Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories

Similar to another reviewer, my introduction to Sayers' works was through The Mind of the Maker. I tried to pick up her fiction at the time, but, as a 19yo college student, just couldn't get "into" it. Now that 15 years have added appreciation beyond standard quick-read bestseller-type mystery books, I recently thought I'd try Sayers again, starting with this book. I was very pleasantly satisfied with the book. As each section, with stories centering around its own investigator, came to an end, I found myself wanting more. Satisfied-but-wanting-more is a good place for an author to leave a reader, in my opinion. Sayers is witty and clever, trusting her readers to think for themselves, causing them to dig and think a bit for most of the answers, instead of just laying it out. She's also decidedly English, which may be off-putting to some American readers, but in my opinion, only adds to the interest and charm. I found almost all of the mysteries to be relevant, even in this era of CSI and Criminal Minds. Humanity and humor transcends innovation. It's rather like Jane Austen's novels are still worth a read, even though all her characters travel by horse, and we now use cars.

I'm not a huge fan of mysteries; however, Sayers' writing in other fields, such as _The Mind of the Maker_, her book on writing, made me interested in investigating some of her mysteries. I began here rather than try to figure out which of the novels to begin with, and found the stories interesting, entertaining, and thought provoking (not to mention disturbing, from time to time). I didn't manage to complete the book before I had to return it to the library but I'm going to pick up a copy as soon as I can to read the rest of the stories. Sayers' prose sparkles and her wit is top-notch. The stories are awfully short but I'm willing to accept that for the quality of writing that Sayers' provides. Anyone looking for an introduction to Sayers or to mysteries could do a lot worse than this: indeed, I highly recommend this collection of stories to anyone interested in either of those things, or possessed of a cerebral bent. I rarely had the patience to try to solve some of her puzzles but I imagine that there are those who could get quite a bit out of them.

This one is a real gem ! It has one section devoted to non-Lord-Peter-Wimsey adventures and the stories are actually funny and have the most unexpected endings. Lots of fun to read and guess along. It also has the smart salesman, Montague Egg, running around in another section solving crimes. On the whole, a varied experience.