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Dorothy L. Sayers

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Hangman's Holiday: A Collection of Mysteries (The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries Book 9) Kindle Edition

by Dorothy L. Sayers (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 1,219 ratings

Book 9 of 15: The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries

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Lord Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg confront menaces from purloined pearls to poisoned port in tales from “one of the greatest mystery story writers” (Los Angeles Times).

In the annals of mystery writing, Lord Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg are among the most memorable detectives. Lord Peter—noble by birth, brilliant by nature—is a fly in the ointment of criminals across Britain, turning up whenever the police ask him to lend his quick wit and keen eye to an investigation. Montague Egg is a free-spirited figure, a traveling wine salesman with an unfortunate habit of stumbling over murder scenes. Both are inimitably charming, and neither has ever failed to catch his man.

In this collection of stories featuring the two detectives, plus a couple of bonus tales, the mystery maven’s evocation of England between the wars—and her chilling puzzles—remain as engaging as ever.

Hangman’s Holiday is the 9th book in the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries, but you may enjoy the series by reading the books in any order.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dorothy L. Sayers including rare images from the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“One of the most skillful of mystery writers.” —The New York Times “The Wimsey books are literate and delightful mysteries.” —Chicago Tribune “The very last word in sophisticated murdering.” —Saturday Review

About the Author

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) was a British playwright, scholar, and acclaimed author of mysteries, best known for her books starring the gentleman sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. While working as an advertising copywriter, Sayers began writing Whose Body? (1923), the first Wimsey mystery, followed by ten sequels and several short stories. Sayers set the Wimsey novels between the two World Wars, giving them a realistic tone by incorporating details from contemporary issues such as advertising, women’s education, and veterans’ health. Sayers also wrote theological essays and criticism during and after World War II, and in 1949 published the first volume of a translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Although she considered this translation to be her best work, it is for her elegantly constructed detective fiction that Sayers remains best remembered.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008JVJDP0
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller (July 31, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 31, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6066 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 260 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #103,793 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #875 in Traditional Detective Mysteries (Kindle Store)
- #990 in Historical Mysteries (Kindle Store)
- #1,298 in Historical Mystery

Customer Reviews:
4.2 1,219 ratings

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Dorothy L. Sayers

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Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) was a playwright, scholar, and acclaimed author of mysteries, best known for her books starring the gentleman sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.

Born in Oxford, England, Sayers, whose father was a reverend, grew up in the Bluntisham rectory and won a scholarship to Oxford University where she studied modern languages and worked at the publishing house Blackwell's, which published her first book of poetry in 1916.

Years later, working as an advertising copywriter, Sayers began work on Whose Body?, a mystery novel featuring dapper detective Lord Peter Wimsey. Over the next two decades, Sayers published ten more Wimsey novels and several short stories, crafting a character whose complexity was unusual for the mystery novels of the time.

In 1936, Sayers brought Lord Peter Wimsey to the stage in a production of Busman's Honeymoon, a story which she would publish as a novel the following year. The play was so successful that she gave up mystery writing to focus on the stage, producing a series of religious works culminating in The Man Born to Be King (1941) a radio drama about the life of Jesus.

She also wrote theological essays and criticism during and after World War II, and in 1949 published the first volume of a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy (which she considered to be her best work).

Dorothy Sayers died of a heart attack in 1957.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

1,219 global ratings

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PStJTT

Lord Peter and Montague Egg short stories

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2019

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I love Lord Peter and the short stories are a lot of fun. If you're not familiar with Lord Peter, this book probably isn't a good choice for an introduction since the stories are too short to give you an appreciation of his character, but if you have a good sense of him, then it's a charming read. To me, Mr. Egg is a taste that has to be acquired. His stories are also entertaining but have a tedious conceit of little rhyming jingles that occasionally get on my nerves. But the stories are still good examples of Dorothy L. Sayers' wonderful writing.

9 people found this helpful

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Ann Elliot

Don't Put All the Eggs in One Basket

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2023

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This Dorothy L. Sayers reprint has short stories about sleuths Montague Egg and Lord Peter Wimsey, plus two stories about murder with no detectives involved and a few opening chapters of "Murder Must Advertise."

The Wimsey tales seemed to hold up better than the Egg ones. Sayers wrote 11 short stories featuring Egg, with six of them included in this collection. She doesn't seem to have written any full length books about Egg, and I can see why. He is a traveling salesman of fine wine and spirits who bumps into crimes and solves them. A rather 2-dimensional figure, Egg solves murders that are rather like puzzles involving things like chemistry and train schedules. He spends a great deal of time quoting his beloved salesman's handbook.

The four Wimsey stories are more vivid and imaginative. They are also often highly improbable, which adds to their charm. My favorite involved not a murder, but the theft of valuable pearls at a house party. It was highly unlikely but ingenious and enjoyable.

The two independent stories, with their memorable final twists, were fun to read, but the star of the book is the opening chapters of "Murder Must Advertise." The rapid-fire conversations among the young staff, with Wimsey trying to fit in while pretending to be a copy writer, were the best part of the book, even though being cut off after a few chapters was frustrating.

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2019

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Although listed as a Lord Peter Wimsey book, only four of the twelve stories are about Peter Wimsey. Six are Montague Egg stories which I did not find as interesting as Wimsey, except the last one, probably because it was about a ginger cat!. The other two are stand alone stories. Still worth reading but a little disappointing that it wasn't all Lord Peter Wimsey.

One person found this helpful

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Veronica

Clever whodunnit short stories!

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2023

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Author Sayers entertains readers of her Lord Peter Wimsey novels with this collection of whodunnit stories. The tales follow the witty, aristocratic detective as he solves puzzling occurrences throughout the English countryside.

As an added bonus, you'll also solve mysteries with a traveling wine salesman, Montague Egg. His uncanny ability to piece together baffling who, what, when, and where clues and solving quandaries will leave you shaking your head in admiration.

I enjoyed reading this quaint, mystery collection. As a side note, I found out about this book while reading the Miss Jane Marple story, Miss Marple's Christmas by author Ruth Ware, included in the MARPLE collection--a book recommendation inside a mystery by the divine Miss Jane herself, who knew? A clever read for fans of short story whodunnits!

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Spikewriter

Some Classic Wimsey -- and a Good Egg

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2013

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Since I adore all of Dorothy L. Sayers' Wimsey stories, this is an auto-five star for me, but the new digital releases from Open Road Media deserve the rating as well. The transfers are clean, crisp and not riddled with typos -- and the cover design for the series works very well.

If you're looking to introduce someone to Lord Peter or perhaps dip your toe in yourself, this is a place to start. These are a dozen short stories -- four featuring Lord Peter, six with Montague Egg, her other detective, and two stand-alones without either detective. Don't try to solve the mystery -- Sayers doesn't necessarily play fair with her clues in this format -- but enjoy the writing style that is very much tied to its time and place, where how the characters present themselves is a major part of the fun.

9 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Short Stories

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2021

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A collection of short stories. The first of these are Lord Peter Wimsey stories and then there are a few Montague Egg stories. The last of the stories have no character that I have yet read about by this author. I enjoyed them all very much. Short stories are always an easy read and these are clever as Dorothy Sayers stories are expected to be.

4 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

I really enjoy Dorothy Sayers writing

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2015

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I really enjoy Dorothy Sayers writing, clever plots, witty dialogue and I enjoy reading the series in the order written since she is developing Lord Peter Whimsy's' character and at the end of her books he's become a much more mature, thinking, caring man as well as a clever detective.

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Patricia P Nelson

Lord Peter, Montague Egg and Others

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2014

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Dorothy Sayers is best known for Lord Peter Wimsey -- that eccentric
and brilliant nobleman whom Sayers once described as "a cross between
Fred Astaire and Bertie Wooster". As time went on, the Bertie Wooster
flippancy receded and Wimsey became more of a believable person.

This book includes 4 Lord Peter stories of the more flippant era.
They have all been widely published and republished.

Montague Egg is a less-known character, who introduces himself as
a "travelling representative of Plummet & Rose, Wines and Spirits,
Piccadilly". He often quotes maxims from the "Salesman's Handbook"
when he explains, in a suitably modest fashion, the solution of the
mystery at hand. His solutions are in the best "fair play" tradition
of the classic era of mystery with all the clues laid out where the
reader can follow them, but camouflaged so the reader often fails.

The last two stories are not detective stories. Instead they follow
a character who finds himself driven to commit murder as the only way
out of an intolerable situation. Sayers presents the character, the
situation and the final turn with all the elegance her readers expect.

A minor annoyance in the Kindle version is that the equivalent of a
table of contents lists only the beginning of each group. As a
reader, I like to know what stories are included and where each
begins.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Timothy Byrne

The book was perfect.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2022

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The book was perfect.

M Clark

A nice collection of short stories by Dorothy Sayers, not only about Lord Peter Wimsey

Reviewed in Germany on October 24, 2022

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This is a nice collection of short stories by Dorothy Sayers, each of which presents a clever and puzzling mystery that is solved. Several of the stories include Lord Peer Wimsey. Others involve the entertaining Montague Egg, a traveling salesman who gets caught up in a number of mysteries. Although I enjoyed the character of Montague Egg, the stories did not satisfy me as her novels.

Lee C.

Definitely collectable!

Reviewed in Australia on July 28, 2021

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Lord Peter Wimsey is one of my favourite old school detectives, and I love to spend time with him. Dorothy L Sayers is definitely one of my favourite authors when it comes to the classic English detective story. I will be looking out for more of these.

HARRY MELVANI

Refreshing Mystery solved with finesse.

Reviewed in Germany on November 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

Excellent Mystery. Even after a hundred years, Dorothy Sayers is superb. It is not just the mystery, but her language is a treat.

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Hangman's Holiday: A Collection of Mysteries (The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries Book 9) Kindle Edition

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Dorothy L. Sayers

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