I think it's fair to say that it's the kind of thing that can really ruin your day. I mean, coming home one day to find the naked body of an unknown man lying in your bathtub? Not a pleasant surprise. On the other hand, it's also something that can make a fine starting point for a determined sleuth - which is exactly what draws Lord Peter Wimsey into the case of Whose Body?, first published in 1923. It was Dorothy L. Sayers's first (of eleven) novels about her aristocratic sleuth. I first reviewed it nearly a decade ago with an audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. Here's a transcript of that review, lightly edited (mostly to update on the formats in which the book remains available, nearly a century after it was written):
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You really could not blame Mr. Thipps for being upset. When a person walks into his bathroom, he certainly doesn’t expect to find in his bathtub the naked body of an unknown person wearing only a pair of golden pince-nez glasses. The police, in the person of the impetuous and not particularly bright Inspector Sugg, immediately arrest Mr. Thipps – but they have absolutely no idea whose body it is. There really are no clues to its identity.
It should be explained that all this takes place in Battersea, a not-particularly-thriving area of London. Meanwhile, across the River Thames, along fashionable Park Lane, a distinguished British financier has disappeared without a trace from his home.
Police aren’t at all sure whether there is a connection between these two events – that unknown body is clearly not that of the British financier. It is up to Lord Peter Wimsey to discover the true relationship between these events – and he does so in Whose Body?, the 1923 book by Dorothy L. Sayers that introduced Lord Peter to the world.
Dorothy L. Sayers is rightly considered one of the great British Crime Queens of the Golden Age of English Detective Fiction during the years between the two world wars. Her detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, is surely the prime model for the aristocratic amateur, the nobly-born sleuth who takes up helping the police solve difficult crimes, whether out of a sense of responsibility or – as is often the case – as a hobby.
In Whose Body?, first published in 1923, Lord Peter tackles two curious cases that may be related. In one case, someone has disappeared – the British financier, Sir Reuben Levy, who has vanished from his house without a trace. The other case is that of the mysterious body which has appeared in Mr. Thipps’s bathtub – a man who quite clearly is not Sir Reuben, by the way, but whose appearance in that flat in Battersea is totally unexplained – and again, there are few clues to his true identity.
That’s all I’m going to say about the plot, because this book – as with many of Sayers’ fine Lord Peter mysteries – is less about whodunit than it is about why and howdunit. The culprit, to my mind, sort of sticks out early on and, in fact, is revealed and confirmed about two-thirds of the way through the book. What remains, however, is the entirely horrifying – and rather brilliant – way in which the crime was plotted and carried out. What also remains, of course, is Sayers’ writing, which is wonderful. There is wit and humor here along with the nightmarish details, and all the characters – from Lord Peter and his marvelous manservant-assistant Bunter, and his intelligent police detective friend, Charles Parker, to the people caught up in these seemingly unrelated mysteries – and yes that includes the murderer.
And I think it’s worth mentioning that Lord Peter is very much a flawed hero, not at all comfortable with his self-appointed role. “If it was all on paper I’d enjoy every bit of it,” he tells Parker. “I love the beginning of a job – when one doesn’t know any of the people and it’s just exciting and amusing. But if it comes to really running down a live person and getting him hanged, or even quodded, poor devil, there doesn’t seem as if there was any excuse for me buttin’ in, since I don’t have to make my livin’ by it.” We see this attitude in Wimsey in just about all of the eleven Sayers novels in which he appears.
HarperCollins has republished Whose Body? under its Bourbon Street Books imprint, and they have added an Afterword by classic mystery scholar John Curran who examines Sayers’ stories and novels and puts them into perspective for the modern reader.
Whose Body? is not my favorite Sayers, but it is quite good, even if some of Wimsey’s mannerisms (oh, those dropped “g”s!) can be annoyin’. The story is fascinating and occasionally horrifying, the characters are memorable, and the writing is both careful and beautiful. If you enjoy the traditional British mystery, you will enjoy this one.
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You can listen to the complete audio review by clicking here.
Next: And So to Murder, by John Dickson Carr, writing as Carter Dickson
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