About book Hangman's Holiday: A Collection Of Short Mysteries (1993)
This is the Avon edition, and it suffers from the common problems of Avon books: it's not very durable, it's not on acid-free paper, and there are quite a few typos. But it is a hard copy of a book that's no longer in print.I was terribly disappointed by learning what's in this book. I knew there were some Sayers anthologies that involved non-crimes, or that involved crimes that were not 'capital' crimes. I'd hoped those were the stories that were in this volume, on the principle that it was a 'hangman's holiday' in the sense that there was no work for said 'hangman'.To prevent others from being similarly disappointed, and just on general principles, I will include a table of contents: LORD PETER WIMSEY STORIESI The Image in The Mirror: Contains some interesting observations about how we interpret images of ourselves, but there was no real need to bring in an improbably ruthless character to illustrate those observations.II The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey: This one involves a cruel but non-'capital' crime--a case of a doctor practicing sexual, physical, and emotional abuse on his adopted child whom he (quite illegally) married. It also may have painful personal resonance for people with endocrine problems and their loved ones: so be warned.III The Queen's Square: Sayers was notorious for her dislike of Christmas (problems in the extended family, it looks like). This story extends this dislike to New Year's Eve. The question of lighting is important in this story, and my immediate response was severe discomfort. I couldn't have even come in the described building, if the lighting was like what's described.IV The Necklace of Pearls: This is another non-'capital' story, involving Sayers' hatred of Christmas. Personally, I think the pearl necklace is a lot sillier concept than Septimus Shale's harmless sentimentality about Christmas. But then, I don't care at all about jewelry. And even less about pearls, which are too often obtained by killing living things. MONTAGUE EGG STORIESI The Poisoned Dow '08: Montague Egg is a traveler in wines. He's no Lord Peter Wimsey, but he does have a traveling salesman's knowledge of people, and a Salesman's Handbook full of Ferengi-like aphorisms. In this case, he sets out to determine how a bottle of wine handled by his firm got poisoned--with nicotine. I'm not sure where Sayers got the idea that nicotine is the only poisonous compound in tobacco: but it is, in fact, quite poisonous: which is why it's commonly used as an herbicide.II Sleuths on The Scent: The recognition that members of certain professions open bottles differently from others is not limited to this story: I'm pretty sure there's at least one Isaac Asimov story along the same lines.III Murder in The Morning: Gas stations were beginning to pop up all over the landscape at this point. They were mostly prefab, and were often not precisely labeled. This probably led to quite a lot of confusion, as in this story.IV One Too Many: Commercial travelers and corporate nabobs, apparently, have one thing in common: They've heard of a way to diddle the ticket collectors on trains.V Murder at Pentecost: Set at Oxford, where there are, it appears, one or two of that sort of eccentric who confess to every crime that comes down the pike.VI Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz: Sayers' predisposition to parade her scholarship is here, as often, biblical, and refers to a prophecy by Isaiah. Why the little girl named her cat that...maybe she learned it in Sunday School? This story is so cruel toward cats in so many ways that ailurophobes and ailurophiles alike would be well advised to avoid it. OTHER STORIESI The Man Who Knew How: A man prone to practicing a particular cruel practical joke on strangers chooses the wrong victim.II The Fountain Plays: Sayers had a particular disgust for blackmailers, whom she considered worse than murderers (or so she repeatedly said). There were fairly stringent laws against blackmail at the time, apparently, but how could they really be enforced? In order to press charges against a blackmailer, after all, the victim would have to admit to having done something criminal. This story is frankly not very interesting. Once you've picked up on the basic fact that fountains that recycle their water were already in use by the time of the story, there's really not much more to the story.
Another enjoyable short story collection from Sayers. Unlike Lord Peter Views the Body, this collection has some stories focused on Sayers' other detective, Montgomery Egg, as well as some random short stories featuring neither of these sleuths. (The Image in the Mirror, The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey, The Queen's Square and The Necklace of Pearls are all L.P.W. mysteries; The Poisoned Dow '08, Sleuths on the Scent, Murder in the Morning, One Too Many, Murder at Pentecost and Maher-shalal-hashbaz are all M.E. stories; with The Man Who Knew How and The Fountain Plays being the stand alone mysteries.) As mysteries, all of these kept me guessing to a certain extent, but were in general less light-hearted than par for Sayers. Most, particularly the one offs, more closely resembled an Agatha Christie story with her element of darkness than Sayers generally does. Of course, they also have the brevity of being short stories playing against them as all of them end with the solving of the crime and no other wrap up of characters or story. However, if you want a taste of Sayers style without delving into a book-long mystery (A pity, as that is what she does best!), I would suggest Lord Peter Views the Body as a better representative of her usual writing. Content Notes: Usual time period language, probably PG rated at worst, think Bertie Wooster and friends level. No overt sensuality issues, one man accuses another of being overly fond of his wife; a man mentions running into a woman at a hotel who seems to be "that" kind of "forward" woman, and a couple are mentioned as living together without being married, but that is as detailed as it gets. The violence is pretty much all after the fact, with the murders being played out in the sleuths' minds to solve the case, but without gory detail and with the conditions of the bodies mostly not dwelt on other than being dead by some particular method (beaten, straggled, etc.).
Do You like book Hangman's Holiday: A Collection Of Short Mysteries (1993)?
Extremely short and wildly uneven. Interesting to see how her non-Wimsey stories compare. Very interesting to see her dip a toe into the early 20th century horror genre. She captures ghastly almost too well. Also, there's an interesting bit of meta on "one of those mystery novels" that rips it apart on exactly the lines of what bugged me about Have His Carcase. Makes me suspect DLS was srsly blocked in this era and sending any damned thing to the publisher while struggling to put another good novel together.
—sage
Meh. A collection of Sayers' short stories. Some feature Lord Peter, but most have working-class sleuth Montague Egg solving mysteries and spouting adages from the salesman's handbook. The author obviously had her next book -set in an advertising agency- on the brain as she was penning this. I find these stories to be small gems of ideas dressed up as short fiction. It feels as though Sayers came up with an ending and then wrote her way back to the beginning of many of these miniature mysteries. There's a Christmas theft feature (The Necklace of Pearls), two poisonings, several murders, cats, fancy-dress parties, trains and some blackmail in the mix. Solutions are simple and easily seen from afar. One that will puzzle anyone who doesn't have a solid grasp on the endocrine system is “The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey”. Don't get excited! This does NOT feature Harriet Vane - Lord Peter is helping a lady in distress. Wedding bells do not ring (no need to fear bigamy).An okay collection of puzzles, suitable for train travel and the like. Not challenging, nothing too convoluted, light reading with some spooky bits.
—Moira Fogarty
This is a collection of short stories. The first several are Wimsey mysteries, and they will be familiar to anyone who has read the complete collection of Wimsey mysteries. The second collection are Montague Egg stories, about a traveling salesman who sees when things are out of place, and quotes a Salesman's handbook. (I always picture Montague Egg as a slightly older, balding man, but I'm always wrong because he is a younger, vigorous man with blond hair.) There are also two unconnected mysteries.The book is worth reading for the Montague Egg mysteries and the others, because they are quite decent, clever little mysteries. Sadly, Sayers doesn't have time to develop the ideas as fully as a novel, but the stories are still very much worth your while.
—Kate
