12 Reasons the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries Should be on Your 2017 Reading List

Cover to The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers. Image via Open Road Media, digital publishers of this edition.

8. A Golden Age Introduction

 I’ve pointedly namechecked Agatha Christie a few times throughout this list already, and, unsurprisingly, it was very much on purpose. (This is, after all, a list discussing detection fiction. Everything is on purpose. Yes, everything.)

You might be a Christie enthusiast, or you might have tried some of her novels and always failed to find them engaging. I have a small confession to make myself: I’d rather watch the BBC’s most recent adaptation of And Then There Were None than re-read it. Look, I have a weakness for Aidan Turner, but I also just enjoy the way it was shot and adapted in general. I know it’s a great novel! It just does not work for me.

What I’m trying to say here is that you might think you really hate 1920’s detection fiction when you just don’t respond to someone like Christie’s writing style. Considering the fact that just two things have outsold her — the Bible and Shakespeare — it’s not really a bad thing to consider.

Sayers shares some qualities in the general shape of her mysteries, but at the same time, she also has some different qualities which I’m about to highlight and have already started highlighting. If you’d like to start figuring out Golden Age works but don’t want to try Christie for the twelfth time, try Sayers instead. You might just find yourself surprised.