Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey, Bk 1)
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Paperback
Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) was an English crime writer, poet, playwright, and translator. She is best known for her mysteries which feature Lord Peter Wimsey, an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. But she considered her best work to be her translation of Dante's Divine Comedy.
Whose Body? was first published in 1923 and it introduced the character of Lord Peter Wimsey. The novel also introduces other recurring characters in the Lord Peter series of books including Bunter, Wimsey's valet; his mother, the Dowager Duchess of Denver; and Inspector Charles Parker, Wimsey's friend and a police inspector from Scotland Yard. The novel starts out with the discovery of a dead man in a bathtub who is naked and only wearing a gold pince-nez. The body is found in the tub of a timid architect named Thipps who cannot explain how the body came to be in his bathtub. At the same time, another man has gone missing, Sir Reuben Levy, a famous financier. The investigator on the bathtub case immediately suggests that Levy is the body in the bathtub. But it is soon made clear that this is not the case and it appears that the two cases are unconnected. But is this really the case? Inspector Parker is on the case of what happened to Levy and Lord Peter is privately investigating the man in the bathtub. Will they be able to solve the cases together?
This is the second book I have read in the Lord Peter series after The Nine Tailors that I read and enjoyed a few years ago. I have been meaning to read more in the series since then. I enjoyed Whose Body? but not as much as Tailors. The plot seemed a little convoluted but the macabre aspects of it made the story all the more enjoyable. Another highlight of the Wimsey character is that he is a collector of rare books and early in the story he has Bunter obtain a rare Dante Folio for him (Sayers later translated Dante's Divine Comedy). And I really enjoyed the characters in the storyâWimsey and Bunter reminded me somewhat of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster. I will be continuing to read more in this series.
Whose Body? was first published in 1923 and it introduced the character of Lord Peter Wimsey. The novel also introduces other recurring characters in the Lord Peter series of books including Bunter, Wimsey's valet; his mother, the Dowager Duchess of Denver; and Inspector Charles Parker, Wimsey's friend and a police inspector from Scotland Yard. The novel starts out with the discovery of a dead man in a bathtub who is naked and only wearing a gold pince-nez. The body is found in the tub of a timid architect named Thipps who cannot explain how the body came to be in his bathtub. At the same time, another man has gone missing, Sir Reuben Levy, a famous financier. The investigator on the bathtub case immediately suggests that Levy is the body in the bathtub. But it is soon made clear that this is not the case and it appears that the two cases are unconnected. But is this really the case? Inspector Parker is on the case of what happened to Levy and Lord Peter is privately investigating the man in the bathtub. Will they be able to solve the cases together?
This is the second book I have read in the Lord Peter series after The Nine Tailors that I read and enjoyed a few years ago. I have been meaning to read more in the series since then. I enjoyed Whose Body? but not as much as Tailors. The plot seemed a little convoluted but the macabre aspects of it made the story all the more enjoyable. Another highlight of the Wimsey character is that he is a collector of rare books and early in the story he has Bunter obtain a rare Dante Folio for him (Sayers later translated Dante's Divine Comedy). And I really enjoyed the characters in the storyâWimsey and Bunter reminded me somewhat of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster. I will be continuing to read more in this series.
