The Documents in the Case is a 1930 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace. It is the only one of Sayers' twelve major crime novels not to feature Lord Peter Wimsey, her most famous detective character.
I love, love, love this book. It was a complete surprise, and not a novel I ever would have picked up on my own - it was bought for me as a teenager (that would be approximately two decades ago!) and something I put aside for years because at the time I'd never heard of Sayers. I read the back and thought "well *that* sounds dull!" And then one day I picked it up, read a few pages... and finished it the same day! Oh, the gift that books like that are to a reader! I could not now say how many times I've read the book, and I delight in it each time. I love the characters, and this was my first experience with an epistolary novel - and I love that style! The story behind it all was good as well, interesting, and though the murder is revealed in a slower, somewhat less dramatic fashion than traditional murder mysteries, I was not disappointed - rather I admired the way it was done, in a cold, clinical way, quite the opposite of the usual "dramatic last moment reveal in a small group full of people which naturally includes the murderer." I'm rather disappointed that Sayers didn't write more like this, because I have found that I cannot stand her usual detective, Wimsey.
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Tarma
I love, love, love this book. It was a complete surprise, and not a novel I ever would have picked up on my own - it was bought for me as a teenager (that would be approximately two decades ago!) and something I put aside for years because at the time I'd never heard of Sayers. I read the back and thought "well *that* sounds dull!" And then one day I picked it up, read a few pages... and finished it the same day! Oh, the gift that books like that are to a reader! I could not now say how many times I've read the book, and I delight in it each time. I love the characters, and this was my first experience with an epistolary novel - and I love that style! The story behind it all was good as well, interesting, and though the murder is revealed in a slower, somewhat less dramatic fashion than traditional murder mysteries, I was not disappointed - rather I admired the way it was done, in a cold, clinical way, quite the opposite of the usual "dramatic last moment reveal in a small group full of people which naturally includes the murderer." I'm rather disappointed that Sayers didn't write more like this, because I have found that I cannot stand her usual detective, Wimsey.
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