Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy L. SayersI was first introduced to Dorothy Sayers in the mid-90s when my intellectual uncle recommended her mysteries.
But I haven't read her since.
This summer I moved overseas and could only take 350 pounds of stuff with me. Knowing there would be no English-language book source in Northern Africa, I put a lot of effort into which books I would bring. Many of my small trade paperbacks made the cut, including my Dorothy Sayers books.
Now, sitting in my apartment in Casablanca, I'm reading my way through them again, starting with this collection of Lord Peter short stories.
I didn't know I missed Lord Peter until he found his way into my life again. The mysteries in these short stories are thin but I don't read these mysteries for the mysteries; I read them for the characters and for the sense of place. The world they depict, so different from the world in which I live. And for the wonderful style of Sayers' writing; her facility with the language and her rapier wit.
As a character, Lord Peter rarely disappoints. In the short story that takes place the night his first child is born, the reader finds this exchange between Peter and his wife, Harriet Vane, as they gaze upon their newborn son.
"'Good lord!' said his lordship. 'Did I do that?'
'All evidence points that way,' replied his wife.
'Then I can only say I never knew so convincing a body of evidence produce such an inadequate result.'
Today I realized I don't have all the Sayers mysteries in my collection. Thinking of buying a plane ticket to London or New York and remedying that pronto.
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