Mystery and Crime Sayers, Dorothy L: Clouds of Witness, v.1, 10 August 2008.

[Patricia]

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957)
Clouds of Witness (1926)
Revised and corrected edition, 1935.

This classic detective story appeared yesterday on PG Canada.
(We already have ‘Whose Body?’ by the same author.)

From Wikipedia:
“The fiancé of Lord Peter's sister, Lady Mary Wimsey, is found dead outside the conservatory of the family's shooting lodge in Yorkshire. Peter and Mary's elder brother, the Duke of Denver, is charged with capital murder and put on trial in the House of Lords.
The novel's title alludes to Hebrews 12:1: "we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses." In solving the mystery, Lord Peter's problem is the opposite of the usual case: rather than having too few clues to go on, there are too many, and Peter pursues several avenues that turn out to be false before hitting on what really happened.”

This work is in the Canadian public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. It may still be under copyright in some countries. If you live outside Canada, check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

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[zelda_pinwheel]

oh, BRILLIANT !! i've been hoping to find more Sayers now that she's in the public domain, but i didn't see this one come out. thank you so much, Patricia. and as it happens, this is one of the few i haven't bought in paper (possibly the only one). nice !

[Patricia]

My pleasure, Zelda. Let's hope that some more appear online soon.

[Oh, Why Not?]

Gosh. This is the one Whimsey I didn't have, so i bought a used copy two weeks ago. Oh well.

[Patricia]

How often have I done the same.

[Oh, Why Not?]

I truly appreciate your (and other bookmakers . . . er . . .uh) efforts anyhow!

[HarryT]

Please download with caution, folks. This book is only in the public domain in "life + 50" countries. Not in the US, not in the UK, not in France, not anywhere in Europe (to the best of my knowledge).

[JeffElkins]

So is ALL of Sayers now PD in (ahem) civilized countries? Not counting the 'completed after her death' works by Jill Paton Walsh, of course.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by JeffElkins

So is ALL of Sayers now PD in (ahem) civilized countries? Not counting the 'completed after her death' works by Jill Paton Walsh, of course.

yes.

and i can't WAIT for it show up on PG.

[Patricia]

It is a bit complicated. All of Sayers' work is out of copyright in Canada and life plus 50 countries. In the USA it is all still in copyright except for her first novel, 'Whose Body?'

[chilehead]

Wonder of many Wonders!

I had all of Sayers Lord Peter books, including the short story collections, in paperback form and UK issue, way back when. All gone now. Long story.

Now, I have Strong Poison and Clouds of Witness.

Can't hardly wait for the rest of them.

[chilehead]

Yikes!

I didn't notice that this title was using a peculiar format called .IMP, but your "Strong Poison" was in PRC format. Heck, I can read PRC all day using Mobipocket Reader. But there seems to be nothing available for converting IMP formats to another format, and all I have is my PC for read digital books.

Well, there is that deimp.exe app, for IMP formats, and created by a user here going by nrapallo, but for all it's worth, it really seems like it would be a very last resort, when you apparantly can lose so much through the conversion process.

The only reason I even found this site was that I had googled on converting this LRF format to something I could use. I'd downloaded a zip file of the entire set of the Travis McGee novels by John McDonald. Whooee! Been looking for those books for years, only to find them in some totally weird format I'd never heard of...

So, Is it possible for the 14 Wimsey novels to be available in a different format? Say, something a bit more generic and farther reaching... I really can't afford to buy a reader that can handle ETI-1 or ETI-2 formats.

Lastly, are the 2 short stories sets also available? What about Thrones, Dominations?

[Patricia]

Chilehead:
I have produced a PRC version of 'Clouds of Witness'. Search our Ebook upload section. I have also converted 'Whose Body?' some time ago.

They are out of copyright in countries which operate the 'life of the author plus 50 years' rule. My source was Project Gutenberg Canada. (Canada is a life+50 country.) If you want HTML or text versions of these novels then look there. However, I found 'Strong Poison' elsewhere.

It is possible that more of the novels will become freely available in the future. But the rest have not yet been made freely available, as far as I know.
And if you want 'Thrones, Dominations' then you will have to buy it. It is a continuation by Jill Paton Walsh, and is still in copyright everywhere, because Miss Walsh is very much alive and writing.