::READERS REVIEWS::

Ding! Dong! Merrily on High... - Alongside Agatha Christie and P.D. James, Dorothy L. Sayers is one of the top female mystery writers of the twentieth century. Her singular creation of Lord Peter Wimsey assures that her novels will be full of uncanny wit and sparkling intelligence. "The Nine Tailors" is a spellbinding mystery with an overabundance of suspects but very little evidence. While some readers may be able to solve the heart of matter, that does not distract from the sheer novelty of this puzzle, steeped in the history and mystery of bell ringing.

On a snowy New Year's Eve, Lord Peter Wimsey accidentally runs his car into a ditch outside of the small town of Fenchurch St. Paul. The local rector rescues Wimsey and invites him to stay, soon pressing him to fill in as a substitute for an ill bell ringer. Wimsey gladly takes over the role and has a pleasant albeit strange holiday in the countryside of East Anglia. As he is leaving town, he encounters a tramp looking for work, and thinks nothing further about it. But when a body is discovered buried atop a recently dug grave, the rector calls on Lord Peter again, this time for his detective help.

The body found on top of the coffin is greatly disfigured and has had its hands removed, but Wimsey is certain it is the man he met on the road the day out of town. But who is he and how did he get there? Most importantly, who killed him? In searching for this answer, Wimsey and the local inspector are sent following clues to France and retracing the sordid history of some of the town's previous unsavory inhabitants. The identity of the body may prove easier to figure out than the method of his murder.

"The Nine Tailors", the title a reference to the bells that are rung when a man dies, is a unique thought-provoking mystery. Dorothy L. Sayers brings her story full circle and no small piece of information or clue gleaned along the way is left out. For those unfamiliar with bell-ringing, some of the descriptions and dialogue regarding this topic may seem tedious, but are not ones that should be overlooked in order to see the whole picture. "The Nine Tailors" is an enjoyable, puzzling whodunit sure to please mystery fans everywhere.

"I really don't need rest. I would far rather ring bells" -
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) earned a lasting respect for her translations, poetry and Christian writing, but it was her detective novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey that won her the lasting affection of so many readers. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie and Margery Allingham are known as the "Queens of Crime" for their domination of crime writing in the 1920s and '30s.

The Nine Tailors was published in 1934 and opens on New Year's Eve. Lord Peter Wimsey runs his car into a ditch in the village of Fenchurch St. Paul, in England's low-lying East Anglia fen country. Rescued and given shelter for the night by the rector, Wimsey is astonished to find that the church is a magnificent old edifice on Norman foundations with a "full ring" of eight bells in the tower. To the detriment of his sleeping prospects, the ringers are planning a nine-hour ring starting at midnight. Readers who know Wimsey will not be surprised that when one of the ringers falls to the influenza, our sleuth is able to step in and take the rope.

Critics of this book cite the extremely detailed descriptions of change-ringing, or campanology, the very English, very mathematical progressive ringing of large cast bells. You may love it or you may hate it, but the bell ringing is integral to this picture-perfect novel of English country life; it would be a mistake to disregard the role of the bells. The eight bells in the tower at Fenchurch St. Paul have names and voices, personalities even. The tenor bell known as Tailor Paul is typically rung nine times to announce a death in the village; the traditional Nine Tailors of the title.

Some months later there is a death in the village and when the grave is opened for the burial, it's already occupied. Lord Peter is back on the scene to investigate. The mysteries of the body in the grave and a stolen emerald necklace have their origins in the past and therefore lack some urgency, but the book progresses to a startling and appropriate ending.

The moody countryside and expertly drawn characters lift this book above its genre. The Nine Tailors is a literate period novel that captures English rural life between the wars. Of the eleven Wimsey novels it's the most readable as a stand-alone, and it showcases the characterization and style that are the best part of this series. This is a good book to start with if you want to acquaint yourself with the Wimsey stories; as long as you don't hate the change-ringing.

Linda Bulger, 2008

A Great Mystery Novel - I haven't read a mystery novel in ages and this one got me aching for more. Sayers' main character, Lord Peter Wimsey is embraceable because he exhibits a wide range of emotions. The other main characters in this tale - Pastor Venables, Superintendent Blundell - are charming, this charm brought forth by the former's humurous chatter and the latter's sense of self-importance deflated by faulty reasoning. It is a cliche, but the story, which takes place in an English farm town between the two world wars, definitely keeps you guessing until the end, when the mystery is masterfully resolved and all the loose ends tied up.

To be honest, I had a rough go at reading some of the bell pealing instructions, which are peppered throughout the novel, although it opened my mind to a musical genre of whose technical difficulties I was unaware.

A Good Lord Peter Novel, But Not The Best - The Nine Taylors is mystery revolving around a small English village and an old church bell tower. I enjoyed the novel, but missed many main stays of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories. Other than Bunter, the book lacked many Lord Peter main stays; noticebly absent are Harriet Vain and the Wimsey family, with the exception of some brief appearances by Inspector Parker. As usual the characters are well drawn and vivid, but I found the plot involving a perloined necklack to be convoluted and confusing. The performance by Ian Carmichael was excellect as usual, the cassette format was annoying; I don't know why Audio Parters, Inc. have not transferred all the Dorothy Sayers novels to CD format at this point given the popularity of the series.

Although I must say that The Nine Taylors is a must for any Wimsey fan, the book is especially good for new comers to the series as it requires no previous knowledge of the other Lord Peter books. No doubt any mystery fan would enjoy The Nine Taylors even though it's a less than typical Lord Peter novel.

As perfect a mystery as you're going to get - On New Year's Eve, Lord Peter Wimsey is driving through the East Anglia countryside, when a flat tire causes him to stop in a local village. The village bell ringers are about to perform, and Wimsey fills in for one of the ringers who can come down with the flu. The nine tailors of the title are the nine bells that are rung upon someone's death.

When a local man dies several months later, and his grave is dug, it's discovered that there's already a dead body in that grave--the body of an unknown man who was seen tramping about the countryside in January by Lord Peter himself. Who is the strange man? How is he connected to the theft of some emeralds that took place in 1914?

It's a mystery that stumps even Lord Peter, and it's pretty ingenious--read it and see for yourself. Dorothy Sayers's novels are such a treat because she really knew how to pull a mystery together--she won't kill off one of her characters simply because she can. There's a backstory to everything, and Sayers leaves no stone unturned in this book. The Nine Tailors is as perfect a murder mystery as you're going to get.

Introduction to Dorothy Sayers - This is the first Dorothy Sayers book I've read and I'm enjoying the ride.

Nine Tailors, a mystery, is set in an old English countryside with interesting less-than-glamorous characters.

I'm reading it at an extra-slow pace and can't seem to enjoy it unless I read it that way.

It's a story of church bells, church people, sick people, poor people, a stolen necklace with a lot of time given to character building, bell ringing and setting. I was told Sayers book, "The Mind of the Maker," is her best though and will be reading that one next.

A great mystery - Culture shock a tailor is a church bell not a person sewing. And the background to this mystery is a culture around the ringing of the bells.

You can really tell this is Dorothy Leigh Sayers' style. A lot of England, an interesting Wimsey and a good mystery that does not overwhelm the other elements. When I get time I want to see if the books she quoted from exist.

I am not suggesting reading the books out of order, however different DLS books emphasize the mystery first others England first. A book that has the same balance as The Nine Tailors is [Busman's Honeymoon]

All in all I found this book a-pealing.