A fun introduction to Dorothy L. Sayers, by way of her short stories. To my understanding, this volume is complete, including all of the shorts starring Lord Peter Wimsey (who is quite too adorable for words, IMO) and Montague Egg (a bit stiffer, but also an interesting protagonist), as well as a handful of unrelated stories. They almost all fall under the category of mystery or crime/noir, and some have a hint of the supernatural to them.

There was some unevenness between the stories, and I found a few of her standalones boring. I also want to mention a small but jarring use of the n-word, and at least two stories where cats are killed, none of which was fun to encounter. But, all in all this was a fun read. There's something about bite-sized morsels that make consuming an 800 page book much easier than it seems. ( )

I had read the Lord Peter Wimsey stories contained in this volume before, but not the others, which are perhaps even a bit better than the Wimsey tales. Some really great plot twists and red herrings and enjoyable mysteries. Excellent. ( )

I have all of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels and a short story collection featuring him; all were last read about 25 years ago. I came across this used copy of author Dorothy L. Sayers' The Complete Stories and saw that there were stories new to me, so I brought it home. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. All are mystery stories. My goodness, I had forgotten how much I had liked Lord Peter Wimsey and all his other supporting characters.

In addition to the Wimsey stories, this collection includes a section featuring traveling salesman Montague Egg and a final section of mystery short stories that do not have any recurring characters. Although I enjoyed most of them, Lord Peter Wimsey beats the rest.

Not only are these mysteries clever, there are also well-turned phrases such as this: "At half-past nine he went up to the attic again. It was dark, but a few frosty stars were shining, and a cold air blew through the open window" (p. 263). I think that "frosty stars" in the sky perfectly describes a clear cold winter night.

I can't wait until I am able to get my books out of storage to revisit Sayers' novels again. ( )

A reread. Every time I go back to this collection (and I do), I'm impressed at the classics in here.

Three sections:

Lord Peter Whimsey stories
Montague Egg stories
Various stories

Okay, some of the non-Whimsey, non-Egg stories are trite and boring, and the Egg stories get repetitive after a while (and it annoys me that they all cut off with Egg's logical suspicion but no proof), but they're all charming. ( )

Overall, this was a terribly enjoyable collection of short stories. Some of the stories were less engaging than others. Sayers' strengths never included writing pot-boilers along the lines of the story where Lord Peter infiltrates some kind of international communist criminal ring. That felt rather too much like dated pulp fiction. The best stories, in my opinion, were those which dealt with the people and incidents which I am so familiar with from the full length novels; the story which featured Peter and a young Lord St George, for instance. My favourite stories were the last two, The Haunted Policeman, which tells the story of the night when Peter's first son was born, and Talboys, which takes place in 1942, a couple of years after Peter and Harriet's last child is born. There are some fantastic lines scattered throughout, and Sayers uses the backdrop of the 'mysteries' to show us some lovely aspects of the characters.

"I'll tell you a secret, Bredon. Grown-up people don't always know everything, though they try to pretend they do. That is called 'prestige', and is responsible for most of the wars that devastate the continent of Europe."

Oh, Peter. If Harriet ever tires of you, for some unknown reason, I would gladly have you. ( )