In the Teeth of the Evidence and Other Stories

In the Teeth of the Evidence is a collection of short mysteries by Dorothy Sayers. The first two stories, "In the Teeth of the Evidence" and "Absolutely Elsewhere," feature Lord Peter in his usual sleuthing mode. The first involves a dentist who murders a man and falsifies his dental work so the police would think it was him, and the second is about the murder of a crotchety old man by his devoted young nephews. I enjoyed the first one more because it was a more unique story.

The second part of the book features a character I hadn't met before, one Montague Egg who is a travelling salesman for a fine wine and spirits firm. In the course of his travels Egg meets with many suspicious circumstances and unobstrusively keeps his eyes open show more for clues. He is something of a timid man without Lord Peter's dash and nerve, but Egg is pretty effective in the mysteries he observes and I enjoyed the stories featuring him. There are five: "A Shot at Goal," "Dirt Cheap," "Bitter Almonds," "False Weight," and "The Professor's Manuscript."

The third section of the book is subtitled "Other Stories" and features a random collection of short mysteries that are unrelated in character or theme. These contained my favorites in the collection:

"The Milk Bottles," in which a milkman notices six uncollected milk bottles sitting at the door of a mysterious couple's apartment and sets out to discover why;

"Dilemma," in which a group of men are discussing the question of whether or not one should save an individual life or act for the common good in a crisis, when a stranger tells a terrible story;

"An Arrow O'er the House," in which an ambitious (albeit unpublished) novelist decides to promote his thriller to a publisher using anonymous, threatening advertisments and letters, with tragic results;

"Scrawns," in which a young woman takes a position at an isolated country home and is soon seeing suspicious behavior on the part of her employers;

"Nebuchadnezzar," a guessing game that drives a man with a guilty conscience to imagine that everyone knows his crime and is laying traps for him, until he confesses, to their astonishment;

"The Inspiration of Mr. Budd," my personal favorite of the collection, in which a timid barber realizes mid-shave that he is waiting on a murderer and proceeds to "mark his man" with a hair dye that turns bright green after the first shampoo;

"Blood Sacrifice," probably my second-favorite of the collection, in which a young playwright is called upon to give blood for the manager who has made his work famous, and who does something that no one would ever believe, even if he told them;

"Suspicion," another great story in which a man suspects his new cook of poisoning he and his wife, only to find out that it was someone else entirely who was doing the poisoning, and for quite a different reason;

"The Leopard Lady," about a firm that specializes in the removal of unwanted persons;

and "The Cyprian Cat," a short mystery with a touch of the supernatural, narrated in the first person by the man who shot the cat.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and would recommend Sayers to anyone who enjoys a good mystery. Her characters are impeccable, and she is able to convey so much about their backgrounds in so short a space. Her writing is excellent, as usual. I was able to guess some of the solutions, but the stories didn't suffer for it. An enjoyable read. show less

They say, "Dead men tell no tales.", but the charred remains of a man certainly has a lot to say....A murder has been committed, but everyone involved seems to have perfect alibis, alibis which are a bit too good to be true...A small-time salesman with a curious name gets entangled in a series of adventures...Just some of the tales in this short story collection by Sayers. It was hard for me to pull myself away from this book. One of my favorites from 2018!

In The Teeth of the Evidence by Dorothy Sayers is a collection of short stories with the first two featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. The next five have Montague Egg as the main character and then the remaining stories are stand-alones. Although at first I was disappointed that Wimsey wasn’t featured in more stories, I did enjoy this collection.

I usually find crime stories don’t succeed as short stories but Sayers has used her intelligence and wit to come up some original ideas. This is the second collection of short stories by Dorothy Sayers that I have read that have featured the endearing Montague Egg, a travelling salesman who has had quite a bit of success in solving mysteries. The stand-alones were more of a mixed bag but some show more stood out to me, in particular “Milk Bottles” and “The Inspiration of Mr. Budd”.

As with most short story collections, In the Teeth of the Evidence is a mixed bag. Some stories are superior but overall Sayer’s fine writing, pacing and characterizations make this an interesting collection. show less

*Possible spoilers*

I admit, I have never read a Lord Peter Wimsey novel. But since I have heard about them so much on LibraryThing lately, when I saw this collection of short stories on the library sale's "fill a bag for a dollar" day, I thought it would be worth a try.

The first two stories involve Wimsey. Having, as I said, not read any of the rest, I couldn't tell you where they fit into the chronology of the novels. Even with this lack of knowledge, I didn't find them hard to follow. Mostly, I enjoyed the humor and am even more curious to see how her mysteries are fleshed out in a longer story. The rest of the short stories in this collection are mostly mysteries; one is a creepy, almost Gothic sort of story. In some ways they remind show more me of O. Henry stories, having a similar plot arc, but with different characters and circumstances, each with an unexpected revelation or twist. I enjoyed trying to guess where she was going with the stories and was nearly equally delighted when I'd figured it out as when I was surprised. Though it may have been an unconventional introduction to Sayers, In the Teeth of the Evidence made me impatient to try her Lord Peter Wimsey stories. show less

In the Teeth of the Evidence contains ~16 stories (there is no table of contents, so counting was done via a quick flick through). Only the first of these is flagged as a Wimsey story, the following five are identified as Montague Egg stories (more on that later), and the remainder were a fruit salad of protagonists and plots, none quite the same. I think my favourite of these, "The Inspiration of Mr Budd" started out as a loving character study on a perfectionist barber and his frustration with the half-assed but much better patronised premises across the street, and then when the plot actually arrives, the reader is presented with a finely sketched drama, in which Mr Budd is presented with the opportunity to turn in a wanted man, but show more finds himself afraid of the immediate consequences if he were to try and call for the authorities, and how he manages to leverage the situation anyway.

Other than that, I did like the character of Montague Egg, travelling salesman, and the way that the solution to each of the mysteries is framed with a quote from his constant companion, The Salesman Handsbook.

I think that several of the plots have been replicated in other situations, variations on a theme in television crime shows, and so forth. But even when the solution was obvious from previous reading, or from telegraphed details in the text, I still find the unwinding of the solution to be enjoyable - the story and its telling was sufficient, and the suspense of the mystery was not necessary. show less

This collection of Sayers short stories includes two stories featuring her famous detective Lord Peter Wimsey, five stories featuring traveling salesman Montague Egg, plus several other stories. Sayers is better at plotting than at character development, and this is especially true of her short fiction. I read the stories over the course of a month, and at the end of the month the most memorable stories for me were the Montague Egg story “Dirt Cheap” and “The Inspiration of Mr. Budd,” about an unassuming London barber who may have a wanted criminal for a customer.

An interesting selection of short stories, featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Montagu Egg as well as other stories. My personal favourites come from the other stories, Nebuchanezzer in which a man's obssession over his wife's death overwhelms him to a surprising ending. Blood Sacrifice in which a young playwright has to come to terms with selling his art and The Inspiration of Mr Budd in which a small town barber seizes his chance. But every story is inspired. Wonderful.