Lord Peter Wimsey Investigates: Selected Short Stories

by Dorothy L. Sayers

Lord Peter Wimsey, wealthy, charming and charismatic, is one of the most famous amateur detectives of the golden age of crime. This Macmillan Collector's Library edition of Lord Peter Wimsey Investigates is introduced and edited by crime writer David Stuart Davies.

The fifteen short stories in this lively and witty collection, Dorothy L. Sayers’s very best, celebrate the breadth of Peter Wimsey’s career as London’s most celebrated amateur sleuth. From the foppish man about town of 'In the Teeth of the Evidence', to the happily married man in 'The Haunted Policeman', to the father of three in 'Talboys', Wimsey kept that twinkle in his eye and the brilliance of mind that helped him spot a clue a mile off.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories

352 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2018

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

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun stories that often hinge on marvelous minutiae. Mysteries not all murderous.

[Joey Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read 3 or 4 of the Lord Peter novels, but this was my first taste of the Wimsey short stories. The feel is definitely different, as one is quickly brought to the 'mystery' in the short story, and there's less character development, but I found it fun & refreshing to try to figure out where Sayers was heading in each. This collection has a nice variety of stories from various periods of Lord Peter's life, which made it feel like I was on a bit of a journey with him, outside the stories themselves. A few had some downright funny passages, especially the last one. Made me want to get back to reading the LPW novels.

[Annette Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

An attractive volume of short stories once you take the dust jacket off, pocket sized to boot.
Lots of 1920's lingo and banter. Charming enough as is Lord Wimsey. My favourite stories were...The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with no Face, Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention, The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey and Talboys (which would have to be my absolute favourite of the entire book.) It did take me several months to read this little volume as I read it in between other books, which I guess is a bonus as you can just read a story here and there if you so wish to.

[Smitchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little collection of short cosy crime stories that span the "lifespan" of Sayer's character Lord Peter Wimsey. He travels from quite a loosely sketched almost characature of a young dillitante who likes a mystery, to a mature and rounded character who is a husband and father. The stories can stand alone but will probably make more sense if you have read the novels as well.

[Kalilah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, okay, I didn't exactly finish this right to the very end; because I borrowed it from the library and after three renewals, I couldn't rightly hang on to it any longer. The stories were fun and absorbing while I was reading them, but not compelling enough to force me to pick the book up every spare minute, and therefore completing the book was slow-going. Hence I was unable to complete it.

[Cora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to revisit some old favorites in a new format. The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention is probably the top of the heap for me in this particular collection.

[Theodora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kender I det, når man har en bog, som man ikke læser i ét hug (hvilket fungerer fantastisk ved nogle typer bøger), men i stedet tager sig god tid og f.eks. kun læser den i toget eller lignende? Sådan er novellesamlinger for mig: bøger, jeg kan bruge flere måneder på uden at miste interessen. Denne novellesamling læste jeg fra Oktober 2021 til Marts 2022, og fordi min udgave er så lille (10,3 x 2,5 x 15,7 cm), kunne jeg lige have den med i tasken, i toget og på farten! 🤩
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Men hvad handler novellerne så om? Lord Peter Wimsey er en engelsk aristokrat, der er amatørdetektiv, og igennem novellerne udvikler han sig fra at være fjoget og ung til at være gift og senere far til tre børn. Samlingen består af 15 noveller, hvor Wimsey beskæftiger sig med alt fra stjålne perler til en mand uden et ansigt. Wimsey er både en morsom og karismatisk figur, der ikke altid optræder som hovedpersonen i novellerne, men også som en biperson, som blot står for afsløringen af mysteriet. Ligeledes er det ikke altid, at Wimsey får sin vilje, og man kan ende med en tvivl om, hvem der har ret: politiet eller Peter Wimsey?
Jeg synes især, at Wimsey’s personlighed er interessant, fordi han i større grad udviser følelser end detektiver som Sherlock Holmes eller Hercule Poirot. Derudover er han også ufornuftig til tider og kan også finde på at drille sine venner. Det er helt klart en samling, der kan anbefales til andre, i hvert fald, hvis du er interesseret i detektiver og mysterier. Mine yndlingsnoveller var ‘In the Teeth of the Evidence’, ‘The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question’, ‘The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey’ og ‘The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man With No Face’. Generelt var de længere historier lidt for langtrukne og rodede til min smag 😬. ‘The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man With No Face’ var fuldkommen fantastisk og bød både på mysterie- og mordelementer, og derudover var slutningen filosofisk. Den mindede mig i den grad om ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’.