poisoner who is at large in the neighbourhood. “The Milk-Bottles Dilemma” starts with a newsman noticing milk bottles being left at the front door of a flat for a number of days. Concern arises when neighbours realize they haven’t seen either of the tenants in a number of days. They had noticed arguing coming from the flat a few days before. When a strange odor starts coming from the flat, concern becomes serious.
I’ve only read Wimsey mysteries from Sayers, so it was interesting to read of other characters!
Other than that, I did like the character of Montague Egg, travelling salesman, and the way that the solution to each of the mysteries is framed with a quote from his constant companion, The Salesman Handsbook.
I think that several of the plots have been replicated in other situations, variations on a theme in television crime shows, and so forth. But even when the solution was obvious from previous reading, or from telegraphed details in the text, I still find the unwinding of the solution to be enjoyable - the story and its telling was sufficient, and the suspense of the mystery was not necessary.
I usually find crime stories don’t succeed as short stories but Sayers has used her intelligence and wit to come up some original ideas. This is the second collection of short stories by Dorothy Sayers that I have read that have featured the endearing Montague Egg, a travelling salesman who has had quite a bit of success in solving mysteries. The stand-alones were more of a mixed bag but some stood out to me, in particular “Milk Bottles” and “The Inspiration of Mr. Budd”.
As with most short story collections, In the Teeth of the Evidence is a mixed bag. Some stories are superior but overall Sayer’s fine writing, pacing and characterizations make this an interesting collection.