Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Five Red Herrings (Lord Peter Wimsey, Bk 7)

Five Red Herrings (Lord Peter Wimsey, Bk 7)
reviewed on + 813 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


Sayers is a stickler for details. To wit her mystery The Nine Tailors in which she impresses the reader with her intimate knowledge of the ringing of church bells. This, to many, is tedious at the least. I may have struggled through that, but her constant iteration of railroad timetables and itineraries for the murder had me ready to walk on the ceiling. Fortunately, glancing by these passages did not cause me to lose the thread of the story. (Readers of The Nine Tailors probably survived the same way.) Needless to say, she sets forth a theory of the crime for each red herring and for the murderer. This too might conceivably drive the reader towards insanity. Expect twists and turns seven ways from Sunday each bringing you back to the start without passing "go".