Sayers, Dorothy L - Striding Folly (1972)

A posthumous collection of Sayers' last three Wimsey stories, published by the New English Library, and a book that only a completist could love. It weighs in at 124 pages, 22 of which are taken up with an Introduction by Janet Hitchman, and at least eight more with amateurish black-and-white illustrations. The Introduction contains some useful information but is clearly padded to length, and typographical errors abound. The stories themselves are up to Sayers' usual quality, though only one concerns a murder, and none have any complexity of plot.

• "Striding Folly" -- Wimsey makes a late appearance to exonerate a man who has been framed for murder.
• "The Haunted Policeman" -- On the night his first child is born, Wimsey has a visit from a baffled constable.
• "Talboys" -- A glimpse of Wimsey's marriage and parenthood with Harriet Vane. Wimsey manages to extricate his middle child from a charge of peach-stealing and remove an intrusive visitor to his country house.

The stories are worth reading: but it's a shame that after profiting from twelve volumes of Sayers' work, the New English Library couldn't find the resources to give their thirteenth a proper send-off.

Jon.