From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

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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What Members Thought

Mar 07, 2014 Christine PNW rated it really liked it · review of another edition

“Why can’t you marry and settle down and live quietly, doin’ something useful?” said the Duke, unappeased.

“Because that was a wash-out as you perfectly well know,” said Peter; “besides,” he added cheerfully, “I’m bein’ no end useful. You may come to want me yourself, you never know. When anybody comes blackmailin' you, Gerald, or your first deserted wife turns up unexpectedly from the West Indies, you’ll realize the pull of havin’ a private detective in the family. ‘Delicate private business ar “Why can’t you marry and settle down and live quietly, doin’ something useful?” said the Duke, unappeased.

“Because that was a wash-out as you perfectly well know,” said Peter; “besides,” he added cheerfully, “I’m bein’ no end useful. You may come to want me yourself, you never know. When anybody comes blackmailin' you, Gerald, or your first deserted wife turns up unexpectedly from the West Indies, you’ll realize the pull of havin’ a private detective in the family. ‘Delicate private business arranged with tact and discretion. Investigations undertaken. Divorce evidence a specialty. Every guarantee!"

Whose Body is the first of the Lord Peter Wimsey series, written by Dorothy Sayers. Mrs. Sayers wrote ten Lord Peter novels, as well as short stories featuring her gentleman-detective between 1923 and 1937. Lord Peter ages in real-time with her stories, and they are contemporary mysteries set during the year in which they are written.

In 1998, Jill Paton Walsh took up Mrs. Sayers' mantle and completed her unfinished last Lord Peter novel, called Thrones and Dominations. She has since published three more Lord Peter books, including The Attenbury Emeralds, which actually reaches back to 1921 and tells the story of Peter Wimsey's first foray into detecting. The Attenbury Emeralds case is mentioned in Whose Body, but the story is not fully (or even partially) told.

I bought all of the original novels over the Christmas holidays this year, as they were all on sale. All of the Open Road editions of the Peter Wimsey books have similar covers, all featuring Peter's monocle as part of the image. I find the covers both clever and appealing.

The mystery in Whose Body is quite grim, actually, although the treatment of it is lighthearted (as is so often the case with "Golden Age" mysteries). It is a classic upper crust mystery, although the murderer is quite frankly a sociopath who conveniently commits suicide at the end - this is another common feature of Golden Age mysteries. The murders often dispose of themselves to avoid the sticky and lower-class legal process that will result from their being caught-out by our amateur sleuth.

There is light satire of the British pre-WWII social conventions and the relationship between Lord Peter (aristocrat) and his valet (Bunter). In Whose Body, Lord Peter has a recurrence of "shell shock" from his experiences during WWI, and is cared for Bunter, who is obviously very close to Lord Peter. As a random aside, their relationship rather reminds me of the relationship between Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings, which was taken from Tolkien's observations of the relationship between batman and officer in WWI. One of the great strengths of this book is the touching, affectionate and convincing relationship between Wimsey and Bunter.

Also, Bunter gets some of the best lines:

"Yes, Mr. Graves, it’s a hard life, valeting by day and developing by night—morning tea at any time from 6.30 to 11, and criminal investigation at all hours."

The next book in the series is Clouds of Witness. ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Mar 23, 2011 Bev rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, vintage-mystery

With Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers, I went back to the very beginning of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories and fell in love with Lord Peter and Bunter and the Dowager Duchess all over again. Of course, there's nothing like the experience of discovering these delightful characters for the first time, but Sayers writes so wonderfully that it's pretty darn close. I loved every minute from the opening: "Oh, damn!" said Lord Peter Wimsey at Picadilly Circus. "Hi, driver!" to the very ending: "Bunter!" With Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers, I went back to the very beginning of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories and fell in love with Lord Peter and Bunter and the Dowager Duchess all over again. Of course, there's nothing like the experience of discovering these delightful characters for the first time, but Sayers writes so wonderfully that it's pretty darn close. I loved every minute from the opening: "Oh, damn!" said Lord Peter Wimsey at Picadilly Circus. "Hi, driver!" to the very ending: "Bunter!" "My lord?" "The Napoleon brandy."

In this first of Lord Peter's exploits we have two mysterious circumstances. First, there is the rather odd appearance of a dead body found in an architect's bathtub...found wearing nothing but a pair of gold pince-nez. As the frontispiece says: "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 sightless eyes." Then there's the disappearance of a prominent financier from his home. A financier who apparently took off in the middle of the night in nothing but his birthday suit. "...one is forced to suppose that a respectable middle-aged Hebrew financier either went mad between twelve and six a.m. and walked quietly out of his house in his birthday suit on a November night, or else was spirited away like the lady in the 'Ingoldsby Legends,' body and bones, leaving only a heap of crumpled clothes behind him." At first, the police suspect that the body in the bath must be the missing man, but this is soon proved to be wrong.

Lord Peter is called into the case on behalf of the architect who soon finds himself suspected of disposing of the man in his bath (though why he wouldn't go all the way and dispose of the body entirely never occurs to the slow-witted Inspector in charge of this one). Meanwhile, his friend, Inspector Parker, is given the task of tracking down the unclothed businessman. The two share information on their individual cases, compare notes, and even exchange missions. After interviewing everyone from an American railroad tycoon to a respectable lawyer in Salisbury to the great nerve specialist Sir Julian Freke, Lord Peter soon has all the clues at hand and it isn't long before he is able to hand Parker the solution to both mysteries on a silver platter.

Although it is always a delight to read the Lord Peter stories for his character alone, this time I was particularly taken with his mother, the Dowager Duchess of Denver. Her interactions with Mr. Milligan, the American tycoon, and her recital of the events of the inquest on the body in the bath are absolutely exquisite. She attends the inquest in order to support the aged, near-deaf mother of Mr. Thipps, the poor architect suspected of the murder. Here's the opening bit of her impersonation of Mrs. Thipps being interrogated by the Coroner:

" 'Did you hear anything unsual in the night?' says the little man, leaning forward and screaming at her, and so crimson in the face and his ears sticking out so--just like a cherubim in that poem of Tennyson's--or is a cherub blue?--perhaps it's a seraphim I mean--anyway, you know what I mean all eyes, with little wings on its head."

Wonderful, just wonderful. And the scene with the young medical student towards the end is also not to be missed. I'm so glad I joined up for the Wimsey Challenge giving me a valid excuse for rereading the Sayers mysteries and I definitely needed this little bit of comfort reading after the exertion of reading Lair of the White Worm. As usual, Sayers earns a full five stars. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jun 22, 2016 Bev rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, vintage-mystery, mystery, bought-2016

Have read other editions. Please see previous reviews.

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 09, 2015 Grisette rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: my-kind-of-detective-thriller, 3rd-pers-narration

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
3.4 stars

⏳ [Re-read project #12 of 2025, 1st proper review, rating maintained]

I read this one years ago (almost 10 years to the date!) and beside the manner in which the body in the title was discovered, I did not recall the puzzle solution at all. So I was ripe was for a re-read. And I can say now that re-reading it was a real interesting experience.

Just like my memory of Peter Wimsey, he was indeed both easy to dislike and love. As quoted from the book:

He talked the most fatuous nonsense, cert

...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 16, 2011 Abbey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage, myst-set-andor-auth-uk, myst-fems-project, reviewed, myst-pi, series, favorites, myst-cosies

When gentle (and genteel) architect little Mr. Thipps finds a stranger’s naked body in his bathroom, he thinks the worst that could possibly happen to him has occurred, but that was before he made the acquaintance of the lumpish Inspector Sugg. Alerted to the possibility of a very interesting case by his dear (enabling) Mother, Lord Peter and Bunter manage, with the discrete assistance of Inspector Parker, to work their way through the many layers and false trails surrounding this “pretty little ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 20, 2023 Lemar rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, brit-lit

Written 100 years ago, this mystery is amazingly fresh and fun. Part of the freshness comes from author Dorothy Sayers’s sense of social justice. When a Jewish character showed up I thought, “oh boy here we go” but happily he was not reduced to a caricature. The book is very entertaining, it’s just the right mix of cheeky wit, characters exuding British reserve and interesting detective work.

1 like · Like · see review