I'd heard the phrase "ringing the changes" my whole life but never knew what it meant. The descriptions of the English style of bell ringing in this book are detailed and obsessive; long story short, the tuneless cacophony you hear after weddings in English movies is a deliberate effect that people are working very hard to achieve. So, worth the admission for unlocking a new genre of YouTube videos to watch when you don't have or feel prone to a headache. The mystery is convoluted, and if you sometimes have a hard time remembering who is who in a multi-character mystery, take notes. But the characters are delightful and the language is thrilling, with beautiful descriptions of land and people; no doubt there is also an underlying structure to the book related to bell-ringing. You can sense this is a bit of a time-killer before Harriet Vane comes back on the scene, but it's not wasted time. ( )

This book finds Lord Peter Wimsey in a small country town struggling to solve a crime. It actually shows more of the ponderous work needed by detectives than other Peter Wimsey books. Much of the plot involves the intricacies of bell ringing and drainage canals. Many readers are likely to grow weary of these details but I found them interesting. The book, however, would have been nicely accompanied by a soundtrack. ( )

The book starts pretty slow and I had the fear that it would be another research dumb like The Five Red Herrings was, as all the information about the bell ringing was a bit overwhelming at times. And because of all these informations and background, it took naturally a while until the body showed up but once that happened, the story gained speed.
Yet, it also turned frustrating as it was (at least for me) pretty clear how the body became a body, and having Wimsey bumbling through the world and not putting two and two together in this regard seemed to be out of character.
Being out of character is something which I noticed a lot of Sayers later books, I liked the shell shocked Wimsey better than how is personalty developed towards the end. ( )

paperback

My reading of this novel was enhanced by going back and forth between the print edition (for the spellings, especially of the names) and the audio (for the accents and pronunciations), as well as watching a few YouTube videos on change ringing. This is a complex mystery that unfolds slowly, with a cast of thousands (or at least dozens) and so many nuanced motivations. I enjoyed the story even though I'm not a fan of bells rung this way. ( )