Hangman's Holiday

 

By Dorothy L. Sayers

A collection of mystery stories by the author of the Lord Peter Wimsey detective series. Four of the stories feature Lord Peter. Six stories feature Montague Egg, who is just a guy who happens to stumble across murders while working as a traveling salesman. And two other stories complete the collection:

• The Image in the Mirror: Peter helps a confused man who is worried he is going insane.
• The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey: Peter helps a woman escape her abusive spouse.
• The Queen's Square: A woman is murdered at a house party where Peter is a guest.
• The Necklace of Pearls: A woman's necklace is stolen at a house party where Peter is a guest.
• The Poisoned DOW '08: One of Montague Egg's customers is poisoned by a bottle of wine that Egg sold him.
• Sleuths on the Scent: A man is killed in the area and his killer is hiding among a group of men at a bar among whom is Egg.
• Murder in the Morning: A woman mistakenly alibis a murderer. Egg comes along as a witness.
• One Too Many: A swindler disappears while on a train that Egg is also traveling on.
• Murder at Pentecost: a college professor whom Egg hoped to sell some wine to is killed the morning Egg stops by the college to see him.
• Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz: A teenage girl's cat is rescued by Egg and he becomes interested in her plans for the cat, whose name is the title of the story. 
• The Man Who Knew How: A non-Egg, non-Peter story in which a man's little joke backfires on him.
• The Fountain Plays: A non-Egg, non-Peter story about a man who seems to have a good life but who has a secret that could ruin everything.

I didn't know who Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz was so Googled it. According to Bible Wiki, Maher Shalal Hash Baz was a son of Isiah. His name was a prophecy given by god, meaning "In making speed to the spoil he hastens the prey." This was a warning to Syria and Israel that they would be invaded by Assyria.  In the Egg story, the girl explains her cat's name because he makes haste to the spoil. 

These stories are Ok. Sometimes a bit to far back in time and a bit too British for an ignorant non-British reader to figure out what they are talking about. Like mufti. I had to look that up when a character in one of the Egg stories is described as being in mufti. Turns out it means some one who is normally seen wearing a uniform who is instead wearing ordinary clothes, in this case a policeman.  

I was also confused in the Egg story about clocks. Apparently they used things that looked like clocks but actually weren't clocks that were used to show "lighting up time." Looked that up on Google too. According to Wikipedia, "In the United Kingdom, lighting up time is a legally enforced period from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise during which all motor vehicles on unlit public roads (except if parked) must use their headlights." 

And again in the story where Egg was on the same train as the swindler, I really didn't understand the mechanics of how he pulled off his disappearance. All that talk about tickets and stops and such just didn't connect with me. I have no experience of train travel. Especially not train travel in Britain a hundred or more years ago. 

I felt quite lost at times which limited my enjoyment of the stories somewhat.