The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy Sayers

[keilexandra]

The Nine Tailors
by Dorothy Sayers
397 pages (trade paperback)
Genre: Fiction/Mystery/Historical

In The Nine Tailors, Lord Peter Wimsey visits a small village called Fenchurch St. Paul. A mystery is afoot, of course. The bells, to whom the title refers, play a major role that I didn't "get" until the second last page of the book, and even then I didn't truly appreciate their significance to the theme. Apparently this is part of a linked series, in which case--oops. But Sayers did not click for me on several levels, so I don't think it would have made a difference.

I want to say the style is hard-boiled noir--it is so very British--but the murder is not as important as in typical noir pieces. In fact, the mystery itself is secondary to the process of solving said mystery. This is a very different book from the typical historical mysteries, dense with assumptions of knowledge like how a church bell-tower is structured. And the plot is simply not compelling to me, although I admire Sayer's command of plotting and can see why others appreciate her so much. She is dissimilar to, yet much the same as, Agatha Christie; Christie also plots complexly but manages to make them more accessible--both ouvres have a distinctly British feel that I enjoy on a meta level but cannot make up for lack of plot or character engagement.

Major ROT13 spoilers: Fb gur oryyf xvyyrq Qrnpba--vf gung npghnyyl cbffvoyr? V jnfa'g njner gung ivoengvbaf/unezbal pbhyq or sngny. Vg svgf cresrpgyl jvgu gur erfg bs gur cybg ohg V unir gebhoyr oryvrivat va gur cynhfvovyvgl bs npghnyyl qlvat sebz oryy-evatvat. Jrveq.

In conclusion, an excellent and deep piece of literature, though not one that I particularly care to read again. The ending is cool in a fun-fact kind of way but, unless you're a true mystery fan, not worth plodding through 400 pages of labyrinthe story to find out. YMMV, as I know many on my flist will disagree vehemently in comments (I look forward to the discussion!).

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm saying: cyberpunk is a subset of speculative fiction. Hard-boiled noir is a subset of mystery. But you still haven't told me why you think Dorothy Sayers's tone is hard-boiled noir. I can't tell you how Lord Peter is a hard-boiled detective because I feel very strongly that he isn't, and that Dorothy Sayers's tone is not. The Nine Tailors is set in a small English country village; noir is generally urban. Nobody in The Nine Tailors is connected to organized crime. Nobody is betraying each other right and left. There is no atmosphere of fatalistic gloom.

I'm not saying that Wikipedia is the last word on (anything including) noir or hard-boiled crime fiction, but give it a look, see if that helps indicate why I think you've got the wrong mystery subgenre label here.

[keilexandra]

Hrm. I had been under the impression that hard-boiled noir -> Holmes & Watson; Sayers's style and tone reminds me of Doyle's.

But, from Wikipedia, I do concede that I have the wrong mystery subgenre label. Further confusion stemmed from the fact that I thought you were arguing Sayers as a perfect representation of hard-boiled noir, rather than that Sayers is totally different from such (since I said originally that Sayers reminded me of the subgenre but not quite).

So how would you classify Sayers, and/or Sherlock Holmes?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"British mystery classics," I suppose.