Should detective fiction be easy reading?

Despite their murderous plots, we often talk of these stories as comforting, even cosy,

a pleasant way to relax, switch off the brain, and escape from the real world for a while.

And they certainly can fulfill that role, with their familiar structures and satisfying solutions.

Not all the writers, from the golden age of detective fiction, can be described this way.

And there's one in particular, who was restless, never quite satisfied with the crime novel's status quote.

She was always trying to push it further, and make it do more.

She thought critically about the role of the who done it in the wider literary landscape.

The gratifying repetition of crime, detection, and resolution was not for her.

Everything that she wrote, visibly tried to bend the genre in new and surprising directions.

Today, we're squaring up to the challenge of Dorothy L. Sayers.

Welcome to She Done It. I'm Caroline Crampton.

Before we get started today, I need to let you know about a rare opportunity to see a She Done It

episode live. I haven't done one of these since 2019, and who knows when I'll get to do one again.

If you'd like to catch it, it's happening at the International Agatha Christie Festival,

in Torquay, on Sunday 11 September at 3pm. Tickets are available now from the link in the

episode description, or via She Done It Show.com slash events. I hope to see lots of you there.

Let's start by getting acquainted, shall we? Dorothy L. Sayers was born in 1893,

and published her first mystery in 1923. She wrote a dozen full-length crime novels in all,

most of them featuring her aristocratic sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, the character for whom she

is best known today. She also co-founded the Detection Club, masterminded several collaborative

literary and broadcasting projects, and wrote a number of short stories. I wanted to introduce her.

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