Books 10-17
10.Five Red Herrings by Dorothy Sayers
This is the book where I finally realized something very important about mystery novels and Dorothy Sayers in particular. I am ashamed that it took me so long to recognize a vital and important aspect of the mystery novel- I can only claim that it has not been a genre in which I've read a lot, and that I am largely reading for the character interactions (I heart Lord Peter) and that I am also quite often stunningly unobservant.
Dorothy Sayers is a troll. I love her so, so much for it.
Okay, I'm aware that mystery writers, pretty much y definition, love confusing their readers. They love setting things up in convoluted ways and introducing shocking twists and I knew that, but I hadn't quite realized the pure glee they must get from screwing with the reader until this book. Sorry it took me so long, I was distracted by the settings.
Anyway, Five Red Herrings follows the story that results when Lord Peter, vacationing in a Scottish town devoted to fishing and painting, gets involved in uncovering the events surrounding the supposedly accidental death of the areas least popular artist. Sayers writes out the Scottish accents of her cast, and if I hadn't spent years reading Scottish literature for fun, I don't know that I would have made it through.
The moment that I realized that she was truly a troll was when Peter is interviewing one of the other Englishmen who appears in the novel, and she gives him pages of dialogue written with a speech impediment.
I loved this book, even if I didn't get to see anything more of Harriet yet. I make no attempt to unravel the mystery as I read (I like magic shows even when I know how it's done. That's not why I'm there), but just delight in the weird and varied characters Sayers has appearing in the novel.
One of my favorite little side scenes, for instance, is when Peter is trying to get information out of a small child by offering her a ride in his fast car. She takes great delight in his turns of speed through the Scottish country side, and describes with joy having been in a fist fight in school recently, and how much fun it would be to scare the cows with the car: "That would be very naughty," said Wimsey, "It isn't good for cows to run fast. You are an impertinent, bloodthirsty, greedy, and unkind young person, and one of these days you'll be a menace to society."
"How lovely! I could have a pistol and a beautiful evening dress and lure people to opium-dens and then stick them up! I think I'd better marry you, because you've got such a fast car. That could be useful, you see."
How can you not like a writer who creates characters like this?
page count: 371
11.Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
I got about 2/3 of the way through this book. I am counting it anyway. I am counting it because I got 2/3rd of the way through a book before realizing this wasn't still the prologue. Then I gave up.
Interesting premise and interesting setting, but somehow I just never got around to caring.
page count: 304
12.Have His Carcass by Dorothy Sayers
Lord Peter and Harriet. You know, I was hesitant to take up Sayers because I was somewhat annoyed by the folks that just went on and on about Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, and now, dash it all, I've become one of them. I can't wait to get to Gaudy Night.
Anyway, Harriet is out on a walking tour of the coast, and with the sort of luck that happens to mystery novelists (she's a writer), she stumbles across a dead body on the seaside. What follows is a confusing exploration of the murder, as the body is gone with the tide before anyone else can bear witness to it, and Lord Peter Wimsey, hopelessly besotted with Harriet, shows up to help and/or interfere with the process. There are mistaken identities, false identities, convoluted conspiracies, and cons to unravel before the guilty parties can be identified.
The murder and the investigation was interesting, but as I've stated before, murder is just a good way to get people to run around and do things (well, not the victim, obviously, although the one in this story does seem to get about a bit regardless). In this case, it forces the reluctant Harriet to interact with the devoted Lord Peter some more, which is mostly a good thing.
Sayers' touch with this is amazing- she does an astounding job of illustrating the odd balance between these two, from the light humor of Peter's constant proposals to Harriet (I liked the telegram best) to the deep seriousness of their arguments, when its clear that both of them fully understand the strain of the relationship, the hesitancy to trust, the fragility of the interaction. I get that Lord Peter would not be so frivolous if the stakes were not so high, and I love, dearly, Harriet's determination not to be put in a dependent situation or compromised. When Peter resents having to inspire gratitude in someone from who he long for devotion- ouch, that hit home.
Wonderful.
Okay, maybe Lord of Light would have gotten a better response if I didn't have this waiting at the top of my 'to be read' pile.
page count: 460
13.Sabriel by Garth Nix (reread) (311 pages)
14.Lireal by Garth Nix (reread) (464 pages)
15. Abhorsen by Garth Nix (reread) (340 pages)
16. Across the Wall by Garth Nix
I love the Old Kingdom Series, so I reread the books in celebration of finally getting the short story collection that contained the novella The Creature in the Case. It's odd that a series about the need for a powerful figure to keep the dead dead should be a comfort reading, but I dearly love Sabriel and Lireal and Mogget and the Disreputable Dog. I like the strange complexity of the different worlds grafted onto each other at the Wall, and the gates of death as an analogy for the process of grieving and loss. Plus the bells are neat, and I love having magicians who defeat evil through music. Creature in the Case didn't do as much for me, but I'm still glad to have read it.
You would think I would have been all over that story, since Ancelstierre is basically 1920's England, but I want more to do with the Old Kingdom. Still, I'd like to know what happens next.
The rest of the stories in the collection didn't do as much for me. I think short stories are not so much my format- I like to know more about the characters (this is likely also why I tend not to connect with stories where there's no substantial internal insights in the characters) and short stories leave me somewhat frustrated.
Still. I reread a series I love and I filled gap in my bookshelf. Yay.
Page count: 352 pages
17.Murder Must Advertise By Dorothy Sayers
This was a lot of fun. Lord Peter takes us a pseudonym to investigate a mysterious death at an advertising agency. In the process, the most inquisitive and frivolous member of the peerage has to at least appear to earn his own living. Full of delightful glimpses of office interaction, great side characters (as always) and an ending that ties things up in a very unexpected manner. There are madcap twists of identities, visits with favorite old characters, and a number of fascinating views on the social turmoil of the early 1930s.
My only quibbles (and they are small ones) are that there was only a passing reference to Harriet (and even then not a direct one) and that one of the important scenes took place during a cricket match, which always reads like a slightly less fun version of Calvinball to me.
Still, hilarious and entertaining, and with enough scenes of danger and suspense that I stayed up far too late to finish it.
As a side note, I'm not happy with the copy of this I purchased from an online used book store. It's a fairly sure sign that I am totally doomed that I am now considering that I not only need all of the Lord Peter books, but that I need good copies of the Lord Peter books. I may have to upgrade my entire collection to hardback.
page count: 288 pages
total pages this entry: 2602
total pages this year: 5335
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can comment here or there, using OpenID if you don't have a Dreamwidth account.
If you have never posted at Dreamwidth, you may need to authenticate your OpenID account to comment there.
Commenting on LJ will eventually be disabled.
This is the book where I finally realized something very important about mystery novels and Dorothy Sayers in particular. I am ashamed that it took me so long to recognize a vital and important aspect of the mystery novel- I can only claim that it has not been a genre in which I've read a lot, and that I am largely reading for the character interactions (I heart Lord Peter) and that I am also quite often stunningly unobservant.
Dorothy Sayers is a troll. I love her so, so much for it.
Okay, I'm aware that mystery writers, pretty much y definition, love confusing their readers. They love setting things up in convoluted ways and introducing shocking twists and I knew that, but I hadn't quite realized the pure glee they must get from screwing with the reader until this book. Sorry it took me so long, I was distracted by the settings.
Anyway, Five Red Herrings follows the story that results when Lord Peter, vacationing in a Scottish town devoted to fishing and painting, gets involved in uncovering the events surrounding the supposedly accidental death of the areas least popular artist. Sayers writes out the Scottish accents of her cast, and if I hadn't spent years reading Scottish literature for fun, I don't know that I would have made it through.
The moment that I realized that she was truly a troll was when Peter is interviewing one of the other Englishmen who appears in the novel, and she gives him pages of dialogue written with a speech impediment.
I loved this book, even if I didn't get to see anything more of Harriet yet. I make no attempt to unravel the mystery as I read (I like magic shows even when I know how it's done. That's not why I'm there), but just delight in the weird and varied characters Sayers has appearing in the novel.
One of my favorite little side scenes, for instance, is when Peter is trying to get information out of a small child by offering her a ride in his fast car. She takes great delight in his turns of speed through the Scottish country side, and describes with joy having been in a fist fight in school recently, and how much fun it would be to scare the cows with the car: "That would be very naughty," said Wimsey, "It isn't good for cows to run fast. You are an impertinent, bloodthirsty, greedy, and unkind young person, and one of these days you'll be a menace to society."
"How lovely! I could have a pistol and a beautiful evening dress and lure people to opium-dens and then stick them up! I think I'd better marry you, because you've got such a fast car. That could be useful, you see."
How can you not like a writer who creates characters like this?
page count: 371
11.Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
I got about 2/3 of the way through this book. I am counting it anyway. I am counting it because I got 2/3rd of the way through a book before realizing this wasn't still the prologue. Then I gave up.
Interesting premise and interesting setting, but somehow I just never got around to caring.
page count: 304
12.Have His Carcass by Dorothy Sayers
Lord Peter and Harriet. You know, I was hesitant to take up Sayers because I was somewhat annoyed by the folks that just went on and on about Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, and now, dash it all, I've become one of them. I can't wait to get to Gaudy Night.
Anyway, Harriet is out on a walking tour of the coast, and with the sort of luck that happens to mystery novelists (she's a writer), she stumbles across a dead body on the seaside. What follows is a confusing exploration of the murder, as the body is gone with the tide before anyone else can bear witness to it, and Lord Peter Wimsey, hopelessly besotted with Harriet, shows up to help and/or interfere with the process. There are mistaken identities, false identities, convoluted conspiracies, and cons to unravel before the guilty parties can be identified.
The murder and the investigation was interesting, but as I've stated before, murder is just a good way to get people to run around and do things (well, not the victim, obviously, although the one in this story does seem to get about a bit regardless). In this case, it forces the reluctant Harriet to interact with the devoted Lord Peter some more, which is mostly a good thing.
Sayers' touch with this is amazing- she does an astounding job of illustrating the odd balance between these two, from the light humor of Peter's constant proposals to Harriet (I liked the telegram best) to the deep seriousness of their arguments, when its clear that both of them fully understand the strain of the relationship, the hesitancy to trust, the fragility of the interaction. I get that Lord Peter would not be so frivolous if the stakes were not so high, and I love, dearly, Harriet's determination not to be put in a dependent situation or compromised. When Peter resents having to inspire gratitude in someone from who he long for devotion- ouch, that hit home.
Wonderful.
Okay, maybe Lord of Light would have gotten a better response if I didn't have this waiting at the top of my 'to be read' pile.
page count: 460
13.Sabriel by Garth Nix (reread) (311 pages)
14.Lireal by Garth Nix (reread) (464 pages)
15. Abhorsen by Garth Nix (reread) (340 pages)
16. Across the Wall by Garth Nix
I love the Old Kingdom Series, so I reread the books in celebration of finally getting the short story collection that contained the novella The Creature in the Case. It's odd that a series about the need for a powerful figure to keep the dead dead should be a comfort reading, but I dearly love Sabriel and Lireal and Mogget and the Disreputable Dog. I like the strange complexity of the different worlds grafted onto each other at the Wall, and the gates of death as an analogy for the process of grieving and loss. Plus the bells are neat, and I love having magicians who defeat evil through music. Creature in the Case didn't do as much for me, but I'm still glad to have read it.
You would think I would have been all over that story, since Ancelstierre is basically 1920's England, but I want more to do with the Old Kingdom. Still, I'd like to know what happens next.
The rest of the stories in the collection didn't do as much for me. I think short stories are not so much my format- I like to know more about the characters (this is likely also why I tend not to connect with stories where there's no substantial internal insights in the characters) and short stories leave me somewhat frustrated.
Still. I reread a series I love and I filled gap in my bookshelf. Yay.
Page count: 352 pages
17.Murder Must Advertise By Dorothy Sayers
This was a lot of fun. Lord Peter takes us a pseudonym to investigate a mysterious death at an advertising agency. In the process, the most inquisitive and frivolous member of the peerage has to at least appear to earn his own living. Full of delightful glimpses of office interaction, great side characters (as always) and an ending that ties things up in a very unexpected manner. There are madcap twists of identities, visits with favorite old characters, and a number of fascinating views on the social turmoil of the early 1930s.
My only quibbles (and they are small ones) are that there was only a passing reference to Harriet (and even then not a direct one) and that one of the important scenes took place during a cricket match, which always reads like a slightly less fun version of Calvinball to me.
Still, hilarious and entertaining, and with enough scenes of danger and suspense that I stayed up far too late to finish it.
As a side note, I'm not happy with the copy of this I purchased from an online used book store. It's a fairly sure sign that I am totally doomed that I am now considering that I not only need all of the Lord Peter books, but that I need good copies of the Lord Peter books. I may have to upgrade my entire collection to hardback.
page count: 288 pages
total pages this entry: 2602
total pages this year: 5335
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can comment here or there, using OpenID if you don't have a Dreamwidth account.
If you have never posted at Dreamwidth, you may need to authenticate your OpenID account to comment there.
Commenting on LJ will eventually be disabled.