Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery, #1)

by Dorothy L Sayers

A must-read for fans of Agatha Christie's Poirot and Margery Allingham's Campion Mysteries, Lord Peter Wimsey is the immortal amateur sleuth created by Dorothy L Sayers. It was the body of a tall stout man. On his dead face, a handsome pair of gold pince-nez mocked death with grotesque elegance. The body wore nothing else. Lord Peter Wimsey knew immediately what the corpse was supposed to be. His problem was to find out whose body had found its way into Mr Alfred Thipps' Battersea bathroom.

• ISBN10: 0060550368
• ISBN13: 9780060550363
• Publish Date: 1 January 1987 (first published 1 January 1963)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 January 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English

Reviews

[Aidan Brack (Mysteries Ahoy)]

Sadly a lovely, rich character beat cannot overcome what feels like a very slight and rather routine mystery. Happily Lord Peter would have more interesting cases to come so if you’re new to the character I would suggest jumping in later in his adventures and returning to this at a later point.

Read my full review at Mysteries Ahoy!

[brokentune]

Review first posted on Booklikes:
http://brokentune.booklikes.com/post/809894/whose-body-

" ‘You see, Lady Swaffham, if ever you want to commit a murder , the thing you’ve got to do is to prevent people from associatin’ their ideas. Most people don’t associate anythin’ – their ideas just roll about like so many dry peas on a tray, makin’ a lot of noise an’ goin’ nowhere, but once you begin lettin’ ’em string their peas into a necklace, it’s goin’ to be strong enough to hang you, what?’ ‘Dear me!’ said Mrs Tommy Frayle, with a little scream, ‘what a blessing it is none of my friends have any ideas at all!’"

There is a certain resemblance between Lord Peter Wimsey and Bertie Wooster and the worlds they both inhabit. Of course, the obvious similarity is that both are somewhat nit-witted upper-class toffs who are aided through life both their valets and a group of strong-willed female relatives - Bertie by his aunts and Peter by his mother.

For the first part of Whose Body? I just could not get over this similarity, because it seemed that Mrs Tommy Frayle's circle of friends may as well have included most of the book's characters, including Lord Peter. I just could not find an angle to his character that showed him to be more than a two-dimensional caricature of the Wooster archetype.

However, then it happened: Whose Body? presented a pivotal moment that changed my appreciation of Lord Peter and his relationship with Bunter, his old friend and servant. I don't want to spoil this experience of discovery for any prospective readers so I won't go into much detail, but the main reason I came to appreciate Lord Peter - and to be fair this is the only memorable part of the story for me even after only a few short weeks of reading the book - is that he is portrayed as a man of his times. Sayers lifts Wimsey out of the cliche and attributes him with a real world experience and complexity that is lacking not only in Bertie Wooster - who of course was always meant as a caricature - but also other notable fictional contemporaries (maybe with the exception of Poirot).

Had it not been for this sub-plot, I am not sure I would have enjoyed the story much at all.

[MurderByDeath]

In my quest for BL book collection perfection, I noticed just how many of my books I never reviewed in any fashion.  Since I enjoy a good re-read now and again, I've decided to re-visit my shelves and the friends that lie therein, in between my Mt. TBR reads (which really, is getting to be the TBR Range).  

My first re-read is "Whose Body?" by Dorothy Sayers.  I figure if I start with a classic, anyone reading my reviews will forgive me when I get to "Silence of the Hams" and "A Knife to Remember".

A classic.  And really, what can be said about this classic that hasn't already been said? We can take it as read all the bits about Sayers' being a master of her craft, etc. etc.

What I will comment on, was that while I really enjoyed this book, and it was just the re-read I was looking for, it's not an easy book to just dive into.  At least for me.  There's a style and pacing to Ms. Sayers' writing that does not trip delightfully off my tongue - whether it be because of the times the book was written in, Peter's personality, or the British-to-American translation issues.  No matter, it was a chapter or two before I got into the groove again.

The story is fantastical - just the physical stamina needed to perpetrate this plot is remarkable.  The villain truly villainous.  I'll admit I'm still not sure, after reading this twice, what gave the game away for Lord Peter.

The footnotes used sparingly throughout the story show a depth of character development that isn't seen anymore in today's traditional/cozy mysteries.  Lord Peters has a rich, detailed backstory that was obviously developed before the stories were written.  Nice.

[tellemonstar]

Full review here.

I was interested to read Whose Body? because of it being 90 year this year since the very first time it was published. Unfortunately I think that might have been why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped to.

Lord Peter Wimsey is odd. Very odd. For instance, he sprouts poetry in the middle of speaking about something, without any warning. It’s rather discombobulating. (I love that word) I found it tended to pull me out of the story rather than add to it. Also he acts like he is stupid in public, then later in private with his close friends he shows his true intellect.

One thing I really enjoyed about Whose Body? was the mystery itself. It was well thought out and I certainly didn’t have the culprit figured out within the first few chapters. You worked it out mostly as Lord Peter did, which was good and it wasn’t the most obvious person, but nor was it just some random person either. It was a very interesting mystery, which is definitely one reason why it was after midnight when I finished reading it – I needed to know who did it and how they had done it.