Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy L. Sayers was an English writer of the first half of the 20th century. Her most famous work is the detective novel series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, published from 1923 onwards. She was one of the Four Queens of Crime, along with Agatha Christie.

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• Lifetime: 13 June 1893 • 17 December 1957
• Main genre: Detective fiction, cosy mystery
• Literary movement: Golden Age of Detective Fiction
• Circles: Four Queens of Crime
• Mid-2026 popularity rank:  131 • Trending ▼

"The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it."

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The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

• Genre: cosy mystery
• Form: novel
• Reading time: 5h
• Published in 1928
• Status: in the public domain in the US
• Read online for free at Standard EBooks

• Setting: It takes place in 1920s London.
• Premise: Lord Peter Wimsey is a member of a gentlemen's club, the Bellona Club. On Armistice Day, he is having dinner with some friends there, when the old General Fentiman is found dead in his armchair. The members are shocked, but the old man seems to have died of natural causes. When the general's sister is reported to have died on the same night, they discover that the order of the successive deaths is primordial in the execution of the will. Lord Wimsey, an amateur sleuth, decides to investigate. Will his friend, the general's grandson, inherit, or will the fortune pass to the sister's companion? But things are not that simple, and the investigation will lead to more complicated directions and upsetting discoveries.