On New Year’s Eve, Lord Peter Wimsey is driving through the East Anglia countryside, when a flat tire causes him to stop in a local village. The village bell ringers are about to perform, and Wimsey fills in for one of the ringers who can come down with the flu. The nine tailors of the title are the nine bells that are rung upon someone’s death; you can tell that Sayers did her research on bell ringing for this book, since most of the beginning of the novel focuses on campanology.When a local man dies several months later, and his grave is dug, it’s discovered that there’s already a dead body in that grave—the body of an unknown man who was seen tramping about the countryside in January by Lord Peter himself. Who is the strange man?
It’s a mystery that stumps even Lord Peter, and it’s pretty ingenious—read it and see for yourself. Dorothy Sayers’s novels are such a treat because she really knew how to pull a mystery together—she won’t kill off one of her characters simply because she can. There’s a backstory to everything, and Sayers leaves no stone unturned in this book. The Nine Tailors is as perfect a murder mystery as you’re going to get.
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On another note, I noticed that you've got an out-of-date link for me on your blogroll. Would you mind changing shereadsbooks.wordpress.com to shereadsbooks.org? I just recently started blogging at my own domain -- now I'm trying to get the word out for such updates. Thanks!