Customer Reviews
Rings a Few Bells - By: SARAH MCCARTNEY, 23 Aug 2008 
I find out more about Britain in the 20th Century from reading Allingham, Croft & Sayers than carefully researched history books. Any of the characters could live here & now (except perhaps Bunter, Lord Peter's gentleman's gentleman who is amusingly perfect) which shows how well written they are. It moves at a slow & intricate pace, with plenty of detail & distraction, but nevertheless I found it to be a page-turner. If you're looking for a hard-hitting, fast paced, action packed novel where the plot is king & where characters & surroundings are sketched in just to help it sprint along, pick something different. If you're settling down for a few days' worth of cosy criminology, here you go.
Ripping yarn with unusual flooded-fen setting - By: Ms. L. R. Fisher, 21 Apr 2008 
One of Sayers' best. Most of the action takes place in the Norfolk fens. Flat, very flat, & when the "board" gets to tinkering with the drainage system, under several feet of water. Lord Peter Wimsey runs off the road in a blizzard & is rescued by a passing vicar. Only snag -- he has to step in & help ring in the New Year. So when an extra corpse is found in the churchyard, naturallly Lord Peter is callled in to investigate. The tale involves stolen emeralds, a friendly London jewel thief & two local brothers. Not to mention a mysterious cypher message found in the bell tower. It's not till the floods are out that Lord Peter climbs up the bell tower & guesses the secret of the mystery man's death. Let the bells give tongue! (The Nine Tailors are the nine "tellers" rung on the death of a parishioner. I think that motto should read: Nine tailors make a man; Christ's death at end in Adam yet began.)
Perfect - By: S.B., 30 Apr 2007 Lord Peter & Bunter drive into a ditch in the Fens. They are rescued by the vicar of Fenchurch St. Pauls, whereupon we meet Peter's previously unsuspected bell-ringing skills. This pastoral idyll is disturbed, however, by the discovery of a faceless, handless corpse in the churchyard. With almost no means of identification, even Lord Peter is pushed to discover the identity of the corpse & its murderer, but the ending to this is both a witty twist on whodunnit convention, & a genuinely moving paean to English village life.
The Peter Wimsey revealed by this quaint setting & the proximity of the clergy is a pleasant antidote to the aristocratic fool & hopeless lover we so often see. Out of the city, his charm is less forced, his wit less studied, his intellect at once more obvious & less overt. No Harriet Vane either (hurrah), just the inimitable Mr Bunter, a lot of books & a murder. What more could anyone want?
"You ain't got no call to be afeared of the bells...if you follow righteousness." - By: Mary Whipple, 30 Jun 2006 Set in Fenchurch St. Paul, a remote village where Lord Peter Wimsey stops unexpectedly, this mystery involves an unknown body, disfigured & mysteriously buried in the same grave as a local dignitary, shortly before the New Year in 1934. Many years before, a magnificent necklace of emeralds was stolen here, though it was never found. Two men & a local woman were implicated in the theft, & both men served time in prison. Now the unknown body, the fate of the two men involved in the theft of the emeralds, the whereabouts of the emeralds, & the involvement of seemingly upright citizens of Fenchurch St. Paul are alll under investigation.
Lord Peter Wimsey, accompanied by his "man" Bunter, becomes involved in the investigation when their car runs into a ditch on a snowy New Year's Eve. Lord Peter ultimately agrees to substitute for an indisposed bell-ringer when the rector attempts to set a record of more than 18,000 rings in nine hours on New Year's Eve. The bells are an integral part of the mystery, with the "nine tailors," a pattern of bell ringing, figuring prominently in the action. A coded letter suggests that the bells themselves may relate to the location of the emerald necklace.
Author Dorothy Sayers creates vivid characters--the somewhat arrogant Lord Peter Wimsey, his faithful manservant Bunter, the ditzy rector of the local church & his wife, the French wife & children of one of the thieves, assorted odd characters from the town, & local law enforcement. The opportunity to locate the emeralds & ascertain the fate of the thieves, one of whom escaped shortly after being sentenced to jail, intrigues Lord Peter, & some townspeople have much to gain (or lose), depending on the identity of the man in the grave & his possible killer. Sayers's complex mystery & the equallly complex interactions of the various characters keep the reader guessing to the very end.
Ingenious & clever, this mystery is full of dry humor, as Lord Peter & Bunter engage in word play, hilarious who's-on-first dialogue, & multiple absurdities as they try to solve the case. The characters go beyond stereotype, eliciting sympathy & often respect, as they contrast with the sometimes stuffy & aristocratic Lord Peter. A mystery which is as satisfying in its conclusion (resembling the divine intervention of classical Greek tragedy) as it is in its immediate action, The Nine Tailors is one of Sayers's best & most intricate mysteries. Mary Whipple
Thrills and chills - By: dukesdenver, 20 Sep 2004 This is my favourite (non-Harriet) Sayers mystery. The description of the art of change-ringing is fascinating, & the bells themselves are strangely human & wonderfully sinister. You'll never forget the solution to the murder, it will chill you to the core...
