Book Description

Uncover the profound subtext lurking just below the surface of some of the greatest murder mysteries of all time. For almost a century, a series of labyrinthine murder mysteries have kept fans turning pages hungrily as Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane discover whodunit, again and again. Detective novel enthusiasts may not know that for almost as many years, Christian thinkers have appreciated the same Dorothy L. Sayers for her spiritual insight as an essayist, playwright, and preeminent translator of Dante's Divine Comedy. Now, for the first time, an anthology brings together the best of both worlds. The selections uncover the gospel themes woven throughout Sayers's popular fiction as well as her religious plays, correspondence, talks, and essays. Clues dropped throughout her detective stories reveal a religious sensibility that was subtle but neither accidental nor peripheral. Those who know Sayers from her philosophical writings may wonder how she could also write popular genre fiction. Sayers, like her friend G. K. Chesterton, found murder mysteries a vehicle to explore the choices characters make between good and evil - those decisions that separate us from, or draw us closer to, God. Along with C. S. Lewis and the other Inklings, with whom she maintained a lively correspondence, Sayers used her popular fiction to probe deeper questions. She addressed not only matters of guilt and innocence, sin and redemption, but also the cost of war, the role of the conscience, and the place of women in society. None of these themes proved any hindrance to spinning a captivating yarn. Her murder mysteries are more reminiscent of Jane Austen than Arthur Conan Doyle, with all the tense interpersonal exploration of the modern novel.