Lord Peter Wimsey
Sayers's complete run, first case to last. Wimsey starts as a silly-ass aristocrat playing detective and ends up written into a genuine human being.
- A stranger's body turns up in a bathtub wearing nothing but a pince-nez, and Lord Peter Wimsey investigates mostly because it amuses him. The banter is the point here, though Sayers gives him real shell shock underneath, which keeps the froth from floating away entirely.
- The fun here is watching Lord Peter have to investigate his own family, since his brother's on trial for murder and being stubbornly unhelpful about it. Sayers gives you real wit, a near-drowning in a Yorkshire bog, and a trial before the House of Lords played straight.
- You get Lord Peter Wimsey at his most polished and mischievous, while Miss Climpson quietly does some wonderfully unglamorous detective work from the sidelines. The mystery is tightly constructed and pleasantly cerebral, though its chilly country-house atmosphere and emphasis on deduction may suit you better than emotional drama.
- You get old General Fentiman dead in his club armchair on Armistice Day, and the whole puzzle turns on exactly when he died, which sounds dry but isn't. Wimsey's charm carries it, and the shell-shocked veterans give it a sadness most detective stories don't bother with.
- Wimsey in bite-sized doses, all silly titles and sly wit, including one where the entire mystery hinges on solving a crossword puzzle in a dead man's roof garden. The stories are uneven and a few are pure froth, but if you like his chatter, this is a happy afternoon.
- You get Harriet Vane, clever, prickly, and understandably wary, while Lord Peter Wimsey works to clear her name with charm that occasionally hides real seriousness. The courtroom opening gives way to a carefully built investigation, and the romance is unusually patient about how much trust costs.
- public domain 2027
- public domain 2028
- public domain 2029
- public domain 2029
- public domain 2030
- public domain 2031
- public domain 2033
- public domain 2035