The Nine Tailors (1934)

The Nine Tailors is really atmospheric. More so than the other Wimsey books I can think of: there's a real sense of the surrounding countryside and the concerns of the people living there. I liked the detail about the bell ringing -- I didn't understand it, but it was interesting, and the idea of ringing the nine tailors for a dead man sort of stuck with me. It helps that a couple of people I follow on Twitter and Dreamwidth are bell ringers. I vaguely recognised some of the terms.

The mystery itself, I figured out relatively fast, by leaps of intuition rather than attention to detail. I knew that the bells had to have something to do with it beyond the obvious, and I knew that it was just too good to be true that Deacon had died and was so well out of the way.

This one has Lord Peter and Bunter, and even a spot of Parker, but no Lady Mary, and no Harriet Vane. Sigh.

I swear the surname 'Gotobed' pops up everywhere in detective novels and never anywhere else... ( )

One of my favourites of the Peter Wimsey books, though I have to say that this time I felt that there was something a bit off about the pacing. It felt a little slow in places, and because the 'murdered' man so patently obviously "deserved" it (i.e. is not a sympathetic sort of character: I'm not a fan of the death penalty or revenge killings or anything like that, but you do feel that he "got what was coming to him") it's difficult to feel any urgency about the investigation, especially because you feel -- as Peter does -- that it'd really be best if it could all just be left alone.

Still, the book really got to me in the sense of the Thodays plight, and basically all the upheaval that one bad man caused, over the years, in a small village. And there's the way that when you realise how Deacon died, you do feel pity for him, even though he was a bad man, because it just seems so awful.

No Harriet in this book, and as far as I remember, not even a mention thereof. There is a good helping of Bunter, though. ( )

This is a wonderful novel. From the first scenes set in the bleak and snowy Fens countryside, Sayers works her magic. The landscape, the church bells, the superbly-drawn characters and the mystery (well, two mysteries) are expertly woven together to make a supremely satisfying whole. Novels that take the reader to another time and place are, in my opinion, the best novels of all. This one does that for me. ( )

(Reviewed from memory) I figured out the murder mechanism very early on, and I always enjoy feeling clever so much I didn't mind at all how long it took everyone else. I preferred my own theories of whodunnit to what actually turned out to be the case (which I felt was unnecessarily convoluted), but have now forgotten what my theories were anyway, so oh well. ( )

A pretty good mystery, but definitely heavy on the info dumps about British church bells. Lots of Bunter, though! I love me some Bunter. And the ending was very good. Also, a very classic premise - everyone loves a jewel hunt.

Definitely figured out the ending as soon as we got the requisite information, yet our detective was still confused; I shake my head at you, Peter Wimsey. ( )