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Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey, #1)

Dorothy L. Sayers

Start date: May 1, 2022

Finish date: May 31, 2022

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: Next in our Detection Club challenge.
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Group Challenges

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What Members Thought

Jan 01, 2016 Judy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dorothy-l-sayers-2016-challenge, detection-club-challenge

The review below was written in 2016. I've just completed rereading in 2022, and must say I enjoyed it less overall and was more struck by the worrying attitudes that I mention in my last paragraph. However, I thought the novel is much stronger in its second half, when Peter's character, and his relationship with Bunter in both war and peace, are explored.

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I've read all the Wimsey novels in the past, but am now taking part in a reread. This first novel isn't as good as later entries in the s The review below was written in 2016. I've just completed rereading in 2022, and must say I enjoyed it less overall and was more struck by the worrying attitudes that I mention in my last paragraph. However, I thought the novel is much stronger in its second half, when Peter's character, and his relationship with Bunter in both war and peace, are explored.

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I've read all the Wimsey novels in the past, but am now taking part in a reread. This first novel isn't as good as later entries in the series, but is still an enjoyable read, even third time around. It introduces us to the aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter, his loyal manservant Bunter and other regular characters, including Peter's wonderfully scatty mother, the Dowager Duchess.

The witty prose style is a delight to read, but in the first few chapters Lord Peter seems rather too silly, reminiscent of Bertie Wooster at times. Fortunately the depths of his character soon start to show, as he investigates the finding of a mysterious body in a stranger's bath. Then it turns out that financier Sir Reuben Levy has disappeared, and it seems the two cases could be linked.

Sobering quickly, Peter realises that this is more than just a puzzle (some of the dialogue about this seems to be aimed at detective story readers!) and, as the case becomes more demanding, his shell shock from the First World War flares up. Of course, many of the original readers in the 20s would have identified with this only too well. Peter's warmth, charm and vulnerability all gradually become apparent, with hints of a romantic disappointment in the past.

I think the characters are by far the most appealing aspect of this first book, rather than the two central mysteries. Since I've read the book before, I remembered the main plot twists, but I think the identity of the main villain must be fairly easy to guess even if you are reading first time.

Unfortunately, the novel has some worrying and dated attitudes, including patronising references to Jewish characters. Sayers is not being anti-Semitic in quite the way of some of her contemporaries - her Jewish financier is a kind and generous man. But the language and the assumptions made are still disturbing to a modern reader. ...more

21 likes · Like · see review

Feb 12, 2008 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-fiction, crime-fiction-uk, mystery-series-first-novel, classic-mystery-fiction

like a 3.8 rounded up.

http://www.crimesegments.com/2019/07/...

While I certainly wouldn't call Whose Body? the best in this series (that will come down the road a bit later), if you are an avid fan (in my case, actually, it's more like rabid) of old mystery/crime/detective novels, it is most certainly worth reading as it introduces one of the best-known characters of mystery's golden age, Lord Peter Wimsey.

A call from his mother, the Dowager Duchess of Denver, alerts Lord Peter to a most unusual ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Sep 14, 2011 Susan in NC rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, tbr-with-gr-groups, audiobook, reread, det-club-2022

3/2022: Still a five star read for me, Sayers’ writing is beautiful, Lord Peter is a chattering delight, Parker is a stolid, but wise, friend and detective, the Dowager Duchess is charming, and Bunter is all that an excellent valet/assistant detective should be! The villain in this one is brilliant and diabolical, and the murder method still gives me the chills.

Reread this time for the Reading the Detectives group’s Detection Club challenge read in April.

2017: I've decided to reread as many of m 3/2022: Still a five star read for me, Sayers’ writing is beautiful, Lord Peter is a chattering delight, Parker is a stolid, but wise, friend and detective, the Dowager Duchess is charming, and Bunter is all that an excellent valet/assistant detective should be! The villain in this one is brilliant and diabolical, and the murder method still gives me the chills.

Reread this time for the Reading the Detectives group’s Detection Club challenge read in April.

2017: I've decided to reread as many of my Golden Age detective favorites as I can this year - I started last year with Miss Marple and a few Poirots, and will continue reading in order as I can find them, along with adding new authors I've learned about but never read.

It's been several years since I read Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, so I am really looking forward to this - and will probably work in viewing the BBC productions I treated myself to as a birthday gift a few years ago! I find I catch a lot more of the nuances, social attitudes and personality quirks of the characters upon rereading as a middle-aged person versus when I first devoured these mysteries as a teen and twenty-something; one of the compensations of growing older, I think.

Lord Peter starts this absorbing mystery as a seemingly flighty, scatterbrained man-about-town with more money than sense to indulge his interests in music and rare books, but readers soon learn as I did when I first read him that there is so much more to him; sensitive, witty, brainy, living on his nerves, he suffers from what we now know as PTSD from his service in WWI. I fell for him over the course of his adventures and didn't wonder that Sayers admitted to feeling the same! To say nothing of the delightful Dowager Duchess, the dependable and thoughtful Inspector Parker, and of course the inimitable, Jeeves-like Bunter; the diabolical motive and murder method and final confession never fail to give me chills, and Sayers handles the scene toward the end at the graveyard brilliantly. No sterile recitation of facts a la Poirot (although that can be fun too!), that scene is nightmarish and effective and drives home the fact that callous, cruel and horrifying murder has been done here, and many will suffer the consequences from the vicious, selfish actions of the murderer. Highly recommended to fans of literate, clever, classic mysteries. ...more

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Jan 15, 2016 Tracey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, hist-myst, mystery, old-favorite

Another reading, another take on the book. Nothing new and startlingly original, by any means, but it is always different having a book read to you.

And Nadia May did a truly lovely job with it. I love her as Peter. I hesitated for a bit – a woman narrating a book with few female characters? But she's wonderful. It's disappointing that at the moment this is the only book narrated by her that is available on Audible; I'll have to keep a weather eye out for more – I'm a fan. And I would love to he ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jun 14, 2014 Bronwyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, european, 2014-reads, mystery-detective-suspense, novels, read-multiple-times, audiobook, author-s-z, by-women, title-s-z-and-number

I first read this a decade ago. I remember reading it at work between guests on my phone at the time and being confused but enjoying it, though not enough to continue at that time. Much of that impression is the same this time (the audiobook narrator wasn’t very good…), but I enjoyed it much more and will definitely be continuing. I think having the extra decade of life and having become a huge fan of the Shedunnit podcast has really helped. Finally reading through these is one of my goals this ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 27, 2010 Becky rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018goodrule-old, 2018reviews, readin2013, favorites

First sentence: "Oh damn!" said Lord Peter Wimsey at Piccadilly Circus.

Premise/plot: Whose Body? is the first novel in a mystery series starring Lord Peter Wimsey as an amateur detective. (He solves crimes with a little help from his butler/valet, Bunter, and in later mysteries with his girlfriend/wife.) In the opening pages of the novel, Lord Peter receives a phone call--or 'phone call--from his mother the Dowager Duchess. A murder has been committed. A naked man has been found in a bath tub of ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2015 Tracey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: hist-myst, mystery, annotated

This review is specifically for "The Complete, Annotated Whose Body?", produced by Bill Peschel, not entirely the book in and of itself.

It finally became clear in my mind about halfway through this edition of WB that … Whose Body is in the public domain in the US. Therefore just about anyone can take it and annotate it or otherwise adapt it, post it on Amazon, charge whatever they want, and even take co-author status.

This does explain why the annotations here are so wildly varied. It's fascinat ...more

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Jun 17, 2019 Anna Adams rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a second read. When I stumbled into DLS, it was with Gaudy Night. I was 22, a new mom, newly moved, and living in a hotel with my new baby and my husband while we searched for a home. All I wanted was a big, fat book that would distract me. And Gaudy Night was perfection. From there I began a search for all DLS's books, and they were not easy to find then. I'm glad I didn't stumble into WB first, because there's so much questionable language/sentiment toward Jews that I'm pretty taken ab ...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Carol Evans rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

As far as the mystery goes, it was simple, but overcomplicated at the time. I didn't like the way it was summed up though. The killer, when he realized he was caught, wrote a letter detailing his motive, his planning, his actions, everything, which didn't work for me. It was rather a let-down really.

I liked the characters, the dialogue was witty, there were several rather literary references sprinkled throughout, along with a little French which lost me. Overall, it was good but not an "omygosh, ...more

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