{"id":16689,"date":"2022-04-28T18:16:03","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T22:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=16689"},"modified":"2022-04-28T18:16:03","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T22:16:03","slug":"the-nine-tailors-by-dorothy-l-sayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=16689","title":{"rendered":"‘The Nine Tailors,’ by Dorothy L. Sayers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u201cYou\u2019ve got too much imagination, Nobby,\u201d said Parker.<\/p>

\u201cYou wait, Charles,\u201d said Lord Peter. \u201cYou wait till you get stuck on a ladder in a belfry in the dark. Bells are like cats and mirrors\u2014they\u2019re always queer, and it doesn\u2019t do to think too much about them. Go on, Cranton.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dorothy L. Sayers achieved <\/strong>some remarkable things in her classic Lord Peter Wimsey series of mysteries. One of their impressive elements is the way she varies settings, both socially and geographically. I suspect that The Nine Tailors<\/a><\/em> is one of her most beloved books, despite the fact that it spends a lot of time on the arcane English pastime of \u201cchange ringing,\u201d in which church bells are rung in varying strings of ever-changing notes. The Nine Tailors<\/em> combines a kind of epic sweep with profound human tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s Christmas Eve when Lord Peter and his man Bunter, speeding over the East Anglian fen country in his big Daimler car, go into a ditch, bending the axle. They are taken in by the kindly vicar of Fenchurch, a small community nearby. When the vicar announces sadly that they\u2019re going to have to cancel their attempt to set a record ringing \u201cKent Treble Bob Majors\u201d that night, because one of his ringers has fallen ill, noblesse oblige <\/em>leaves Lord Peter no choice but to volunteer himself, as he has some experience as a change ringer. This involves nine hours of labor in the church tower when he could use some sleep, but everyone is very grateful. The next day Lord Peter drives away in his repaired car, assuming he\u2019ll never return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But some months later, the vicar calls and asks his help again. A strange thing has happened. While the sexton was opening a grave to bury a man with his recently deceased wife, a strange body was found in the grave. The face had been bashed in with a shovel and the hands removed, so it\u2019s impossible to identify the man. Lord Peter, always keen for a mystery, quickly shows up and starts investigatin\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all seems to have something to do with a scandalous theft that occurred long ago, on the eve of the Great War. A guest at the local nobleman\u2019s wedding had a valuable emerald necklace stolen. It has never been recovered. One of the house servants and an outside accomplice were arrested and sent to prison, shaming his wife, who still lives in the town, remarried after her husband escaped and died in an accident. The accomplice was still alive, though, having recently been released. The body may be his. But if so, who killed him, how did they kill him (there is no visible premortem wound), and why is he wearing French underwear?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author Sayers turns the pealing of the bells into a kind of chorus that accompanies the drama up to its epic climax in a massive flood on the fens. The Nine Tailors<\/em> is gripping and haunting. A masterpiece of the genre. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou\u2019ve got too much imagination, Nobby,\u201d said Parker. \u201cYou wait, Charles,\u201d said Lord Peter. \u201cYou wait till you get stuck on a ladder in a belfry in the dark. Bells are like cats and mirrors\u2014they\u2019re always queer, and it doesn\u2019t do to think too much about them. Go on, Cranton.\u201d Dorothy L. Sayers achieved some … Continue reading ‘The Nine Tailors,’ by Dorothy L. Sayers<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[3874,1704,4164],"class_list":["post-16689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-dorothy-l-sayers","tag-lord-peter-wimsey","tag-the-nine-tailors"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16689"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16691,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16689\/revisions\/16691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}