Hangman's Holiday
I knew I'd read the word bromide somewhere, and still I couldn't get it right in a silly intelligence test that tests English, or more accurately, Latinate English vocabulary. But how can this bit of trivia be relevant to a book notice of Hangman's Holiday? Simple -- this is the book where I read the word. Second story, page 41.
- Author: Dorothy L. Sayers
- Publisher: New English Library
- Published: 1974 (1933)
- Pages: 188
Dorothy L. Sayers is, of course, the second-most famous author of mystery novels and short stories: Agatha Christie is the most famous of the breed. But DLS' books are often deeper than Christie's, and very often more literate, too. This means that DLS' novels are not for everyone; she expects you to be able to read enough French to know the difference between a masculine and a femine article (in the story 'The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question' in Lord Peter Views the Body). And, apparently, scatters words like bromide through her texts. I, for one, am glad of that: most of my English vocubulary seems to originate from her books.
What of the collection under advisement? DLS' short stories always bordered a bit on the fantastic, not to say on the improbable. While most novels fit neatly into a Lord Peter Wimsey timeline, stories like 'The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey' don't seem to fit. That, however, has very little to do with the quality of the stories on their own, and Hangman's Holiday contains several of my favourite stories, such as 'The Image in the Mirror' or, again, 'The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey'.
Both 'The Queen's Square' and 'The Necklace of Pearls' are Christmas stories, and I've never been very excited by them. That's it for the Lord Peter stories; but then we get to the Montague Egg stories. I must confess a weakness for this commercial traveller in wines and spirits. He is cheerful and bright, and, as it were, always on the spot.
We have 'The Poisoned Dow '08', 'Sleuths on the Scent', 'Murder in the Morning', 'One too many', 'Murder at Pentecost' and 'Maher-shahal-hashbaz' with Montague Egg here. Especially 'The Poisoned Dow '08' is a favourite, with its very clever murder weapon and finely drawn character, even of the victim.
The final two stories in the collection are 'The Man Who Knew How' and 'The Fountain Plays'. These are very much also-rans, keeping an uneasy middle ground between mystery and horror. I like horror, sometimes, some kinds, but I'm not really fond of these stories.
It's hard to be fresh about the stories in this collection: not only have they been around for seven decades, I first read them about ten years ago, and I guess there hasn't been a year since that I didn't re-read them. I will probably re-read them again, and again until the paperback falls apart. And then I'll buy a new copy. But I will generally stop two stories before the end of the book.