The Nine Tailors cover art

The Nine Tailors

Lord Peter Wimsey, Book 11

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The Nine Tailors

By: Dorothy L. Sayers
Narrated by: Jane McDowell
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About this listen

The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. The 11th book featuring Lord Peter, set in a country church, is often named as the best detective story ever written.

When his sexton finds a corpse in the wrong grave, the rector of Fenchurch St Paul asks Lord Peter Wimsey to find out who the dead man was and how he came to be there.

The lore of bell ringing and a brilliantly evoked village in the remote fens of East Anglia are the unforgettable background to a story of an old unsolved crime and its violent unravelling 20 years later.

©1934 The Trustees of anthony Fleming (deceased) (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton Crime Fiction Detective Mystery Traditional Detectives Fiction Crime

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Critic reviews

"I admire her novels...she has great fertility of invention, ingenuity and a wonderful eye for detail." (Ruth Rendell)
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The book was OK knowing the area the book was set in I would struggle to identify it. The thing that annoyed me was the narrator, the accents were more West Country or Norfolk. When she used real town names she pronounced them wrong. Little things maybe but it annoyed me. If you are going to narrate a book look into the area first.

Story took ages to get going to many muddled up characters.

Some events did not make sense.

I actually believe one of the characters the author based on herself.

The author being the real life daughter of the vicar of the few church where this was set, certainly knew the church and the area.

I was glad i finished it, i suspect in this case reading the physical book would be better

the narrator let's it down

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The book was recommended and listened to with expectations that were largely unmet. A gentle story which is probably of more interest to bellringers but detracted from the story for this non follower of bells

Whimsical as expected

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I keep hoping the next book she narrates will be better. Maybe she will have read the reviews and changed her style? But no, still the same awkward cadences, odd pauses and bizarre emphasis. However, this does not detract too much from this wonderfully atmospheric mystery of Sayers'. Several plot twists and blind alleys make you totally confused before the final revelation. Very enjoyable.

Good story, but as usual, McDowell disappoints

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Out of all Dorothy L Sayers mystery’s this without doubt the best. A real page turner with a brilliant ending. Beautifully read .

Mood ,atmospheric landscape, believable characters

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this is my favourite Dorothy l Sayers book. they reviews which talk about the woeful narration are wrong. the narration was very good and the story puts Sayers right at the top of crime fiction.

Great Story...great narration

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it was fascinating to hear a story set in the area in which I live, but separated by 90 years.

A Fenland adventure

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This story has made it into my all-time top books, and that is despite the most awful narrator! It's intriguing, funny, and really quite scary and I can only imagine how it would sound when narrated by someone who doesn't take pauses in the most random parts of sentences.

Loved the story, hated the narrator!

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This book didn't need to be as long as it is. In fact an awful lot of needless, boring, unintelligible information about bell ringing could have been cut. That would have made the story move along without the really annoying quotes etc at the beginning of every chapter. Perhaps all the names of the bells, the bell ringers, their tone, order, sound etc would be interesting to bell ringers, but to us mere mortals it is like listening to parts of the book in a foreign language.
Not the "best story ever" that I was expecting or that was advertised.

Didn't need to be so long

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Probably the best murder mystery ever written, a superb performance , DLS at her absolute best.

An absolute joy

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I first read this book in my teens and am now in my late 70s. I own Ian Carmichael’s unabridged recording on cassette tapes, which are no longer reliable, so Jane McDowell had a hard act to follow. Once I became accustomed to a female narrator, (which actually make sense as the voice of the author), I was very happy with the performance. She brought the characters to life very well, I thought.

An old friend

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