Rating: 
Summary: Don't judge a series by it's first book......
Review: This wasn't the best Lord Peter book, in my opinion, so if you're looking for a good read I'd try one of the later ones. Also, a related reading would be The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King, or any of the books in her Mary Russell series. The third one, A Letter of Mary, does involve Lord Peter, and some fans may enjoy that.
Rating: 
Summary: New twist on mysteries
Review: When I first read this book about two years ago it disgusted me profoundly. I found the main character, Lord Peter Wimsey, exasperant, his servant too 'servile' and the language bewildering. Two years later I am inclined to be a little less partial; still... "Whose body?" was the first mystery story Dorothy L. Sayers wrote, where she introduced us to her sleuth, the debonair, rich, book collector and nonsense-talking Lord Peter. He lives in a posh Picadilly apartment with a manservant by the name of Mervyn Bunter. I always thought Bunter could have been further developed; simply because he seems to have much more of a head on his shoulders and his feet on the floor than his employer does. In this, their first adventure, Lord Peter is made aware by his mother, the enchanting and very shrewd Dowager Duchess of Denver, of an unknown body being found on a neighboor's bathroom. No one seems to know who the unfortunate individual was, nor how he happened upon the bathroom of poor old Mr. Thipps. So in comes Lord Peter with his nonsense talk and his charming ways to investigate. He has a good friend who 'just happens' to be an actual detective and who will, in time, facilitate his work through official channels. I must say one thing that surprised me is how Lord Peter can make all the deductions until he finally elucidates the crime, while still being so much devoid of bright comments; but there we have it. There is a lot of dialogue in this novel and I find that a plus. I am a big fan of dialogue in fiction because I find it a great tool for natural development of the story. However, not everyone will understand a Londoner's words and mannerisms and this could be confusing, even irritating, at times. Sayers is not, and I repeat, is not, your typical mystery writer 'a la Christie'. She was a scholar and a Christian writer at that and likes to bring these ideas into her stories. I think that's why she also decided to show in this book such anti-semitic ideas against the Jews, that not even the now deceased Dowager Duke of Denver (Lord Peter's father), could tolerate them in his castle. Anti-semitism aside, this book is not for everyone. It demands a bit of an open mind and a good knowlegde of both British customs and language. What I did like about the book is what I always try to find in mysteries: the description of the different settings. Fine rare books and mahogany furniture, prime dining and a big estate in the country surround Lord Peter's life. Idealistic? Maybe, but no less charming.
Rating: 
Summary: The Body in the Bathroom
Review: When Lord Peter Wimsey is called in by Her Grace the Dowager Duchess (AKA Mother) to help extricate the timid Mr. Thipps from a case of body in the bathtub he finds himself embroiled in for far more than he has bargained. For one thing, the church architect's excess body, naked except for a Gold pince-nez, appears to be inexplicable. When it turns out that Sir Reuben Levy, an important financier is missing, the police become convinced that the body is that of Levy, and seize Thipps and the maid as the guilty party, despite all evidence to the contrary. Now Wimsey must work quickly with his friend Inspector Parker to solve both crimes and save both Thipps and the leaking church roof. Thus begins Dorothy Sayer's first novel in the Lord Peter Wimsey series. Partly a satire of the British upper class, partly a comedy of manners, and mostly the first of a time honored series of detective novels that very nearly reinvented the British mystery story in the 1920's. Lord Peter is the second son of the current generation of the Dukes of Denver, his rather stuffy brother currently holding the title. Lately recovered from some harrowing war experiences and a badly ended relationship, he has come to be an amateur detective as a way to gain a new focus in life. Wimsey is intelligent, only occasionally serious, and a perfect image of the English gentleman. Accompanying Lord Peter is his most excellent manservant Bunter, who served with him in the war and has become a loyal and true companion. Bunter is the straight man for many of Wimsey's quips and quotes, but has a wry wit of his own, and is probably the first forensic photographer in detective fiction. Lord Peter's other aide in this and ensuing tales is Inspector Parker who is of the same age and equally bright in his own right. A man after my own heart, Parker reads theology for entertainment. While the detection style has much of the same cerebral quality which mark many of Holmes' adventures, Wimsey and his companions are far more accessible than the 'Consulting Detective.' Sayer's has a unique ability to do caricature, creating little gemlike performances for each of the people who parade through her stories. Be they somewhat dull policemen to distinguished surgeons, nobody is unmemorable. The wonderful characters, and Wimsey's own unique charms are very much the reasons that ''Whose Body' and the rest of the tales remain rereadable long after the plot has been completely memorized. Hopefully, you are a reader newly come to the world of Lord Peter and can look forward to the delights of this discovery. Dorothy Sayers is very much in a class by herself, both in terms of her own achievements and because of the history of her most remarkable invention, Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes it's good to be silly.
Review: While it's true that "Whose Body?" is not up to the standard of Sayers' best work ("Nine Tailors" comes to mind), it's an entertaining read if you're looking for something light and amusing. All Sayers' books about Lord Peter are different, and that is part of their charm. The hero can be brittle and witty, frivolous or deadly serious, exquisitely sensitive and tactful, or just the opposite--and who among us is perfectly consistent in real life? Some of the Wimsey mysteries delicately weave insights on many of life's most perplexing issues into the logical framework of detection; others are almost tone poems, with a lyrical sensitivity to mood or scene; some are just romps, a chance for Wimsey, Parker, and Bunter to have a good time (and feel a little bit guilty about it). "Whose Body?" falls into the last category. If you've never read it, it would make a good addition to that beach tote.
Rating:
Summary: Review
Review: With her first book Whose Body? (1923), Dorothy L. Sayers introduced her famous detective Lord Peter Wimsey, or "Sherlock Holmes, disguised as a walking gentleman", and established herself as a mistress of the detective story. Although Lord Peter Wimsey is here perhaps too bright and breezy, he proves to be an entertaining companion to crime, despite his suffering from conscience. He enjoys the detection, "but if it comes to really running down a live person and getting him hanged, or even quodded, poor devil, there don't seem as if there was any excuse for me buttin' in, since I don't have to make my livin' by it. And I feel as if I oughtn't ever to find it amusin'. But I do." The reader, who has no conscience to worry him, enjoys the whole thing without needing to consult their consciences, for the story is bright and amusing, well-written and often very funny, even if somewhat in the Wodehousian vein. Although Lord Peter Wimsey is a vivid but undeveloped character, the rest of the characters are all quite vivid: the Dowager Duchess of Denver is an excellent character, and, by the standards of the day, Sayers seems to have not too much racism / anti-Semitism. Despite all the humour, the serious business of detection is not neglected. Opening with the fine and striking idea of the body in the bathtub-rightly described as an "uncommon good incident for a detective story", and an interesting problem of identity-the trail gets more complicated with the disappearance of Sir Reuben Levy. The murderer's identity is revealed half-way through-a trait that would recur in later Sayers novels, and the pleasure of the second half of the book is in seeing an elaborate, ingenious, and often gory, plot unfold. It is interesting to note that Sayers, an Anglo-Catholic, chose a scientist / atheist as her murderer, a villain who believes that "the knowledge of good and evil is an observed phenomenon, attendant upon a certain condition of the brain cells, which is removable..."-a belief striking at the very core of Christianity, and a belief leading the murderer to the belief that murder is a justifiable action. In this, Sayers resembles Chesterton, and, in particular, "The Wrong Shape". In Lord Peter Wimsey's realisation of the murderer's guilt, Christianity is again apparent, for Wimsey seems to solve the crime through receiving a divine revelation (although the clues are all there-detection from physical clues in the Thorndykean manner): "he remembered-not one thing, not another thing, nor a logical succession of things, but everything-the whole thing, perfect, complete, in all its dimensions as it were and instantaneously; as if he stood outside the world and saw it suspended in infinitely dimensional space. He no longer needed to reason about it, or even to think about it. He knew it." An excellent first attempt at the detective story, and the reader can agree with Wimsey that although "this is only a blinkin' old shillin' shocker ... we're up against a criminal-the criminal-the real artist and blighter with imagination-real, artistic, finished stuff. I'm enjoying this."
Rating:
Summary: The Man With The Monocle
Review: You will be pleased to meet Lord Peter Wimsey, collector of rare literature, his faithful servant Bunter, meticulous and precise and a strange corpse, who dropped into a bath unexplainably. Although the mystery was quite intruiging the characters well developed, the fact that the murderer was, indeed, the prime suspect from the very beginning was a let-down. A definite must for any Sherlock Holmes fan!
|
