Monday, April 16, 2012

Monday Mystery - Dorothy L. Sayers

Sorry this is late. I had a busy weekend and when I sat down last night, I didn't have the energy to write a blog post.

Dorothy L. Sayers was an English crime writer. And one I read while in high school. She was born in June of 1893 and passed away in December 1957. She was one of the first women to receive a degree from Oxford as a medieval linguist and Christina theological scholar.

Many thought her well-rounded, charismatic character Lord Peter Wimsey was modeled after and Oxford don.
Lord Wimsey made his debut in Whose Body? in 1923 and won over the world with his  charm and deductive reasoning. The Wimsey family motto was, "As my whimsey takes me." Sayers once said her character Lord Wimsey was a combination of Fred Astaire and Bertie Wooster.

The first murdered person in Whose Body? was found in the bathtub and the reason it was unusual was it was naked except for a pair of gold pince-nez.

The Five Red Herrings published in 1931 took place at an artist's colony. While Lord Wimsey went to the colony to fish he ends up investigating the death of an artist who fell into a jagged ravine while painting a landscape.

In 1933 Lord Wimsey finds himself a prime suspect in Murder Must Advertise. A view into Sayers humor is  the last line in the book. "Advertise, or go under."

2 comments:

Gabriella Hewitt said...

I haven't read a Dorothy L. Sayers book in years. I started reading Agatha Christie when I was in 8th grade and read as many as I could. As I started to run out of stories to read, I discovered Sayers. I read several of them, but never got as into them as I did Christie's novels.

Have you ever read any Carter Dickson aka John Carter Dickenson, known for his locked room mysteries? Or how about Mignon G. Eberhart who wrote romantic suspense before it was considered a genre? Perry Mason was another series I loved. They were well before my time, but I still loved the atmosphere of the stories.

Hmmm...get me talking on mysteries and I can't stop. LOL!

Thanks for another great post. I really enjoy your blog.

Paty Jager said...

Gabriella, I'm glad you're enjoying my blog. You gave me some more names to check out for future posts. ;0) I enjoyed the Perry Mason books as a high school student. I haven't heard of the other two but will be looking in to them.