Hangman's Holiday

By Dorothy L. Sayers

A collection of short stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg.
 
In this collection the two amateur detectives encounter cases covering everything from elopement to evil twins.
  
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• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9780771060458

Dorothy L. Sayers

Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts.

Reviews for Hangman's Holiday

[abbottthomas · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A collection of short stories about Lord Peter, Monty Egg et al. Readable (3-stars) but a bit insubstantial.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

S A series of short stories, featuring Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg. The Wimsey stories are good enough. Some of them you can see where it is going - the mirrir twin, for example, i was waiting for the twin to appear as soon as the chap said his heart was on the wrong side - I was at school with a set of mirror twins. Mr Egg I found slight more annoying. his little mottoes were a bit trite, although his mysteries were engaging enough. A completist, rather than an introductory book, I think.

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This collection is mostly Montague Egg stories, which, though competent, lack the spirit of Peter Wimsey. There are four Wimsey stories -- The Image in the Mirror, based on a very odd physiological (and just possibly psychic) link, otherwise notable for the realistic lower-class life of the main character, The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey, which I regard as a variant on Bentley's Clever Cockatoo, with science being used to control a wife, but with a marvelous appearance of Peter Wimsey as a sorcerer chanting Homeric Greek, , The Queen's Square, which I rather dislike as there seems to be a notion that the villain deserves to get off, bt it is a clever point about colors under different lights.

[kaethe_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A quick, satisfying read, from the time when all novelists also wrote stories. A few star Wimsey, a couple star Montague Egg, commercial traveler, and a few stand alone, including one of the best. Just the thing for those who aren't sure if they'll enjoy Sayers, or for readers who need a brief diversion.

Personal copy.

[tadad_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A collection of short stories, some about Lord Peter.

[jim53_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sayers gives us a dozen short mysteries: four featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, six featuring effervescent salesman Montague Egg, and two others. The Wimsey stories were the best for me, because I was familiar with Lord Peter from several novels and could fill in many details about his character. The stories are fun excursions into the sorts of elaborate arrangements Lord Peter can make to solve a crime. I have never seen Monty Egg in a novel, or heard of one that features him. He is another fun character, endlessly quoting rhyming couplets from a salesman's handbook, and applying his arcane knowledge to solve crimes that he happens to trip over. The two other stories are unremarkable.A mystery of such brevity is of necessity a very different creature from a book-length puzzle. We don't see a lot of detective work, or lengthy puzzling over clues; there just isn't room. The stories are primarily a matter of seeing a detective (though not a pro in these cases) presented with a troublesome case and solving it through an ingenious insight. These were enjoyable because of the characters and Sayers's suitably breezy style.

[phoebesmum · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Four Peter Wimsey stories, including the frankly barking 'The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey' in which Wimsey turns up in Basque country pretending to be a magician, six Montague Egg stories ('Maher-shalal-hashbaz' is not recommended for cat lovers; and, again, who nowadays would consider that as a name for a cat?), and two standalones. Not as good as the Wimsey novels, but a decent, quick read.

[themulhern · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Half the detective stories are Lord Peter half are Montague Egg, the traveling salesman. I don't think you could enjoy even the Lord Peter stories without having read at least one Lord Peter novel. Montague Egg is barely a character, and never got a novel, so his stories are interesting only as period pieces. Some Lord Peter short stories are actually rather enjoyable; but those in this collection, with the exception of "The Incredible Elopement..." are middling. The two short stories at the end are just by-the-numbers exercises in dramatic irony.

[wealhtheowwylfing · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A collection of detective stories, not all of which relate to Wimsey. A quick read. There are some introspective moments, but they never weigh down the pared-down plots. I think my favorite was ?The Poisoned Dow ?08,? the first Montague Egg mystery and one that showcases Sayer?s skill with class and manners. Several of the stories have a particularly gothic and grim feel, which I admit I did not appreciate, particularly ?The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey?

[thornton37814 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This collection featured Lord Peter Wimsey, Montague "Monty" Egg, and a couple of miscellaneous stories written by Sayers. The Lord Peter stories were the longer ones, but the Montague Egg stories, while predictable, were enjoyable. I enjoyed the two miscellaneous stories at the end. A brief biography of Sayers plus photos appears after a preview of the next book in the Lord Peter series.

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

2020 reread was via audiobook narrated by Ian Carmichael. This collection of short stories contains:Lord Peter Wimsey stories:"The Image in the Mirror""The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey""The Queen's Square""The Necklace of Pearls"Montague Egg stories:"The Poisoned Dow '08""Sleuths on the Scent""Murder in the Morning""One Too Many""Murder at Pentecost""Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz"Other stories:"The Man Who Knew How""The Fountain Plays"As much as I enjoyed the Lord Peter stories, in this reread I found that the Montague Egg stories appealed to me most. Good mysteries plus the humor of Egg's aphorisms :)

[phyllis2779 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I feel sure that I've read some of these short stories before. Some of them are quite good but others seem to have very little substance. book says Peter Wimsey short stories but actually there only a few Wimsey ones, then some Montague Egg, and then two not connected to any specific detective. I was rather disappointed. The stories felt like early work of Sayers, and not up to the quality of the Wimsey novels.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hangman’s Holiday by Dorothy Sayers is a book of short stories in which both Lord Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg make their appearance. Lord Peter needed no introduction as he has been a favorite of mine for some time, his quick wit and keen eye have aided the police in their investigations many times. While the newly introduced and wonderfully named Montague Egg is a free-spirited, travelling wine salesman with the unfortunate habit of stumbling over murder scenes. The stories are all appropriately puzzling with four featuring Lord Peter, six with Montague Egg and two stand-alone mysteries. While I am not usually a huge fan of short stories these were enjoyable due to the author’s clever plots and use of witty dialogue.

[janesteen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Where I got the book: audiobook on Audible. One from the vaults, as I bought it back in 2002 (can I just stop for a minute and praise Audible for keeping my library intact even though I suspended my subscription for several years?)The fact that this is a pretty old audiobook really shows in the quality, and makes me realize just how much audiobooks have progressed since I started listening to them. My main complaint about this one was the changes in sound quality every so often, and narrator Nadia May (who’s well suited to reading Golden Age detective stories) could have done with a better mic to take the brittle edge off her voice—although I suppose it was quite suitable that she sounded as if she were speaking into a mic from the 1930s.The stories themselves are pretty entertaining. There are, I think, four Lord Peter Wimsey stories, several Montague Egg stories and about three or so other stories at the end. Lacking the character development that forms such an attractive (and substantial) part of Sayers’ novels, what you’re left with is the cleverness—nicely worked out little detective puzzles in the Sherlock Holmes style. Some of the resolutions can be guessed early on, some not.You can read this book on two levels: one is for mere entertainment, and one is for the Sayers enthusiast who wants to get a better understanding of her development as a writer. The stories work pretty well for either type of reader.

[riverwillow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A collection of short stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Montagu Egg. They're quite a fun read, even if some of the stories are slighty surreal and they don’t bring anything new to the Wimsey story.

[readingwithtea · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This collection of 12 short stories, predominantly featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg, are a gentle introduction to Ms. Sayers’ writing. Each is neatly self-contained and the answer revealed in a gentlemanly flourish without arrogance (such as that of M. Poirot).I’ve not read any Sayers before, but after Alex was raving about a Wimsey mystery, this little collection was just right. The short stories are a bit shorter (12 in 256 pages) than the set of Christie short stories I reviewed, and that may be why I enjoyed them more; the writing had to be tighter.Wimsey and Egg are both excellent detective characters with their own foibles and idiosyncrasies without being isolating or offputting. I’m a particular fan of Egg’s little rhymes from The Salesman’s Handbook.The stories did occasionally tend to the darker side which was less to my taste, but others may prefer it as a little less cozy and cloying than many of this style.A great collection and I will be looking out for more.