2007 Book Log #30: Hangman's Holiday, by Dorothy L. Sayers

[annathepiper]

And for a hard change of pace from the previous book, I jumped over to Dorothy L. Sayers' Hangman's Holiday, an old short story collection featuring several shorter pieces about the redoubtable Lord Peter Wimsey as well as her lesser-known amateur sleuth, Montague Egg.

I continue to like Sayers' novels better than her short pieces, and I definitely prefer novels when it comes to mysteries in general; with short pieces it often seems like you have only enough time for the crime and then the immediate solution. Sayers definitely gets around that in several of the pieces in this collection, though. I particularly liked "The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey", in which the victim of the crime underwent a plight to which I was particularly sympathetic, and the last two standalone pieces, "The Man Who Knew How" and "The Fountain Plays", both of which had clever twist endings.

This is a bit of a hard to find book--I only scarfed it because someone had sold a used copy to the University Bookstore. Sayers' novels are way easier to find. But give this a read if you can find it. Three stars.

Comments

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

I have the same opinion of Sayers. I generally prefer her novels, but some of her short stories are quite good.

Now, if I could just find that Brother Cadfael novel I bought at ConCave...

[annathepiper]

Indeed, she had some good pieces in the other two short story collections I have of hers, too.

Have yet to read any Brother Cadfael.

[genkitty.livejournal.com]

Off topic, but hey :)

I'm enjoying Dresden Files on TV. I've noticed that Butcher has nice things to say about the Walker Papers. I've got all 8 Dresden Files paperbacks up in other tabs. Sell me on adding them to my wishlist? In other words, please burble at me about the books :>

[annathepiper]

Ooh, I can burble at you in quite a bit of depth about the Dresden Files. How big a burbling would you like?

[genkitty.livejournal.com]

Hm. I don't need plot burbling, I've got the gist from watching the show.

Does the writing have internal consistency? Does stuff make sense within the confines of the written universe? How much depth do we get on main characters?

Tell me what you like most about the books, what you like least.

[annathepiper]

I find that indeed, the writing is very consistent and everything makes sense; Jim's worldbuilding is strong, and his later books follow up nicely on the older ones.

There's quite a lot of depth that you get about Harry over the course of the story, some of which you'll have the basic gist of from the show, but there's more to be had as well. Harry's ability to handle the continuing crises that get flung his way is a nice little side note in some of the later books.

Re: the other characters, I find that they get their share of character development as well, with the caveat that since the series is written in first person and is exclusively Harry's POV, you never actually get into anyone else's heads. But you do see Harry's perception of various characters changing in interesting ways.

What I like the most about the books: Jim's creative ability to come up with the damndest ways for Harry to solve a problem and to make funny, snarky commentary while he's doing it. The big climactic battle at the tail end in Dead Beat had been laughing out loud because it was just so beautifully done and so very Harry.

What I like the least: that's a harder call since there's a whole lot to like here, and I very rarely find myself quibbling with any of it. About the only thing that comes to mind off the top of my head is that every so often Jim will wing you an offhanded reference to what sounds like a helluvan interesting bit of character interaction--only it's backstory and the reader never actually sees it.

For example--and this isn't really a spoiler, so I'll go ahead and mention it--in the very first book Harry tells the reader that he and Susan, who already have a relationship underway as of the beginning of the story, experienced a "soulgaze" (this is a phenomenon that hasn't actually shown up on the show yet, and involves it being dangerous to look into a wizard's eyes since that wizard will see every aspect of your soul--and it's a two-way thing, too). I would really have loved to have seen that on camera, since I never really got much into Susan as a character and it would have been interesting to see in her what Harry does, which is not explored to my satisfaction.

[genkitty.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm sold. 1-8 on Amazon Wishlist. I love books that make me laugh out loud -- Eddings' stuff still makes me giggle after something like 10 rereads.

I like it when one can pick up new details and shadings on a character through a series, instead of getting a solid data dump in book #1. Walker Papers does that fantastically.

[annathepiper]

The Walker Papers do indeed do that wonderfully. So do the Dresden Files. Both achieve that "first person smartass" style of storytelling very nicely, but in both series, there's some substance behind it. :)

And yay, sold! Hope you'll enjoy the books. I'm almost tempted to re-buy the first five since they're releasing them with shiny new covers to match the style of the later ones. ;) I'm rather more tempted to go buy White Night as well, the latest--Jim is one of the few authors that's edged onto my list of authors I'd actually consider buying in hardcover.