(no subject)

[skygiants]

I found In the Teeth of the Evidence at a used bookstore when I was still in the midst of my Sayers reread, and bought it because it contained a bunch of Sayers stories that (to the best of my recollection) I had not read and I figured I might as well.

These are ... not Sayers' greatest works. The first seven stories feature Lord Peter Wimsey and Sayers' other recurring detective, traveling salesman Montague Egg; they're all very much of the Solve A Brain-Twister In Four Pages variety and are otherwise not very interesting. Also, Montague Egg is the sort of person who goes around quoting maxims like "Never miss a chance of learning for that word spells '£' plus 'earning,'" and, like, on the one hand, I respect Sayers for resisting the temptation to make her other detective as Dreamy as Lord Peter, but on the other hand.

I found the back half of stories easier going; they were not any better per se but at least there was more variety? Stories included:

- Reporters Mistake Dead Fish For Dead Body
- Area Man Makes Up Imaginary Trolley Problem To Make Previous Trolley Problem Decider Feel Better About Himself ("the young medico had had to choose between saving the papers and the sodden old fool of a butler [...] he explained that he believed the previous manuscripts to be of immense value to humanity, whereas he knew no particular good of the butler")
- Author Launches Anonymous Threatening Letters Campaign To Get Publisher To Buy His Book, Today In "Worst Ideas Ever"
- Murder Confession Triggered By Overenthusiastic Game of Charades
- Maidservant Thinks She's Wandered Into A Gothic Novel; Is Comically Wrong
- Artist Is Mad About Selling Out; Also, Not Technically Murder
- The Poisoner Was The Wife All Along! WHO COULD HAVE SEEN IT COMING
- Area Man Accidentally Hires A Sinister Murder Cabal
- CAT PEOPLE. I'm not kidding, this one has straight-up were-cats. Why isn't there a Lord Peter Wimsey novel with were-cats?! Dorothy, you're holding out on us!

ETA: I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT THE ONE WHERE A MILD-MANNERED HAIRDRESSER DYES A MURDERER'S HAIR GREEN, that was my favorite one besides cat people!!

Comments

[agonistes]

Why isn't there a Lord Peter Wimsey novel with were-cats?! Dorothy, you're holding out on us!

oh man, and then Peter could have been their king and his code name would have been Tybalt and he could have gallivanted around England wearing cat ears and a swishy cape ;_____________;

[skygiants]

The Wimsey arms feature a 'Cyprian' cat, too, which is the kind in the cat people story. It's practically canon! (And think of the combination of mild smugness and deep embarrassment in the scene in which he has to explain to Harriet that a.) he has solved the crime by turning into a cat and slinking into the murderer's house and b.) if she is any children they have are unfortunately or fortunately destined to be were-felines, just one of those hereditary Wimsey quirks, happens in the best families, probably something to do with inbreeding.

And Harriet's just like:
)

[agonistes]

WE COULD HAVE HAD IT AAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLL

[lacewood]

This sounds exactly like the plot (subplot? Obviously there are 20 other things happening at the same time) of a DWJ book, and also, I'D READ THIS.

[lokifan]

OMG YOU'RE SO RIGHT. (Christopher and Lord Peter having a Posh Boys With Strange Powers chat, him having come in to help as Chrestomanci, and Millie and Harriet being like FOR GOODNESS' SAKE.)

[whimsyful]

...this is now on my list of dream Wimsey Yuletide fills, along with the Lord Peter/Abhorsen series crossover and the "what if Harriet & Peter did get married right after SP" AU.

[oracne]

I WOULD READ THAT SO HARD.

[larryhammer]

I'd read all THREE of those.

[ellen_fremedon]

THIRDED.

[skygiants]

Well SOMEONE has their Yuletide path prepared before them!!

[sovay]

oh man, and then Peter could have been their king and his code name would have been Tybalt and he could have gallivanted around England wearing cat ears and a swishy cape

Harriet would have just gotten acclimated to the whole peerage thing, too: it's one thing to marry the brother of the Duke of Denver, it's very much another to inherit Denver and what do you mean, you're the King of the Cats? ("It was right there on the family crest: 'Sable, 3 mice courant, argent; crest, a domestic cat couched as to spring, proper' . . .") There would need to be a second round of complex conversations involving Latin.

[edit] I am getting the picture that Sayers thoroughly missed the boat by giving the Wimseys that coat of arms and then not making them were-cats.

[agonistes]

you know, given contemporary affinity for gritty reboots, i submit: the lord peter wimsey as king of the were-cats gritty reboot!!!!

even if it was terrible and on at 4am i would watch it