Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Five Red Herrings (1931)

The Five Red Herrings. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1931. HarperCollins. 325 pages.

If one lives in Galloway, one either fishes or paints. "Either" is perhaps misleading, for most of the painters are fishers also in their spare time. To be neither of these things is considered odd and almost eccentric.

I enjoyed rereading The Five Red Herrings. This one is not a particular favorite of mine. But it is always fun to spend time with Lord Peter and Bunter! In this mystery, Lord Peter is visiting a small community of artists in Scotland. One of the most obnoxious artists gets murdered within the opening chapters. There are plenty of suspects, plenty of motives, plenty of opportunities. Hardly anyone in this community has a good, believable alibis. It seems like most of the suspects are keeping back things from the police. Can Lord Peter solve the crime? If anyone can do it, he can. For it was his detective instincts which showed this death was murder and not an accident. He KNOWS that there is a huge clue to solving the crime, a clue that the police don't place the same importance on. Which is why Lord Peter may just be one of the best!

Favorite quotes:
I was born looking foolish and every day in every way I am getting foolisher and foolisher. (52)
One of these days I shall write a book in which two men are seen to walk down a cul-de-sac, and there is a shot and one man is found murdered and the other runs away with a gun in his hand, and after twenty chapters stinking with red herrings, it turns out that the man with the gun did it after all. (114)
The essence of detection is secrecy. It has no business to be spectacular. But you can watch me if you like. (218)

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

1 comment:

ramalan said...

the story of a complicated but interesting.