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  • The Nine Tailors

  • Lord Peter Wimsey, Book 11
  • By: Dorothy L. Sayers
  • Narrated by: Jane McDowell
  • Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (150 ratings)
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The Nine Tailors cover art

The Nine Tailors

By: Dorothy L. Sayers
Narrated by: Jane McDowell
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Summary

The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. The 11th book featuring Lord Peter, set in a country church, is often named as the best detective story ever written.

When his sexton finds a corpse in the wrong grave, the rector of Fenchurch St Paul asks Lord Peter Wimsey to find out who the dead man was and how he came to be there.

The lore of bell ringing and a brilliantly evoked village in the remote fens of East Anglia are the unforgettable background to a story of an old unsolved crime and its violent unravelling 20 years later.

©1934 The Trustees of anthony Fleming (deceased) (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton

Critic reviews

"I admire her novels...she has great fertility of invention, ingenuity and a wonderful eye for detail." (Ruth Rendell)

What listeners say about The Nine Tailors

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A good book spoiled by bad narration.

The Nine Tailors is one of my favourite Lord Peter Wimsey books and I looked forward to listening to it as an audiobook. Dorothy L Sayers was an excellent author but unfortunately the choice of narrator has let this book down very badly. She is incapable of breathing life into the characters or even reading a sentence intelligently and accurately. It made listening to the book very frustrating and disappointing experience. There are so many excellent narrators to choose from and I am mystified by the choice of Jane McDowell to narrate this series of books. I will not buy anything else if she is the narrator.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good story, but as usual, McDowell disappoints

I keep hoping the next book she narrates will be better. Maybe she will have read the reviews and changed her style? But no, still the same awkward cadences, odd pauses and bizarre emphasis. However, this does not detract too much from this wonderfully atmospheric mystery of Sayers'. Several plot twists and blind alleys make you totally confused before the final revelation. Very enjoyable.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

idiotic choics of performer

completely idiotic to give books supposed to be spoken by Lord Peter Wimsey to a woman to perform -- and an absolotely appalling reader at that.
Utterly grotesque! Utter waste of money.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

The reading 📚 is terrible

I love Dorothy L Sayers detective stories. For me they are so much better than Agatha Christie. Unfortunately the reader here is ponderous, boring and can't do accents to save her life. There is no variation in tone either. Whoever selected Ms McDowell for this job needs sacking.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Appalling Performance

Have read this before and *loved* it. Was delighted to fine it here, as love the Lord Peter Whimsey mysteries. Made it part way though chapter one before having to abandon it as Jane McDowell provides the most irritating, bizarre and imbecilic reading I’ve ever had the misfortune to hear. Completely ghastly; entirely ruined a wonderful book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Shockingly bad reading

This is one of my favourite Doroithy L Sayers books and I was really looking forward to hearing it read. Sadly, Jane McDowell's dreadful "Upper Class", "Norfolk" and "French" accents and occasional appalling misunderstanding of words make the story drag and lose it's magic. I found it so annoying I went back to the original text with joy. I won't be buying any of the other Sayers Audible books read by her.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

the narrator let's it down

The book was OK knowing the area the book was set in I would struggle to identify it. The thing that annoyed me was the narrator, the accents were more West Country or Norfolk. When she used real town names she pronounced them wrong. Little things maybe but it annoyed me. If you are going to narrate a book look into the area first.

Story took ages to get going to many muddled up characters.

Some events did not make sense.

I actually believe one of the characters the author based on herself.

The author being the real life daughter of the vicar of the few church where this was set, certainly knew the church and the area.

I was glad i finished it, i suspect in this case reading the physical book would be better

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration

J. McDowell's reading technique is awful. Every word read on the same flat plane, senseless pauses where no comma can possibly be....no inflection in speech. Had to give up as it was such hard work to listen

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars

Flat, lifeless and poorly interpreted narration

My favourite DLS story ruined by an unsympathetic narration. Unfortunately the same narrator seems to be on similar form for the rest of th recordings. Not the narrators fault as such (she may be perfect for another author) but the publisher's for using her.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Dull Dorothy disaster

Sorry Dorothy, you simply don't compare to Agatha. The plot doesn't get going and you have to endure reams of information about bells before anything happens. I also would have preferred a male narrator seeing as Lord Peter is indeed a male.

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1 person found this helpful