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Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
Mum thought I should read this as soon as she realised I was doing Crime Fiction. I can see why -- Lord Peter Wimsey is an interesting sort of character to choose as the centre of a crime/mystery novel, with his attitude towards what he's doing, and his backstory. It's interesting how like Holmes and Poirot he comes off at first, with his know-it-all sort of air, and then you learn more about him and begin to care more about him as a character and you find that, really, he's quite a distinct character. I want to read more of Sayers' series about him more for the sake of his character than for the sake of the crime/mystery fiction aspect. In fact, I'm interested in finding out more about most of the characters that would be likely to recur: Bunter, Wimsey's mother, Parker...
Don't get me wrong, though -- the mystery aspect is good. It isn't impossible to figure it out yourself, but it certainly keeps you guessing. The writing is good, too, although in the dialogue I sometimes thought it was getting rather off the point. There was a lot of -- don't you know -- something like this, I think -- prone to it in my own writing at times -- now realise how awfully -- yes, don't you -- it's rather like nobody ever quite finishes -- although I do think a part of that is characterisation -- and of course in reality, people do --
Alright, alright, I shall stop that now. Anyway, enjoyed this one, and while I'm not in a massive hurry to get the rest, I'm certainly planning to at some point.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I think I liked these short stories better than I liked the novels -- or novellas, or whatever you wish to call A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. I think that was partially because they suffer less from what I think is a pretty off-putting structural problem with the longer stories, and instead keep things simpler. It's also nice that they represent a wider range of cases, with some that aren't specifically crimes/don't involve death, and with Irene Adler there to put Holmes in his place -- just a little.
The stories are also amazingly easy to read. I've read modern work which is less accessible and engaging.
Mum thought I should read this as soon as she realised I was doing Crime Fiction. I can see why -- Lord Peter Wimsey is an interesting sort of character to choose as the centre of a crime/mystery novel, with his attitude towards what he's doing, and his backstory. It's interesting how like Holmes and Poirot he comes off at first, with his know-it-all sort of air, and then you learn more about him and begin to care more about him as a character and you find that, really, he's quite a distinct character. I want to read more of Sayers' series about him more for the sake of his character than for the sake of the crime/mystery fiction aspect. In fact, I'm interested in finding out more about most of the characters that would be likely to recur: Bunter, Wimsey's mother, Parker...
Don't get me wrong, though -- the mystery aspect is good. It isn't impossible to figure it out yourself, but it certainly keeps you guessing. The writing is good, too, although in the dialogue I sometimes thought it was getting rather off the point. There was a lot of -- don't you know -- something like this, I think -- prone to it in my own writing at times -- now realise how awfully -- yes, don't you -- it's rather like nobody ever quite finishes -- although I do think a part of that is characterisation -- and of course in reality, people do --
Alright, alright, I shall stop that now. Anyway, enjoyed this one, and while I'm not in a massive hurry to get the rest, I'm certainly planning to at some point.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I think I liked these short stories better than I liked the novels -- or novellas, or whatever you wish to call A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. I think that was partially because they suffer less from what I think is a pretty off-putting structural problem with the longer stories, and instead keep things simpler. It's also nice that they represent a wider range of cases, with some that aren't specifically crimes/don't involve death, and with Irene Adler there to put Holmes in his place -- just a little.
The stories are also amazingly easy to read. I've read modern work which is less accessible and engaging.
