Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories

by Dorothy L. Sayers

A sure treat for Dorothy L. Sayers's legions of fans, The Complete Stories is the ultimate collectible. This delightfully gruesome collection captures all of Sayers's short stories in one volume. The tantalizing puzzles and baffling cases will provide mystery lovers with a sumptuous feast of criminal doings and all those amusing and appalling things that happen on the way to the gallows.

LORD PETER WIMSEY STORIES --
The abominable history of the man with copper fingers --
The entertaining espisode of the article in question --
The fascinating problem of Uncle Meleager's will --
The fantastic horror of the cat in the bag --
The unprincipled affair of the practical joker --
The undignified melodrama of the bone of contention --
The vindictive story of the footsteps that ran --
The bibulous business of a matter of taste --
The learned adventure of the dragon's head --
The piscatorial farce of the stolen stomach --
The unsolved puzzle of the man with no face --
The adventurous exploit of the cave of Ali Baba --
The image in the mirror --
The incredible elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey --
The queen's square --
The necklace of pearls --
In the teeth of the evidence --
Absolutely elsewhere --
Striding folly --
The haunted policeman --
Talboys --
MONTAGUE EGG STORIES --
The poisoned dow '08 --
Sleuths on the scent --
Murder in the morning --
One too many --
Murder at Pentecost --
Maher-shalal-hashbaz --
A shot at goal --
Dirt cheap --
Bitter almonds --
False weight --
The professor's manuscript --
OTHER STORIES --
The man who knew how --
The fountain plays --
The milk-bottles --
Dilemma --
An arrow o'er the house --
Scrawns --
Nebuchadnezzar --
The inspiration of Mr. Budd --
Blood sacrifice --
Suspicion --
The leopard lady --
The Cyprian cat

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, British Literature, Crime, Mystery Thriller

796 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 2002

About the author

The detective stories of well-known British writer Dorothy Leigh Sayers mostly feature the amateur investigator Lord Peter Wimsey; she also translated the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri.

This renowned author and Christian humanist studied classical and modern languages.

Her best known mysteries, a series of short novels, set between World War I and World War II, feature an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. She is also known for her plays and essays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...

Reviews

[Shan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific and surprising collection of stories.

The Lord Peter Wimsey stories make up about the first 2/3 of the book. They're predictable only in that you know Wimsey is going to brilliantly put together the clues you didn't even notice and solve the puzzle, and that his reputation and position mean the authorities will give him respect and any help he might need. The situations and the puzzles themselves are wonderfully varied. Lots of fun to read these.

Then there's a section of Montague Egg stories. These were my favorites. Egg is a traveling wine and spirits salesman (they called them commercial travelers in England in those days, apparently) who runs into interesting mysteries in his travels, sometimes accidentally and sometimes when he's curious and inserts himself into a situation because "To serve the Public is the aim of every salesman worth the name." He has an appropriate rhyme from the Salesman's Handbook for every occasion. "The salesman who will use his brains will spare himself a world of pains," "Discretion plays a major part in making up the salesman's art, for truths that no one can believe are calculated to deceive," and so on. When there's nothing in the handbook, Egg will make one up for himself.

The last group of stories are one-offs, and they're much darker than the Wimseys and the Eggs. There are stories told from the murderer's point of view, stories about suspicion that does or doesn't turn out to be justified, and stories with a supernatural twist.

It's a bit like reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes stories, followed by some Wodehouse, and finished off with some, I don't know, Poe or DuMaurier or Conrad. The order is unsettling, and I'm glad I finished the book in daylight. If I read these again, I'd probably pepper the last group of stories in between some of the more cheerful fare and make sure to end on a nice light Egg story.

They're all gems, and as a bonus they give you a glimpse into England in the early twentieth century. There are train trips and motoring jaunts, public houses and inns, newspapers and The Strand magazine, flower shoes and follies. (And class privilege, poverty, bigotry, and the aftereffects of war.)

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this entire collection, I still can't decide: is it harder to write a good short mystery, or a good mystery novel? The best ("The Fountain Plays") are clearly perfect as short stories - you couldn't add anything else to make them better. The worst ("The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba") need to be short stories because they would be even more ridiculous as novels. The mediocre stories ("The Necklace of Pearls") are the tricky ones, because it's unclear if they're mediocre due to length or conceit.

I will freely admit that I enjoyed the stories without a central detective character the best, because they felt more varied and had better pacing. The other two sections are Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg. I loved the character of Montague Egg, the chipper salesman who uses quotes from The Salesman's Handbook when solving crimes, but I honestly thought the stories were a bit uneven and too short - it didn't feel worth it to hold all the details in my head when the story was just about to end. The Peter Wimsey stories are fine, but Lord Peter is too good at everything. I suppose one has time to be good at any number of things (wine tasting, book collecting) when one does not have to work a job.

A few thoughts, based on rereading the table of contents to see what I can remember:

- I loved "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" because of (1) the nephew, (2) the nephew's nickname, (3) the idea that the nephew was buying this book for fun, and (4) the shenanigans with uncle/nephew. This is a good bond.

- "The Man Who Knew How" feels very noir in a good way. It's probably better than "The Fountain Plays," but I preferred the latter anyway. I liked how contained the universe was in "Fountain."

- I will not forget the puzzle of Meleager's will, even though I did not understand it. That crossword was hard! I will console myself with the knowledge that Lord Peter does not know enough about MLB record-holders to complete a contemporary crossword.

- I texted portions of "The Necklace of Pearls" directly to Riah because they were so British it hurt. I, too, would like a beautiful pearl for every birthday, and I, too, would like to go to this country Christmas party.

[Sun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothy L. Sayers was a genius and if you read this, the first complete collection of her short stories, you will see what I mean. The stories fall into three categories: those that feature the voluble Lord Peter Wimsey, those that feature eager travelling salesman Montague Egg and those that stand-alone. (In my mind, Wimsey is a younger, blonder Stephen Fry with a monocle and Egg is a clever human version of Disney's Jiminy Cricket, all eagerness and propriety.)

The stories are all mysteries, although some like "The Abominable History of the Man with the Copper Fingers" and "The Cyprian Cat" tend towards thriller, others are puzzles like "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will" and there's hint of science fiction too in "The Image in the Mirror" and "The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba". There's an echo of GK Chesterton in "The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran" and one of Conan Doyle in "The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach". But Sayers isn't in any way derivative. She's ingenious. It's obvious reading through the stories that this is a writer who loved mystery fiction, who studied it and who knew how to write for the best effect - which includes building up and then neatly turning our expectations against us.

The introduction by American mystery critic James Sandoe gives a concise summary of Sayers and her life's work, but it's through reading her stories that you see how Sayers develops as a writer, moving through the more academic style of the early Wimsey stories, to the clever intricacies of plot, and then finally on to the power of a sparser style. There is only one negative about this collection - it doesn't come in hardcover to endure repeated reading!

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the most part lighthearted. Lord Peter is charmingly flippant, Monty Egg sincere and touching. The final collection are miscellaneous mysteries, and because they were not always told from the perspective of the detective (instead sometimes from that of the murderer or the hunted) were darker and more psychologically gripping. These last were particularly inventive, where Sayers displays her ability to keep fresh a theme no matter how many times she uses it. My particular favorite for this reason was An Arrow O’er the House. I was astounded at her vast knowledge throughout: of wines, medicine, herbology, and particularly classical history and literature. Despite my education in classics, she frequently went well over my head. This was my Sunday book for a long time, and I will miss it. I would love to read her novels someday.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever, fun interesting short mysteries by a master of the genre. Her characters are a delight, the stories are devious and the final twists are amazing. A great book to read.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hadn't read much Sayers before this collection. I certainly knew about the Lord Peter Whimsey stories, and I knew that she's seen as one of the grandmasters of the classical genre, but I hadn't waded into her work before. This book makes a nice survey of it. It encapsulates all the Whimsey stories that aren't novels, all the Montague Egg (traveling salesman of wine and spirits) stories, and a few others to boot. A few thoughts:

* The Whimsey stories are generally satisfying as character studies, but not as mysteries, for me. Usually the mystery turns on some bit of tomfoolery or obscure knowledge that the reader couldn't or wouldn't happen on, but the scenarios are enjoyable and diverse.
* By contrast, the Monty Egg stories are much closer to being "Fair Game" mysteries and are thus more enjoyable. I also like the character of the genial liquor salesman who quotes extensively from The Salesman's Handbook.
* The remaining stories in the collection often work on twists in the way that stories with continuing characters cannot. These last operate much like Roald Dahl's more interesting stories, or perhaps some of the non-supernatural stories from Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
* All the novels give strong insight into the British culture of the 20th century. Lord Peter's stories are consistently haunted by the war, which damaged so many of his peers (including Whimsey himself). The Egg stories also highlight the stratification of the different roles. One moment in particular worked well when Egg turns on his "lady of the house" charm for an housekeeper, realizing that the normal attitude he takes with servants won't do for this lady.
* I was also pleased to see at least two (maybe three) references to Dr. Crippen, the renouned wife-murderer who tried to flee to America and was caught using Marconi's wireless. Ever since I read Erik Laarsen's Thunderstruck, I'm startled by how often I see references to Crippen. He's the Dahmer of his day (or perhaps the Scott Petersen).

A good set of stories. I look forward to reading a couple Sayers novels at some point.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

These were perfect stories to read before bed. The Lord Peter Wimsey collection did not fail to please. My favorite one was the last story in that series called "Talboys". It was such a hoot listening to "new fangled" parenting ideas spouted off by a spinster in contrast to the common sensical way the Wimseys were raising their children. Following the Wimsey stories was a superb collection featuring Montague (Monty) Egg, a sleuthing wine salesman. These were delightful mysteries. The last section in the book, "Other Stories", however were not my type of mysteries. I realized that I don't like suspense, especially before bed. I also didn't like being an insider to an impending murder. They weren't all like that but quite a few were.

[Justine Olawsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I like Dorothy Sayers better as a short story writer than as a mystery novelist. These shorts were really exceptional. Most of the stories feature the eccentricities of beloved aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey; then, there is a good chunk of tales whose mysteries are put to rights by traveling wine salesman, Montague Egg; lastly, there are some stand-alone stories that are among the most excellent of the bunch. What a treat for this lover of the British mystery!

[Lauren McMurray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially enjoyed the Talboys story.

[Kristin Boldon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would say this book is for Peter Wimsey completists (of which I guess I now am) only. The Lord Peter stories aren't great, though I did finally get what I wanted, out of The Haunted Policemen and Talboys, which was the surrounding life of Harriet and Peter. Talboys, I think, is worth the price of admission. It's funny and human and layered in a way that many of these dark and clever stories are not.

In their favor, they are devourable, but even the better ones I found not quite satisfying. Perhaps this is me. I love the long sprawl of a novel over a short story. Then again, there is a dark, rather nasty edge to some of them that is perhaps why I favor the Wimsey/Vane escapades, for their common thread of decency.

It also could be that just getting through all 800+ pages of this was just a bit much. Perhaps reading the stories in littler chunks, as released, would've felt more manageable. In any case, I'm settling on 3 stars. My advice is to know that they're not great, and to read the shorter collections rather than this big honkin' one.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed many of these stories, but this took me a while to get through. I had to renew it three times! I'm glad that I read it, and really glad that I finally finished.

[Dorothea · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fun!

I was given this for Christmas and I read a story or three at bedtime every day until I was done. That's how to read this book -- enjoy it a bit at a time.

I often find that I can't get into short stories by writers whose novels I've liked -- they're good at developing the plot slowly while acquainting you with the characters in full, and short stories don't have room for all that. But I had nothing to worry about with Sayers; in fact, these stories were at times more fun than some parts of her novels. And it's not all because I was already familiar with Lord Peter Wimsey et al. through the novels, since there are plenty of excellent non-Wimsey stories in this collection too.

The stories are from three collections published during Sayers' lifetime, Lord Peter Views the Body, Hangman's Holiday, and In the Teeth of the Evidence. Possibly there are also stories that are not from these books, but I can't tell -- the one disappointing lack in this edition is that of a list of credits or copyrights. There is a bibliographical essay at the beginning by James Sandoe, which is useful if you're confused about the order of the Wimsey novels, but barely seems to have been written for this particular volume.

Nearly half of the stories feature Lord Peter Wimsey; the rest are either about Montague Egg (another amateur detective whose regular employment is as a traveling salesman of fine wines) or about nobody in particular. While all the stories are mysteries, this last section is mostly not detective stories -- the viewpoint character is often the criminal or the victim. A few of these stories are as much horror as mystery.

There is such a satisfyingly large number of stories that of course some of them are bad. My least favorite were "The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey" and "Scrawns," both of which create an atmosphere of horror through lurid descriptions of people who are ill or disabled. In the second of these, the story turns out to be a critique of this practice, but the reader is still expected to buy into the descriptions at first, and I resent being asked to do so. "The Incredible Elopement" has the added disadvantage of being set, for plot purposes, in a remote mountain village full of hopelessly superstitious and naive peasants.

However, I'll re-read most of these stories with pleasure.

[EuroHackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun introduction to Dorothy L. Sayers, by way of her short stories. To my understanding, this volume is complete, including all of the shorts starring Lord Peter Wimsey (who is quite too adorable for words, IMO) and Montague Egg (a bit stiffer, but also an interesting protagonist), as well as a handful of unrelated stories. They almost all fall under the category of mystery or crime/noir, and some have a hint of the supernatural to them.

There was some unevenness between the stories, and I found a few of her standalones boring. I also want to mention a small but jarring use of the n-word, and at least two stories where cats are killed, none of which was fun to encounter. But, all in all this was a fun read. There's something about bite-sized morsels that make consuming an 800 page book much easier than it seems.

I'm definitely going to look for her novels.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorothy Sayers is a fantastic mystery writer. She presents wonderful characters with clever puzzles and often solves the mysteries with a bit of humor. In this collection I preferred the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. He is by far her best character. There are also several Montague Egg mysteries, although I find him less entertaining. The collection wraps up with a series of mysteries with no specific character leading them, which makes you realize why she created Lord Peter.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have yet to read anything by Sayers that I didn't at least like, and I loved this collection. The Wimsey stories are glorious, obviously, and I also really enjoyed the Montague Egg ones and the stand-alone ones. Like Sayers' other work, these were clever, creative, and well-executed. I read them a few at a time, giving myself a treat at the end of the day. Highly recommended.

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several of the stories at the end were quite a lot more interesting than many of the ones at the beginning. It's clear she became a much better writer.

[Belinda Rule · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encompasses the following books in the Lord Peter Wimsey series: 4, 9, 14, 15

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The early stories, in particular, tend to be quite linear; they're the brief working out of an idea rather than a fully fleshed-out story, like the novels. It's more like watching a puzzle be solved than reading a story, at times - in fact, one story is literally the reader watching as a (crossword) puzzle is solved. As the collection goes on, they get stronger, and introduce more of what Sayers did best: all the parts that weren't the mystery, like the quirks of the characters and the description of the milieu. The later ones, especially those with one-off characters, often build up a powerful emotional atmosphere, only to bring in a twist at the end, revealing that the viewpoint character and the reader have both been working on false assumptions.

There are three groups, each (I think) presented chronologically within the group. The first is Sayers' most famous character, Lord Peter Wimsey, at various times of his life; he's single for most of them, but there are several where he's married. One of them involves the birth of his first child, and that's more interesting than the actual mystery (which I guessed, uncharacteristically); another involves that child at the age of six, with two younger brothers, and barely any mystery at all. They vary in quality and interest. The best of them are as good as a chapter from one of the novels.

The second group involves the unlikely amateur detective Montague Egg, who's a commercial traveller for a wines and spirits firm. The first story uses his expert knowledge in detecting the criminal; in later stories, he's (sometimes to an unlikely degree) involved in various other cases that happen to occur in his vicinity, in the usual crime-ridden Britain of a cosy detective. He's constantly quoting the little rhyming maxims of the Salesman's Handbook, treats his occupation as a calling, and is always ready to lend a hand to a fellow human being; he is, in fact, a good Egg. His powers of observation and deduction are a less showy version of Sherlock Holmes's. Particularly with the last few stories, he tends to offer a plausible explanation for the events and a likely suspect, and then the story stops without going through the tedious business of confirming it.

The third group are the one-offs, the stories featuring neither Wimsey nor Egg; none of their characters recur between stories, either. Here we see Sayers doing another thing she does well: building psychological tension, relieved at the end with a twist or, sometimes, a catharsis. Sometimes the viewpoint characters are witnesses, sometimes they're involved in the commission of the crime, sometimes they're even potential victims. Short stories allow an author to explore ideas that they're not sure will work at full length, and this is part of what Sayers is doing here, freed, also, from the constraints of working with established characters.

At their weakest, the stories in this volume tell too much rather than showing, deal with mostly trivial matters, end abruptly, and are forgettable. But there are plenty of strong stories too, and some well-drawn characters and clever situations. I personally felt that the Wimsey stories are mainly for completists; the Egg stories are worth reading for themselves; and the one-off stories are, at their best, better than either.

[Sherri Rabinowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed re-reading this delightful collection.

Of course is The Lord Peter Wimsey stories that I had never read before the first time I read it and the wonderful stories of married life of Harriet and Peter. As always Peter solves all the various puzzles with aplomb.

I had never even heard of the Montague Egg stories. They are adorable. Egg is a traveling wine and spirits salesman who runs into all sorts of mysteries mysteries as he makes his sales calls. "The salesman who will use his brains will spare himself a world of pains," and with this book he solves very puzzling mysteries.

I'm not really that big a fan of the last group of stories of stand alones, they're much darker than the Wimseys and the Eggs and they are not my cup of tea but they are very well written of course.

I really like Sayers style, the puzzles are always fun and the humor is full of wit and fun. Great read!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good mystery short stories. The stories have a variety of settings and characters. Everyone loves the Lord Peter Wimsey stories, they're great. I really enjoyed the Montague Egg stories too as they include a little more humor. This is a page-turner and was an easy-to-read 800 pages.

I withheld the 5th star because the stories get predictable after a while. Also, I felt like sometimes the story jumped to the resolution without much of a climax...sortof like she got tired of writing the story and skipped to the end. Still mostly enjoyable though.

[GBL · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection contains all Dorothy L Sayers short stories, involving Peter Wimsey, Montague Egg and several unconnected tales.

The stories all highlight the skill of Sayers as a writer and as a creator of puzzles to be solved, and the volume should be read by anyone interested in the detective story as a genre. Sayers succeeds in creating a setting and characters with economy, drawing the reader immediately into the tale and her stories are always cleverly constructed and developed.

[Deirdre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not necessarily fair, but I bought this hoping it would have stories in it I hadn't read before. Alas, it does not. And I don't think Sayers' short stories hold up as well as her longer fiction; I found myself a little bored, in fact.

Oh, well. It did give me the Lord Peter itch. Gaudy Night, perhaps? Like I don't have heaps of books I haven't yet read glaring at me from every corner of my room?

[Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read only two of the three sections; I skipped the second section with the stories of Montague Egg as I found them boring. But the rest of the stories were very good! Dorothy Sayers has a real knack for creating an atmospheric short story that holds your interest, sometimes until the very last line. And a Lord Peter Whimsey story is always excellent!

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful. Lord Peter Wimsey and Bunter are basically Jeeves and Wooster in a detective story, except Wimsey is competent and doesn’t end up in accidental engagements. The character of Montague Egg didn’t quite catch my fancy as much, but still was enjoyable. And then the miscellaneous collection at the end exhibits Sayers’ brilliance with an eclectic mix of near flawless works.

[M-N · Rating 4 out of 5]

classic Sayers and lord Wimsey in his many guises right up to the end as paterfamilias. You have to really concentrate reading these and you cant binge read, thought I also would enjoy this more ..Maybe its me..

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This included fifteen of her stories that I had not read before, as well as an interesting introduction by James Sandoe and an afterword by John Curran. The experience was much enriched by my recent reading of The Mutual Admiration Society, a joint biography of Sayers and her Oxford circle.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no better mystery writer than Dorothy Sayers.

[Sheri Fresonke Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific brain teasers that feature Lord Peter Wimsey, Montague Egg, and some miscellaneous ones. It makes one appreciate how much work crime can be.

[J.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uneven quality, but the two stories about Lord Peter as a family man, The Haunted Policeman and Talboys, are especially worth the read if you’re a Wimsey fan.

[Jac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lord Peter Wimsey in small doses, what could be finer?