The Five Red Herrings [Hardcover]

Dorothy L. Sayers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2007 | Series: Lord Wimsey Mystery Series

Lord Peter Wimsey could imagine the artist stepping back, the stagger, the fall, down to where the pointed rocks grinned like teeth. But was it an accident - or murder? Six members of the close-knit Galloway artists' colony do not regret Campbell's death. Five of them are red herrings.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'She brought to the detective novel originality, intelligence, energy and wit.' - P. D. James 'I admire her novels ... she has great fertility of invention, ingenuity and a wonderful eye for detail.' - Ruth Rendell 'She combined literary prose with powerful suspense, and it takes a rare talent to achieve that. A truly great storyteller.' Minette Walters --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Dorothy L Sayers was born in Oxford in 1893, and was both a classical scholar and a graduate in modern languages. As well as her popular Lord Peter Wimsey series, she wrote several religious plays, but considered her translations of Dante's Divina Commedia to be her best work. She died in 1957. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Buccaneer Books (September 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568493320
• ISBN-13: 978-1568493329
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,764,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For Die-Hard Sayers Fans Only, August 1, 2002

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Five Red Herrings (Mass Market Paperback)

At her best, Dorothy Sayers was able to juggle a complex writing style, complex characters, and complex plot to tremendous effect--and such novels as GAUDY NIGHT and BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON have remained landmarks of the murder mystery genre for well over sixty years. But some of Sayers' work has a tendency toward incessant clutter--and no where is that more apparent than in this 1931 novel, which finds Lord Peter investigating a suspicious death in Scotland.

The plot of THE FIVE RED HERRINGS begins with some promise: the victim is a man despised by virtually everyone in town, so no one is greatly shocked when his body is found in a creek at the bottom of a ravine. But the story soon acquires a mechanical feeling: of six possible suspects, HALF are unexpectedly and mysteriously out of town--and tracking them down allows Sayers to indulge her love of time-tables and train schedules to the nth degree. It makes for some very dry narrative indeed. At the same time, Sayers attempts to duplicate the Scottish accent of the locals on the page itself, and the result is page after page of phonetic spellings and oddly placed aphostrophes. It is more than a little off-putting.

In spite of these drawbacks, the book does have its graces, chiefly in Sayers' knack for turning a witty phrase and in her ever-developing portrait of Lord Peter Wimsey. And to do Sayers justice, the gimmicky plot and the emphasis on time-tables, etc. is rather typical of 1920s and 1930s murder mysteries. Such books often have a great deal of period charm, but frankly, THE FIVE RED HERRINGS is not among them. Die-hard Sayers fans will certainly want to read this novel, and many will get a good degree of pleasure from it... but newcomers to Dorothy Sayers' work should start with one of her later successes, and I specifically recommend MURDER MUST ADVERTISE to them instead.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sayers Almost at Her Best, September 5, 2005

By 

Kim S. Witte "History reader" (Mid West) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Five Red Herrings (Mass Market Paperback)

I must be in the minority because I thought this was Sayer's almost at her most brilliant. Only the Nine Tailors seems better to me. Unlike some other reviewers here it was the complexity of the plot that I found so intriguing-that and the Scottish setting. No one could handle intricate plotting better than Sayers. I have also heard this book on tape read by Patrick Malahide. He does a fabulous job and the tapes are particularly mesmerizing. If you enjoy mysterys for their characters start with Murder must Advertise. If you read mysterys for their plot this is definitly the place to go.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dorothy Sayers Gets Hooked on Phonics, May 21, 2004

By 

C. T. Mikesell (near Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Five Red Herrings (Mass Market Paperback)

As other reviewers have commented, this book has two strikes against it. First, Sayers transcribes most of the dialogue preserving the native Scottish accents of her characters. Occasionally she'll allow a character to have so thick a brogue that she'll simultaneously translate for the reader. However, it frequently takes several times through a conversation to make sure you're reading it properly. A glossary at the end of the book would have helped immensely (everybody say Imph'm). The other strike against the book is that five red herrings is a couple kippers too many. Combined with the dialectic nature of the book, there are simply too many people (suspects, police, railroad employees, servants, etc.) to keep track of at the same time.

Fortunately, Sayers doesn't get the fatal third strike. She weaves a complex web and sets master sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey in the middle of it. The obvious wit in her other novels is obscured somewhat by the accents, but enough shines through to keep the overall tone light. Bunter disappears about halfway through, but while he's on the scene he's as wonderful as ever. Tracking Farren and Wimsey's re-creation of the murderer's alibi were, for me, the high points of the story.

I'm sure Dorothy Sayers knew the risks she was taking in crafting such a detailed, complex mystery. That it doesn't entirely work for an American reader in the 21st Century probably isn't ruining her afterlife much. I've found myself hopelessly outclassed on several occasions when reading the Wimsey series, and under those circumstances I find it most helpful to get in Wimsey's Daimler with him and go along for the ride. The trip is always breathtaking (as most of Wimsey's passengers can attest), and while Lord Peter may know where he's going sooner than I do, he doesn't get there too far ahead of me. Don't let my criticisms of this book dissuade you from giving it a read; it's tough in parts, but well worth the effort.