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The Five Red Herrings
Dorothy L. Sayers Book Review

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Plot Summary of The Five Red Herrings
"In the story a man is murdered and the murder is made to look like an accident. There are five suspects who all have a good reason for revenge, but all have good alibies."
Anthony, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of The Five Red Herrings
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 80%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%




Tone of story - Dry-cynical
How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story: - 1930's-1950's
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - nearly 100%
Special suspect? - chronically deranged person
Murder of certain profession? - artists
Misc. Murder Plotlets - Big focus on forensic evidence
Kind of investigator - british mystery (I say!)
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot? - theft/fraud investigation
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - Prince/Nobleman/King
Age: - 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use? - none
Ethnicity/Race - British
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status: - artist
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist - revenge
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - Ireland

Style
Part of a series? Yes
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths? - 1
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to The Five Red Herrings
Artists in Crime by Ngaio Marsh
The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler
The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie & Charles Osbourne
The Hollow by Agatha Christie
A Murder of Quality by John Le Carre


Click here for more information about this book


Dorothy L. Sayers Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Christina Forsyth  

SCHOLARS:
Marianna  Alan J. Bishop  Anthony  David Loftus  


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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