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Lord Peter Wimsey #4, 9, 14, 15
The Lord Peter Wimsey Short Story Collection: Lord Peter Views the Body / Hangman's Holiday / In the Teeth of the Evidence / Striding Folly
Four volumes of short stories featuring the iconic British aristocrat and sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.
A gentleman needs hobbies. For Lord Peter Wimsey—a Great War veteran with a touch of shell shock—collecting rare books, sampling fine wines, and catching criminals are all most pleasant diversions.
Lord Peter Views the Body: In these early adventures, Lord Peter confronts a stolen stomach, a man with copper fingers, and a deadly adventure at Ali Baba’s cave, among other conundrums that tax his intellect, humor, acting talent, knowledge of metallurgy, and taste for fine wines. It’s not easy being a gentleman sleuth, but Lord Peter was born to play the part.
Hangman’s Holiday: Two of the genre’s most memorable detectives, Lord Peter Wimsey—noble by birth, brilliant by nature—and free-spirited traveling wine salesman Montague Egg, confront menaces from purloined pearls to poisoned port.
In the Teeth of the Evidence: In this volume of “truly remarkable stories,” a pair of classic Wimsey stories appear alongside five featuring Montague Egg, the eccentric purveyor of wines whose powers of deduction could give His Lordship a run for his money. A handful of other glittering puzzles round out the volume.
Striding Folly: Lord Peter confronts land barons, killers, and the terror that comes from raising three young sons. Through it all, his clear thinking never fails him, and he tackles these puzzles with his usual aplomb. He may be a family man now, but like a good wine, a great detective only gets better with age.
A gentleman needs hobbies. For Lord Peter Wimsey—a Great War veteran with a touch of shell shock—collecting rare books, sampling fine wines, and catching criminals are all most pleasant diversions.
Lord Peter Views the Body: In these early adventures, Lord Peter confronts a stolen stomach, a man with copper fingers, and a deadly adventure at Ali Baba’s cave, among other conundrums that tax his intellect, humor, acting talent, knowledge of metallurgy, and taste for fine wines. It’s not easy being a gentleman sleuth, but Lord Peter was born to play the part.
Hangman’s Holiday: Two of the genre’s most memorable detectives, Lord Peter Wimsey—noble by birth, brilliant by nature—and free-spirited traveling wine salesman Montague Egg, confront menaces from purloined pearls to poisoned port.
In the Teeth of the Evidence: In this volume of “truly remarkable stories,” a pair of classic Wimsey stories appear alongside five featuring Montague Egg, the eccentric purveyor of wines whose powers of deduction could give His Lordship a run for his money. A handful of other glittering puzzles round out the volume.
Striding Folly: Lord Peter confronts land barons, killers, and the terror that comes from raising three young sons. Through it all, his clear thinking never fails him, and he tackles these puzzles with his usual aplomb. He may be a family man now, but like a good wine, a great detective only gets better with age.
898 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 12, 2018
341 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy L. Sayers
723 books3,006 followersThe 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 26, 2021
This collection contains all the mystery short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, not just with Lord Peter as main character, but also the stores of the amateur sleuth and traveling salesman Montague Egg, and several others with no fixed character.
There is another volume that collects only the Lord Peter stories, which I read a few months ago.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
So here I will only address the rest. I really liked the character of Montague Egg. He travels around the country selling wines and liquors, and has a very common-sense approach to life. He is very observant of minute details that allow him to solve complicated murders. It seems that murders happen wherever he goes!
The rest of the stories are quite good too. Some are found in the end not to be crimes, but show the mental process of a person confronting a mystery or a dilemma. A couple include events that appear to be magical or supernatural (like the Cyprian cat) and are never explained.
There is another volume that collects only the Lord Peter stories, which I read a few months ago.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
So here I will only address the rest. I really liked the character of Montague Egg. He travels around the country selling wines and liquors, and has a very common-sense approach to life. He is very observant of minute details that allow him to solve complicated murders. It seems that murders happen wherever he goes!
The rest of the stories are quite good too. Some are found in the end not to be crimes, but show the mental process of a person confronting a mystery or a dilemma. A couple include events that appear to be magical or supernatural (like the Cyprian cat) and are never explained.
August 30, 2023
This is 4 volumes of short stories I got as a deal on Amazon. Most of them are Lord Peter Wimsey shorts. Montague Egg, traveling salesman has a few. Some are just random.
After reading 2 of Lord Peter's full books I have to say I like the short stories better!
After reading 2 of Lord Peter's full books I have to say I like the short stories better!
January 27, 2020
I love a good short story mystery collection and this is one of the best around.
January 14, 2026
If you ever bump into an old friend you have not seen in years and swap news and quickly catch up on key incidents and events, giving a brief overview of key events that is what this book is. It is also the moment you realise your friend's life is so much fuller, richer, and more intriguing than your own.
This short story collection is an interesting mixture of crimes and puzzles for Lord Peter to unpick and solve with his own elegant flair. The combination of stories works well as it does not feel repetitive or disjointed, and all contain the hallmarks of Sayers clever crafting of plot and weaving of character.
For most of the short stories, it is clear, like the erstwhile friend recapping their deeds, that brevity is essential. Sayers has not tried to stretch out the stories or over stuffed them but stay faithful to the core of her plots. However, there are one or two that I was especially engaged with to the extent I wanted more. Sayers, of course, was right.
There is something about dear old Wimsey that takes him beyond a Poirot or a Holmes, perhaps it is a sense of self-awareness or frailty or even an other- worldliness that occasionally comes through these stories that sets him apart.
This short story collection is an interesting mixture of crimes and puzzles for Lord Peter to unpick and solve with his own elegant flair. The combination of stories works well as it does not feel repetitive or disjointed, and all contain the hallmarks of Sayers clever crafting of plot and weaving of character.
For most of the short stories, it is clear, like the erstwhile friend recapping their deeds, that brevity is essential. Sayers has not tried to stretch out the stories or over stuffed them but stay faithful to the core of her plots. However, there are one or two that I was especially engaged with to the extent I wanted more. Sayers, of course, was right.
There is something about dear old Wimsey that takes him beyond a Poirot or a Holmes, perhaps it is a sense of self-awareness or frailty or even an other- worldliness that occasionally comes through these stories that sets him apart.
January 10, 2022
I really shouldn’t have finished this compilation of short-story collections. I didn’t find the mysteries to be as engaging (for the most part) as I’d hoped and Wimsey, as a character, was only occasionally memorable. But it stuck in that no-man’s-land where it never got bad enough to give up on.
There were, if I recall correctly, two of the dozens of stories that didn’t are well. In both cases, it was use of what today is definitely a racial slur. In my opinion, the word should either be quietly edited out or (if copyright prohibits that) prominently flagged by editors to avoid catching readers unaware. There were few enough of these issues that I considered it “a product of its time” and did not deduct from my rating on that account (other readers may react differently)
There were, if I recall correctly, two of the dozens of stories that didn’t are well. In both cases, it was use of what today is definitely a racial slur. In my opinion, the word should either be quietly edited out or (if copyright prohibits that) prominently flagged by editors to avoid catching readers unaware. There were few enough of these issues that I considered it “a product of its time” and did not deduct from my rating on that account (other readers may react differently)
June 3, 2022
Sayers remains a Mystery Queen
I have always loved Peter Wimsey (and Harriet) and thoroughly enjoyed the novels. The short stories are also fantastic, and a wonderful way to spend a weekend dipping into them here and there. Cozy english mysteries, puzzling who dunnits, drama with characters. There are several other mysteries in this collection, indeed there were at least 4 I hadn’t read, or didnt remember reading. So it was an extra delight to come across them. And the gorgeous words - the use of the English language. Wonderful.
I have always loved Peter Wimsey (and Harriet) and thoroughly enjoyed the novels. The short stories are also fantastic, and a wonderful way to spend a weekend dipping into them here and there. Cozy english mysteries, puzzling who dunnits, drama with characters. There are several other mysteries in this collection, indeed there were at least 4 I hadn’t read, or didnt remember reading. So it was an extra delight to come across them. And the gorgeous words - the use of the English language. Wonderful.
July 31, 2024
Superb writing, but it’s showing its age
The majority of the short stories that involve Lord Peter Wimsey are really quite well written. They have clever plots, and often surprising amounts of very current sounding psychological insights. The problem, however, it keeps me from being able to give this a five is the dated language. When Sayers wrote these in the 1920s and 1930s there were phrases and ways of talking that are today entirely unacceptable. When you read the book, you have to be aware of those obsolete and no-longer acceptable ways of talking.
The majority of the short stories that involve Lord Peter Wimsey are really quite well written. They have clever plots, and often surprising amounts of very current sounding psychological insights. The problem, however, it keeps me from being able to give this a five is the dated language. When Sayers wrote these in the 1920s and 1930s there were phrases and ways of talking that are today entirely unacceptable. When you read the book, you have to be aware of those obsolete and no-longer acceptable ways of talking.
April 8, 2021
Not just detective stories, Sayers has turned her hand to some detective-adjacent styles and there are some thrillers and even some supernatural themed stories featuring Lord Peter. There's also some moderately complicated French to translate :-)
November 5, 2024
I love a great mystery to help clear my mind before falling asleep. Dorothy sayers is one of my favorite authors.
October 10, 2019
Not her best work.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews