Whose Body? (1925)

(22) This is the first book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy Sayers. Lord Peter Wimsey is a member of the nobility who also was an officer during WW1. He is the idle rich spending his time sleuthing, in part, to distract him from the shell shock he suffers from. This introduces him to the reader through a fairly simple case - a body is found in a bathtub in the apartment of an unassuming man at the same time a businessman disappears without a trace. The body in the bathtub is decidedly not this man - but who is he? And how do the two odd events relate. It seems the missing business man came home; took off all his clothes, slept in his bed and then .. just disappears. Peter and a policeman friend investigate and the solution is actually not hard to guess. My e-copy contained quite a bit of an excerpt from the next book in the series so I thought I had much more to read and then boom! not much more than 100 pages or so in .. this slim volume ended.

I would put this somewhere along the same degree of enjoyment as Rendell's Inspector Wexford, though perhaps I am a bit more partial to Sayers writing than Rendells in this serial form. But its a close thing. This was not nearly as good or rich as 'Gaudy Night,' but I get that it is just the first book in the series and that I should likely just keep reading and withhold judgement.

Not much more to say... I think I will probably dub 2022 as the year of mysteries for me. For whatever reason mystery and crime is what I am drawn to at this time in my life; I can't fight it. I just need to let it play out. I think I'll keep reading the series for a bit in lieu of Wexford which I've tired of. ( )

The stark naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder -- especially with a pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath

Considering this is the first in the series, Wimsey (plus Bunter, plus the Duchess) are strong characters already, with Wimsey being presented with a dead body in a bathroom, whilst the police are investigating the disappearance of Sir Reuben Levy, a financier who disappeared whilst on a night out.

It's fairly evident the significance of the unidentified body, but it's just a case of proving it. The written confession unfortunately, comes late in the book, and is all but redundant, as the reader should have worked it all out for themselves by the time it comes out (and it's all done bar the shouting).




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On second reading (this time via audio book), I still find Wimsey an utter delight -- I had forgotten or not noticed his interest in early printed works, so that just added to the story for me -- and I found myself chuckling at his witty conversation more than once. Also, I have missed Bunter.

That said -- wow, what a product of its time. While there was nothing fully anti-semitic expressed, the constant need to comment on one of the victim's Jewishness and offer sweeping stereotypical views caused me quite a bit of dismay. I'm taking the opportunity to explore how things I didn't consciously examine in my previous reading may have tainted my worldview, and we'll see how far I get in the re-read of the series.

Also, hilariously, the audio version that I listened to was a legitimately published copy, but had clearly been copied off the CD, including both the change-CD now prompts and a portion obscured by disk damage. It surprises me that a publisher would release digital content in such a poorly edited state. The reader also took some getting used to -- very British, very lugubrious and languid in his speech, with a great many mouth noises as the the tale progressed. Very... authentic. ( )

It was okay, and I might read more in the series, but I wasn't greatly impressed... ( )

In Whose Body Lord Peter Whimsy takes on the challenge of a murder that doesn't appear to be a murder. And a body that is not the murder victim, but who is he. A very convoluted and complicated mystery to be sure. Lord Peter gets help from his friend Inspector Parker of Scotland Yard and his man servant Bunter. It had been so long since my first reading of Whose Body that I didn't remember much about the book. The author Dorothy Sayers may be best known for her Lord Peter Whimsey mysteries but she was most importantly a serious scholar. Among other things Sayers produced a definitive translation of Dante's works. In the story a early copy of Dante was on the table in Lord Peter's flat. I didn't notice that element the first read through. ( )