Les Pièces du dossier

Tarma

I love, love, love this book. It was a complete surprise, and not a novel I ever would have picked up on my own - it was bought for me as a teenager (that would be approximately two decades ago!) and something I put aside for years because at the time I'd never heard of Sayers. I read the back and thought "well *that* sounds dull!" And then one day I picked it up, read a few pages... and finished it the same day! Oh, the gift that books like that are to a reader! I could not now say how many times I've read the book, and I delight in it each time. I love the characters, and this was my first experience with an epistolary novel - and I love that style! The story behind it all was good as well, interesting, and though the murder is revealed in a slower, somewhat less dramatic fashion than traditional murder mysteries, I was not disappointed - rather I admired the way it was done, in a cold, clinical way, quite the opposite of the usual "dramatic last moment reveal in a small group full of people which naturally includes the murderer." I'm rather disappointed that Sayers didn't write more like this, because I have found that I cannot stand her usual detective, Wimsey.