Dorothy L. Sayers's books featuring the amateur detecting of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane are surely the best remembered reasons why her mysteries have remained so popular over nearly a century so far. But Sayers was also expert at the art of the short story, and I find myself going back to her short works from time to time when I need a quick "fix" of Golden Age plotting and witty writing. I think the best collection of her stories is this one - Dorothy L. Sayers: the Complete Stories, offering all her short works. Harper released this anthology through their Bourbon Street Books imprint back in the early teens, and I see that it's still in print and available. Here's a transcript of the audio review I did of this book on the Classic Mysteries podcast. As usual, it has been mildly edited:
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Here are some crime stories straight from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in England – those years between World Wars one and two. They are all by the same author – Dorothy L. Sayers, the creator of Lord Peter Wimsey, who still remains quite popular with classic mystery readers after all these years. Lord Peter appeared in just eleven novels by Dorothy L. Sayers – but if you’d like to read more stories about him, along with other stories about a traveling salesman named Montague Egg and a wide-ranging assortment of other stories about crime, then you’ll welcome the re-publication of a volume entitled Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories.
It is a matter of some regret, at least to me, that Dorothy L. Sayers never wrote any more novels about Lord Peter Wimsey after Busman’s Honeymoon in 1936. So it’s a pleasure to report that Bourbon Street Books, an imprint of Harper Collins, has reissued a huge collection – more than 800 pages – of the complete stories of Dorothy L. Sayers.
Lord Peter’s fans will find him in top form here, and Sayers’ style ranges from clever and ingenious little tales of detection to brawling, Edgar Wallace-type thrillers. There are more than 20 stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. Some, to be sure, deal with murder, but there’s also a pretty good assortment of other crimes – including some which might as well be murder; I would call your attention in particular to a marvelous story called “The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey,” in which Wimsey manages to solve a problem that the law quite probably would never have been able to touch.
Two stories in particular may interest you, if you have wondered what happened to Lord Peter after he married Harriet Vane in the last Wimsey novel, Busman’s Honeymoon. You will find two late stories featuring our married hero – one, called “The Haunted Policeman,” has Wimsey regarding – in some awe – his newborn son. The other, called "Talboys," reveals that he and Harriet have three sons – and we get to see some of his family life, as well. To me, these stories are a special treat.
But, as they say, wait, there’s more. Beyond Lord Peter Wimsey, you will find eleven stories featuring Montague Egg. He is what was known in England as a commercial traveler – or, as we Americans would put it, a traveling salesman, representing Plummet & Rose, Wines and Spirits, Piccadilly. He is always ready to come up with appropriate quotations from his secular bible, the Salesman’s Handbook, where he finds such doggerel as this:
‘Discretion plays a major part
in making up the salesman’s art,
for truths that no one can believe
are calculated to deceive.’
You might be forgiven for noticing that Mr. Egg is as far from the smooth and urbane Lord Peter Wimsey as he possibly can be – yet both men are shrewd judges of character and are able to cut through a difficult web of deceiving appearances to solve difficult criminal problems.
There is a third section of this anthology which contains a dozen miscellaneous crime stories. They have no series detective. For the most part, each is an example of a story with a suddenly twisted ending, where the reader suddenly discovers that a given situation is not at all what it was expected to be. If you’re familiar with the American short story writer O. Henry, who specialized in such twist endings, you’ll know how enjoyable they can be, for that twist can bring either humor or horror…sometimes both.
Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories begins with an introduction by long-time newspaper critic James Sandoe, who was responsible, nearly half a century ago, for compiling these short stories into a single volume. [Ed.Note: This new edition also contains an Afterword, by Golden Age expert, John Curran (replacing the original Afterword)]. Both essays provide additional information about Sayers and about her characters, and they really do add immeasurably to the pleasure you’ll find in this volume.
I should mention that the publisher did provide a review copy [nearly a decade ago of the older edition] for my use in writing this review.
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You can listen to the original audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast by clicking here.
Next: And So to Murder, by John Dickson Carr, writing as "Carter Dickson."
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