Striding Folly

I needed some short comfort reads to kick me out of an impending reading slump and this definitely fit the bill. Striding Folly is really collection of just three short stories by Dorothy Sayers, all short mysteries featuring her famous detective, Lord Peter Wimsey. These stories are nowhere near introductory to these characters and I'd only recommend it to people who are already somewhat familiar with the Peter Wimsey stories. If you're new to Sayers and/or Wimsey, this is not a good place to start.

Compared to the other two stories, the titular mystery, Striding Folly, had enough premise to be a much longer story imo. A country gentleman, Mr Merrilow, who gets a visit from a stranger in the village to play chess with him. After the chess game, Mr Merrilow walks on over to his friend and neighbour's house to check up on him, only to discover him dead. The solution was satisfying enough but a little hasty and I was left with a feeling of wanting more substance to it.

The second mystery, The Haunted Policeman, also had a pretty interesting premise. After having seen through his wife's labour and delivery of his first son, Peter Wimsey meets a policeman just off his beat and is told a remarkable and slightly chilling tale of what the policeman saw in a nearby residential estate. This one fit just right into the short story format - the mystery, the pacing, the solution, everything was satisfying enough. This particular story also has some casual racist slurs in it as was typical for stories of this time period.

The third mystery isn't really so much of a mystery as it is a humorous little tableau of Wimsey and his family (now with three sons, the eldest being six), how they get along, and what the family dynamics is like. There's maybe just a slight mystery element here but it's really just an aside. It might not sit well with some modern audiences though, as a pretty big topic in this chapter is about using corporal punishment on children.