From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

The Nine Tailors (Lord Peter Wimsey, #11)

Dorothy L. Sayers,

Elizabeth George (Introduction)

Start date: May 1, 2023

Finish date: May 31, 2023

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: Next in our Scenes of Classic Crime challenge.
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* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
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What Members Thought

Oct 16, 2016 Susan in NC rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-library, currently-re-reading, favorites, reread, detectives-23challenge

I guess my first read of this Dorothy Sayers Golden Age favorite was before I joined GR, hence no review. I thought I reread a few years ago when I reread several Lord Peter mysteries, but anyway, this is a favorite, and I won’t wait so long for my next visit to Fenchurch St. Paul with Lord Peter and his loyal sidekick Bunter (I hesitate to only call him valet or butler, because although he fulfills those roles brilliantly, he is also an assistant investigator, fingerprinting and photographing w I guess my first read of this Dorothy Sayers Golden Age favorite was before I joined GR, hence no review. I thought I reread a few years ago when I reread several Lord Peter mysteries, but anyway, this is a favorite, and I won’t wait so long for my next visit to Fenchurch St. Paul with Lord Peter and his loyal sidekick Bunter (I hesitate to only call him valet or butler, because although he fulfills those roles brilliantly, he is also an assistant investigator, fingerprinting and photographing when necessary).

I had forgotten what a sprawling, almost languorous investigation this is, taking place over a year, due to slower communications to France for confirmation of clues, and within Britain to allow the massive machinery of the police to track down and double check minor details and players in a suspect’s alibi.

The pacing, the characters Lord Peter encounters in the Fen Country surrounding the village of Fenchurch St. Paul, the flat, marshy landscape, the very bells of the cathedral-sized church - all combined to make this a memorable favorite for me. The methodical peeling away of lies and obfuscations, the building of suspicion and tension to reveal a truly horrific method of murder, kept me enthralled! Even though I remembered the bare bones of it all from my initial read 25 years ago, it was a pleasure to sink back into this world - this one is right up there with “Gaudy Night” for me, although I love all of Sayers’ Lord Peter mysteries! (Ok, maybe not The Five Red Herrings, her homage to the timetable mysteries so popular at the time, but I want to reread that one, too!)

The bare bones of the plot: Peter and Bunter are traveling through Fen Country on New Year’s Eve in a snowstorm. Car goes in ditch, they have to walk a couple freezing miles, local rector, kind but dithery Mr. Venables is out on call, picks them up, brings them back to rectory, where we meet the delightful and efficient Mrs. Venables. Turns out the rector is a bell ringing enthusiast, the amazing church has a memorable set of nine bells, and he is preparing his ringers to do a mammoth peal to ring in the New Year - it will run for nine hours! Bad news, though, word comes that one of the ringers is out with flu, the area being devastated by a flu epidemic. No worries, Rector learns Lord Peter has rung a bell in his day and recruits him; Mrs. V, of course, is appalled, what kind of hospitality is this, walked miles in snow, no sleep, etc. Lord Peter pitches in, the peal rung, record set. Within a few days, snow melts, Peter and Bunter go home.

They are called back by the Rector around Easter when the grave of Lady Thorpe, who died on New Year’s Day after the peal finished, is opened for her husband Sir Edward. He hadn’t been strong since serving in WWI, and a family tragedy involving a stolen uninsured emerald necklace, the reimbursement of which just about bankrupted the estate. He leaves behind teenaged Hilary, a bright and charming girl.

But in the reopening of the grave, a horrific sight - a corpse with its hands removed and face battered in. Lord Peter returns with alacrity, welcomed by the Venables and the diligent local Inspector Blundell, who rightly suspects this case will be a corker!

Exciting, mysterious, complex case stretching back 20 years in local history to a jewel theft, a murder (now two), a mutilated corpse, wearing British clothes but French underwear? Secrets, aliases, a prison break, desertion during the Allied retreat over the Marne? Yes, please! And to top it off, while Wimsey and the authorities are still struggling to figure out what or who killed the man in the grave, an epic flood envelops the Fens - the rector certainly isn’t dithering then! (view spoiler)It’s an epic tale, a thrilling mystery, and I loved it! ...more

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Oct 03, 2019 Carol Evans rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Lord Peter Wimsey is the series’ amateur detective, an English gentleman, second son of a duke, who is wealthy and solves mysteries for his amusement. On New Year’s Eve, his car goes off the road near the village of Fenchurch St. Paul. It just so happens that the church has a fabulous set of bells and Wimsey is recruited to help ring a nine-hour peal, as one of the regular ringers is down with the flu. The following day, after the death of the local squire’s wife, he hears the story of how an em Lord Peter Wimsey is the series’ amateur detective, an English gentleman, second son of a duke, who is wealthy and solves mysteries for his amusement. On New Year’s Eve, his car goes off the road near the village of Fenchurch St. Paul. It just so happens that the church has a fabulous set of bells and Wimsey is recruited to help ring a nine-hour peal, as one of the regular ringers is down with the flu. The following day, after the death of the local squire’s wife, he hears the story of how an emerald necklace had been stolen from the house 20 years ago and never recovered. Two men were sent to jail for the crime, one of whom was killed after escaping. Wimsey finds it interesting but heads off on his merry way. The following Easter, the squire himself dies. They re-open his wife’s grave to bury him there too and find a corpse that’s not supposed to be there. The rector writes to Wimsey, inviting him to come back and help with the investigation. And of course, he does.

Of course, the dead man is connected to the original crime and even though it dates back 20 years, small towns don’t change that much. The same people live there, the same suspicions exist, people remember. Evidence, though, is harder to come by. The clues are well-done, especially a cipher that involves the church. Wimsey and the local police interview the townspeople, but also have to send off to France for information. Wimsey and the police work well together. He gives them the information he has and they allow him to tag along or take the lead when it fits. It also doesn’t hurt than when he drives them places in his Daimler; it’s quicker and cheaper for the government than if they had provided their own transportation. There are definite benefits to being rich, as he tells the teenage daughter who is left an orphan by the two deaths.

There are a limited number of suspects, both in the murder of the unidentified corpse and the original theft, but who did what and why is tough to figure out. It’s complicated but by the end, all the threads pulled together and it all makes sense. It intertwines so well with the bell talk too, which I found fascinating. The bells are used for praise, warning, mourning, celebrating. Sayers does such a fabulous job of teaching us about bell ringing and how much it means to the ringers themselves, at least her fictional ringers. ...more

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Dec 05, 2014 Louise Culmer rated it liked it

Lord Peter Wimsey finds himself in a fen village, investigating the mystery of a missing necklace and an unidentified corpse. The mystery meanders along in a leisurely fashion, intertwined with a lot of detail about village life, and in particular bell ringing. Some of the village characters are entertaining, particularly the Rector and his wife, who would be quite at home in a Barbara Pym novel. The solution to the murder becomes apparent well before the end of the book, why Wimsey himself does ...more

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Aug 20, 2020 Brenda rated it liked it

Shelves: golden-age-mystery-etc, on-my-shelf

I love the character of Wimsey, and I really liked the first half of the book, but felt the second half kind of slogged on and got a bit depressing. I really don’t know anything about bell ringing either so that jargon was all over my head and I just read over those parts.

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Jan 31, 2024 Anna Adams rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I automatically love Dorothy L. Sayers and Peter Wimsey, and this is one of my favorites. It's a good mystery, a bit of horror (at least for me), and a heartbreaking story tucked into the things that men do. ...more

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