The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. SayersMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Halloween Bingo 2021
Dorothy Sayers is a favourite author of mine and I think this may be one of her best. I am constantly amazed about Sayers' areas of interest. When I first picked up this book, my idea of a tailor was someone who sewed and altered clothing (perhaps because that was how my great-grandmother supported herself after she was widowed). The church bell lore surprised me in a very pleasant way. It was fascinating to get educated in this obscure field of study.
Nine tailors make a man. When tolling a death, nine strokes of the tailor bell signify the death of a man. And this signal is sent several times over the course of the novel. Lord Peter is embroiled in this mystery by an unfortunate car accident. As a result, he makes the acquaintance of the Rector of the small community, Mr. Venables, who is rather church bell obsessed. After the rescue and repair of his car, Lord Peter makes his exit, but when a grave in the churchyard is reopened to inter a spouse, an unknown man is revealed. Who is he, how did he get there, how did he die? The questions just keep coming and the Rector's wife knows just who to contact—Lord Peter Wimsey.
Being the inquisitive sort, Wimsey learns about an old crime too, the theft of an emerald necklace and the fall out when it could not be found. Is this a factor in the mysterious corpse's appearance? Sayers weaves the many strands of the story very skillfully, giving us a complex puzzle to solve. I can rarely keep up with her virtuosity and this book was no exception. The story was so interesting that I was happy just to bump along, waiting for the author to reveal all.
I absolutely loved the absent-minded Rector and his ultra-organized wife. It seems to me that Sayers also had great affection for these characters and I wonder how much of it is based on her father, who was a rector on the edge of the Fens and involved in the restoration of a set of church bells. Obviously she had personal attachment, so that may be why this novel is so well realized.
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