A mystery, by Dorothy L. Sayers, starring her most famous detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, a shell-shocked WWI officer turned detective. Whilst he often portrays himself as a buffoon (and it is all too often this aspect only that comes out in screen adaptations) Wimsey is anything but foolish -- he has a razor sharp intellect, keen insight, and most surprisingly for a fictional detective, an undercurrent of sympathy for the criminals he catches. This causes him to suffer pangs of conscience, (and a recurrence of his wartime nightmares) when they are executed. Wimsey is assisted by his valet, Bunter -- a very capable man, who was his sergeant during the war, and who, along with his household duties, is responsible for the photographic and forensic side of investigations.
The Nine Tailors is generally held to be Sayers most accomplished book. As with all the Wimsey stories it is erudite, and well researched -- the central theme of the story is campanology, and the title is based around the old english saying nine tailors make a man. Wimsey's car breaks down in a remote village, he becomes involved with the bellringers at the local church, and later is called back to investigate a murder there.
The murder is intricately plotted, the solution surprising, and, as is Sayers' wont, the characterisation is far more complex than a run-of-the-mill detective novel.
Readers should be aware that Wimsey, like his author, is highly educated and no allowances are made in this, or any other Wimsey book, for a lower academic level amongst the readership -- French and Latin quotes will be tossed around, and they won't be translated -- even so, the book is very interesting, challenging, and a lot of fun too. | 
