A QUEEN OF CRIME AND CHARACTERISATION
SAYERS, Dorothy L. In the Teeth of the Evidence and Other Stories. London: Victor Gollancz. 1939.
8vo. Original black cloth lettered in red; pp. 286; slight spotting to preliminaries, dust wrapper a bit toned at the spine and a slight chipping to extremities, otherwise very good.
First edition in scarce dust wrapper. Rare in this condition.
Dorothy L. Sayers was one of the 'Queens of Crime' of the 1920s and 1930s Golden Age of Detective Fiction, alongside her friend Agatha Christie. Although her plots are less intricate than those of Christie, her scenarios are unsettling and her characterisations are rounded. Lord Peter Wimsey, the gentleman bibliophile, Daimler collector and sleuth, has, in particular, become one of the most enduring characters of crime literature, partly due to the romantic relationship between himself and Harriet Vane, a crime novelist and scholar based lightly upon Sayers herself.
In the Teeth of the Evidence contains seventeen murder stories. Two, including the title story the punning name of which refers to the death of a dentist, feature Lord Peter Wimsey. Five others involve Montague Egg, a proverb-quoting wine salesman who happens to solve the murders that occur around him rather than seeking out cases. His stories, lacking the emotional context of the Wimsey tales, are compact and highly satisfying puzzles, as are the remaining murder mysteries in the book.
SKU: 2121442