The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Nine Tailors
Book Review: Introduction to Dorothy Sayers
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first Dorothy Sayers book I've read and I'm enjoying the ride.
Nine Tailors, a mystery, is set in an old English countryside with interesting less-than-glamorous characters.
I'm reading it at an extra-slow pace and can't seem to enjoy it unless I read it that way.
It's a story of church bells, church people, sick people, poor people, a stolen necklace with a lot of time given to character building, bell ringing and setting. I was told Sayers book, "The Mind of the Maker," is her best though and will be reading that one next.
Book Review: More than a Lord Peter mystery
Summary: 5 Stars
While I'm a fiend for Lord Peter Wimsey and other Dorothy L. Sayers' fiction, The Nine Tailors is much more than another whodunnit mystery for me.
Let's face it, most whodunnits are not very well written, although quite entertaining for a quick read.
Characters take precedence over the plot or the place in many of the Lord Peter Wimsey series. Not here. The sense of place, the Fen country, the history of bell ringing, the plot, the characters other than the regulars...just the overall atmosphere of this book contribute to such a wonderful work.
Even non-Peter fans and non-whodunnit fans should read "The Nine Tailors." As another review wrote, "Sayers is in the zone" with this book.
Book Review: Much more than a mystery thriller
Summary: 5 Stars
As an English church bell ringer I was intrigued to find a mystery which revolved around my hobby. I was also apprehensive that the book would prove to be only a shallow misinterpreted representation of a very complex subject.What I found was an absorbing novel which captures not only the aesthetics but also the politics, mathematics and passions involved. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and know of numerous others, who are passionate about English style ringing methods and principles, who have also found it a most enjoyable novel.
Book Review: One of Sayers's two or three best!
Summary: 5 Stars
To the geeks among her readership, this is one of Sayers's most thoroughly fascinating novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. Peter and Bunter are driving through the Norfolk fens late one blizzardy New Year's Eve when the car goes into a ditch and they have to hike through the blowing snow to the nearest village of Fenchurch St. Paul. They're taken in by the elderly rector and his wife, who assure them the car can be rescued in the morning -- but just now, the rector is planning a big event in the huge 11th century parish church across the road. Mr. Venables is an avid bell-ringer with a crack team of rope-pullers from the village under him and they're about to attempt a full peal of Kent Treble Bob Major -- 15,840 rings, taking more than nine hours. "Ringing the changes" means following mathematical progression, not playing tunes. It's a peculiarly English avocation and has been for a long time; Batty Thomas, the oldest bell of the eight in the belfry of St. Paul's, was cast in 1368 and the local records of progressive ringing go back more than two hundred years. It's also an arcane subject with its own jargon: "`Make it a 704,' said the Rector. `Call her in the middle with a double, before, wrong, and home, and repeat.'" And Sayers doesn't bother to explain any of this, which keeps it all mysterious and rather bewildering. (One could wishe she had included an explanatory appendix.) Anyway, one of the ringers is suddenly taken by influenza and Wimsey, an old bell-ringer himself, naturally, is dragooned into substituting -- which he carries off successfully, to everyone's grateful delight. And then the car is fixed and Wimsey and Bunter proceed on their way. Meanwhile, the local squire dies and preparations are made to bury him in the same grave with his wife, who had passed away only a few months before. But in opening the grave, another body is discovered just below the surface, an unknown intruder with a battered face and lacking its hands (and its fingerprints). The local cops are having no luck with the case so the rector writes a hopeful note to Wimsey in London: Might he have some suggestions as to how to proceed? Hah! A mystery, and under highly unusual circumstances! Peter's down there like a shot! And then things begin to get complicated. There was this theft of a very valuable emerald necklace back in 1914, and various people died or went to prison, but the emeralds were never recovered. And as Lord Peter's investigation widens, it becomes clear that the two cases are intertwined. The suspects pile up but they all seem to have alibis -- and besides, Wimsey discovers that the people he personally likes appear to be the best suspects, which doesn't make him happy. It's a complex plot, with some notable characters among both the cops and the fen people, as well as the absent-minded rector himself. And the water-logged fens are a major player, too. This is widely considered one of Sayers's very best efforts and I have to say I agree.Book Review: One of her best
Summary: 5 Stars
This is certainly one of Sayers' best novels. The plot is detailed and realistic and the characters equally so. Lord Peter is at his most charming and observant. The book centers around a church and it's bell ringers. The chapters begin with quotes about bell ringing, which give it a wonderful flavor.
If you only read one Lord Peter novel, make it this one!