Customer Reviews

In the Teeth of the Evidence

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're only interested in short stories featuring Lord Peter, be advised that 1) this book only contains 2 Lord Peter stories, 2) the complete set of such short stories is available in the collection _Lord Peter_, and 3) that this book doesn't overlap with _Lord Peter Views the Body_, _Hangman's Holiday_, or _Striding Folly_ (which together contain the stories making up _Lord Peter_).

The Wimsey stories in this volume are not Sayers' best, but if you give the other stories herein a chance, the book pulls its weight.

No one has to date assembled a collection featuring only Montague Egg, partly because there are so few stories featuring him (5 appear in this volume). Monty is a traveling salesman for Plummett & Rose (fine wines and spirits). Sayers had definite opinions about making sure that amateur sleuths had legitimate reasons to travel, meet the necessary people (what better person to visit the local pub?), and so on.

The remaining 10 stories feature neither major character. Sayers liked to have fun with the conventional formula of a detective story; sometimes a death isn't murder, or a mystery doesn't involve a death. Sometimes nobody's guilty of anything, or (treason!) they actually get away with it.

"In the Teeth of the Evidence" - Wimsey's dentist has been called upon to identify one of his predecessor's patients from dental work - a fellow dentist found dead in the charred remains of his car. Wimsey comes along, never having had a corpse-in-blazing-garage case before.

"Absolutely Elsewhere" - Wimsey and Parker are up against what appears to be a cast-iron alibi.

"A Shot at Goal" - The head of the local soccer committee (a big man at the local factory) is found with his head beaten in after being called away from the pub where Monty had been trying out his sales pitch. One is spoilt for choice for motive here.

"Dirt Cheap" - Monty and his fellow traveling salesman are stuck at the Griffin, since their usual hotel has had a fire; it's no surprise that Pringle (after his heavy meal of bad food) should be making noises in the night, enough to wake Monty next door. But the next morning he finds Pringle dead and robbed of his jewelry sample-case - the man he spoke to through the door in the night must have been the killer.

"Bitter Almonds" - Upon hearing that an eccentric old customer has died suddenly in a nearby town, Monty attends the inquest - partly beccause the deceased was drinking one of Monty's products when he died.

"False Weight" - Monty is called on to identify the corpse of Wagstaffe, a traveling salesman for a jeweller's firm who had a wife in every other town on his route. The trick here isn't to find someone with a motive, but to find a solution that fits all the physical evidence in the bar where he died.

"The Professor's Manuscript" - A colleague, upon failing to sell soft drinks to the professor who just moved in, passes him along to Monty as a prospect. Monty makes the sale, but notices several incongruities about the elderly professor and his home. See if you can spot them before they're pointed out to you.

"The Milk-Bottles" - Hector Puncheon (a young reporter from the Lord Peter stories) thinks he's onto a hot story when a young couple disappears from their apartment and the milk-bottles begin piling up outside.

"Dilemma" - Everyone's heard the question: if you could have a million dollars by pushing a button and killing a stranger a thousand miles away, would you do it? In this case, a doctor had to choose between saving 1) a dead man's research on sleeping sickness or 2) a drunken butler on the night of a fire.

"An Arrow O'er the House" - Failed author Mr. Podd begins wracking his brain for flamboyant schemes to draw publishers' attention to his work (other than dismal rejection notices).

"Scrawns" - Susan took the job of house-parlourmaid at Scrawns without an interview, not expecting such a gloomy, run-down, deserted country house...

"Nebuchadnezzar" - This game is charades raised to about the 3rd power - act a word, whose initial letter, in turn, forms part of the final word. Markham, whose wife Jane died of gastroenteritis about 6 months ago, begins to brood while watching her old friends act out Jezebel (J), Adam (A), ...

"The Inspiration of Mr. Budd" - Mr. Budd, a skilled barber who is losing his struggle against the flashy establishment across the street, yearned for a chance at the evening paper's reward posted for help in catching a murderer. But how could he earn it against such a strong and brutal man, anyway?

"Blood Sacrifice" - The playwright hated what actor-manager Garrick Drury had done to his first professional sale, although it played to packed houses. His generous compensation merely meant that he had no leverage to protest the mutation of the script into an almost unrecognizable form, which was ruining his reputation among the Bloomsbury types he moved among. (If the playwright's character interests you, try Sayers' _Strong Poison_, whose artistic crowd produced similar unsaleable work, or _Gaudy Night_, where professional ethics have a major role in the story.)

"Suspicion" - Mr. Mummery has been very careful to stick to a health-food diet lately, since his stomach began playing him up. He and his wife had accepted their new and experienced cook as a gift from heaven, without checking up her references, but now he's feeling uneasy.

"The Leopard Lady" - As a Smith & Smith (Removals) story, the reader should come into this story aware that, unless a client turns nasty, nobody will be charged, let alone convicted, for the removal. In this instance, Tressidier stands as guardian and residuary legatee for his small nephew, but Mr. Smith knows just how much of Tressidier's own money was lost in the Megatherium crash and at the track. (They never approach anyone unless they're sure of him.)

"The Cyprian Cat" - The narrator is speaking to his defense counsel: "It's funny that one should be hanged for shooting at a cat." (A Cyprian cat is actually a tabby.) This story breaks the rules about not throwing in magical overtones. If you like it, you might consider Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls" or Howard's "The Hyena".

Dorothy Sayer's "In the Teeth of the Evidence" is a collection of short stories, opening with a tale featuring Lord Peter Wimsey that bears the same title as the book. Each story is both intricately written and intriguing to capture the reader's imagination and engage their intellect.
Included in this collection of puzzles are two short stories featuring the witty society detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, and five stories of Sayer's savvy commercial traveler Montague Egg. From twisted tales of strange and supernatural happenings to mysteries that hinge on the revelation of the all-important clue, this short-story collection is a little darker than the Lord Peter Wimsey novels.
If you enjoy the work of Agatha Christie or Margarey Allingham, you will also enjoy this Dorothy Sayers offering.

It is definitely misleading that this collection is labeled as "A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery Collection" since "In the Teeth of the Evidence and Other Mysteries" contains only two stories featuring Sayers' sleuth. Five of the other stories feature the singular salesman-moonlighting detective Montague Egg, and the remaining ten stories are a delightful hodgepodge of harmless and funny intrigues to disturbing and thought provoking mysteries.

Some of the standout stories in this collection, among the more humorous and lighthearted offerings, are "The Milk Bottles" and "The Inspiration of Mr. Budd". The first is a tale about a newspaper reporter who believes that milk bottles left on a stoop may represent a story to be had. He finds himself on the right track when he encounters a milkman with a story to tell about five milk bottles that have sat for a week at the door of an unhappy couple. The second is a story about a struggling barber who wishes he could win the five-hundred pound reward offered for capturing a murderer; when that murderer walks into his barber shop, he has an inspired idea to stop the killer in his tracks. Some of the more thought provoking tales are "Suspicion" and "The Leopard Lady". In "Suspicion" a man believes his new cook is a gift from heaven, until he experiences sickness every morning and starts to suspect that she is really an arsenic poisoning killer on the loose, but how can he tell that to his fragile wife? "The Leopard Lady" tells the story of an uncle who wishes to rid himself of his pesky, orphaned nephew. He one day happens upon the means to do so, for a small fee, in a manner that will make the boy's death look entirely natural.

There is never a dull moment in "In the Teeth of the Evidence and Other Mysteries". Some tales are much better than others, with the title story being particularly easy to solve. The Montague Egg stories are a fun lark but offer little challenge to the reader since Egg's conclusions seem to come out of nowhere. This collection truly shows what remarkable range Dorothy L. Sayers had as a writer of mysteries, especially when she moved away from her trademark Lord Peter stylings. If Agatha Christie weren't already the queen of mystery writing, Sayers would definitely give her a run for her money.

This has lots of fun stories, and Ian Carmichael's characterization is just outstanding. Not only does Lord Peter Wimsey appear, but I was pleasantly surprised by some stories that have another enjoyable amateur detective, Mr. Montague Egg.

The big teaser here is the pair of Lord Peter Wimsey stories... and they are very brief ones to be sure. The "mysteries" here are of the Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine variety.

The Avon Books paperback edition (1952, plus subsequent reprints) cover states: "The most astounding cases of Lord Peter Wimsey [the opposite is true -- these are by far his least intriguing cases] and a bizarre collection of poisonings, knifings, shootings, and other inexplicable crimes." Well, they are in fact pretty much all 'explicable' as most are resolved with finality near their respective conclusions. A couple of these stories are meant to keep the reader hanging.

Here are the story titles along with a few details of each:

"In the Teeth of the Evidence" -- Has a dental man committed suicide, had an accident, or is he the victim of a murder? As usual, Lord Peter Wimsey sticks his aristocratic nose into a police case and stirs up trouble.

"Absolute Elsewhere" -- A rich old bachelor money-lender raises his two nephews to financial success in their adulthood -- he also maintains a mistress on the side. All in the course of one evening, he's visited by an angry client and, at some point, stabbed in the back. The nephews and the mistress seem to have alibis. Inspector Parker is called in and that's about when his pal Lord Peter shows up.

"A Shot at Goal" -- This is a Montague Egg (a traveling purveyor of fine wines liqueurs, and spirits, along with fancying himself an amateur detective) tale and not an especially great one. The story compares to Agatha Christie's The Love Detectives (Unabridged) which is not particularly a compliment.

"Dirt Cheap" -- The clock strikes twelve in the night and thus Montague Egg provides the chief murder suspect with an alibi. A so-so short mystery.

"Bitter Almonds" -- An uninspiring Montague Egg mystery about death by prussic acid -- straight out of Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair At Styles.

"False Weight" -- An unimaginative whodunnit featuring Montague Egg who ultimately reveals the answers to yet another hotel-type murder inquiry.

"The Professor's Manuscript" -- A 'Lost-and-Found' tale and a below-average Montague Egg story.

"The Milk Bottles" -- A tongue-in-cheek pseudo-mystery.

"Dilemma" -- Not precisely a mystery but an interesting and enigmatic First-Person account based on ethics.

"An Arrow O'er the House" -- An unsuccessful novelist fires his arrow into the air... (and only so-so reading.)

"Scrawns" -- A nervous young maid is employed at a gloomy old house. A goofy story.

"Nebuchadnezzar" -- An improbable artsy thriller where a murderer is inspired to confess.

"The Inspiration of Mr. Budd" -- How to trap a murderer.

"Blood Sacrifice" -- A brief 'white-knuckle' reading encounter.

"Suspicion" -- A Hitchcock-esque poisoning case.

"The Leopard Lady" -- A strange tale of child murder. Pretty gruesome!

"The Cyprian Cat" -- Another weird cat tale from beyond.

In summary, these are Dorothy L. Sayers' leftovers, the accumulation of which were lumped into a book; however, most of these accounts are not of book quality material and you won't miss a great deal if you pass this one by.

Enjoyable and varied set of murder mystery tales from a superb author. This series of short stories had me wanting more and more.

This is one of my personal favorite Dorothy Sayers books although it always gives me the creeps whenever I read it

one of the most interesting things about the volume of Sayers short stories is that in any version after 1942 the character of Harriet Vane is included; but the data shown for this book by Amazon doesn't state any version information