The Nine Tailors

Bunter is Wimsey’s manservant and has been in his employ for 15 years, starting when they were both in military service. Like Wimsey, Bunter isn’t physically described in the novel. However, the reader can assume that Bunter is able-bodied, charming, and well-spoken because he seems can wheedle information out of women quite easily.

Bunter is the perfect gentleman’s gentleman and prepared for any eventuality that life throws at him. His unflappable nature irks his master since Bunter seems to know everything all the time. Wimsey never succeeds in rattling Bunter’s composure no matter how outrageous his request might be.

Since P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster series was popular when Sayers wrote her Wimsey mysteries, we can assume that she had Jeeves in mind when she created Bunter.

Rector Venables is the good-hearted curate in charge of the parish at Fenchurch St. Paul. He is middle-aged, overweight, and jovial. He is also frequently absent-minded. It is up to his practical wife to keep him on the right track most of the time. Venables displays a passion for change ringing and has written a monograph on the subject. His monomania for the chimes causes him to abruptly conscript Wimsey as a change ringer when Will falls ill.

For all his seeming obliviousness to daily life, Venables makes several improvements to the church and in the lives of his parishioners. He also rises to the occasion and leads the evacuation effort when his village is flooded. His decision to stage a nine-hour-change-ringing concert inadvertently kills Deacon, but Venables sees this death as an act of divine justice.

Blundell represents conventional law enforcement, but he is a pragmatic man who isn’t threatened by Wimsey’s involvement in the case of the John Doe in the cemetery. At several points, Blundell demonstrates his humanity when he distinguishes between doing his duty as an officer of the law and how he feels about performing that duty when it indirectly harms the innocent.

Wimsey and Blundell form a pleasant camaraderie as they work together to solve the case. Sometimes Blundell can uncover information not available to Wimsey, and vice versa. Ultimately, Blundell functions as Wimsey’s Watson. His easygoing nature suggests that he doesn’t mind taking a supporting role at all.

Hilary is the attractive teenaged daughter of Sir Henry and Lady Thorpe. In quick succession, she suffers unexpected tragedies when her mother dies on New Year’s Day, and her father succumbs two months later. Because the Thorpe family has had to pay Mrs. Wilbraham for the stolen emeralds, Hilary has little to live on. She is undeterred and determined to make a living as a novel writer.

Hilary’s aspirations to study at Oxford are thwarted by her old-fashioned guardian, Uncle Edward. Luckily, the emeralds are found, Hilary is left wealthy, and Wimsey, as the estate’s executor, ensures that she goes to Oxford.

This character is a close parallel to Dorothy Sayers’s own life. The author was a graduate of Oxford who later turned to novel writing. Hence, she uses Hilary to depict the prejudice of her day about wasting education on girls. Sayers is making an inside joke when she has Hilary tell her father, “Rot, Daddy. You don’t want experience for writing novels. People write them at Oxford and they sell like billy-ho. All about how awful everything was at school” (84).

The inappropriately named “Deacon” begins as the husband of Mary Thoday and the butler at Red House. However, he has a larcenous streak and wants to steal a costly emerald necklace from one of his master’s houseguests. To pull off this robbery, Deacon must enlist the help of Cranton. Deacon demonstrates his duplicitous nature early on because he intends to keep the jewels and blame his accomplice.

Later, after murdering a guard and escaping from prison, Deacon accidentally kills a soldier and assumes his identity. Afterward, he abandons Mary in England and marries Suzanne in France. Leaving his French wife and four children in poverty, he returns to England to reclaim the emeralds. All Deacon’s actions demonstrate an appalling willingness to exploit everyone around him for his own gain. When confronted by Mary’s current husband, Deacon plays on Will’s fear of exposure and blackmails him. Deacon is such a thoroughly unlikeable character that his death through the action of the bells seems perfectly fitting.

Cranton considers himself a gentleman thief and con artist. In the hierarchy of wrongdoing, he puts himself a step above Deacon. Quite probably, if their roles were reversed, Cranton would have honored their arrangement and given Deacon his cut rather than betraying him.

Years later, Cranton teams up with Deacon again to claim the prize they lost right after the robbery. This second failed attempt at the emeralds results in sickness for Cranton. He develops rheumatic fever, and his health is permanently compromised. To the end, he demonstrates an attitude of superiority toward his fellow thieves and feels sorry for himself when the police try to bring him to justice.