Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers

[meganbmoore]

Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey books is a series I've been meaning to read for some time.  I've seen a BBC production of one of the books (involving, IIRC, Wimsey's sister's fiance being murdered and both her and their brother being suspects) but never read one.

Peter Wimsey is an upperclass gent in 1920s England, and a war veteran. At first glance, he comes across as (as I believe smillaraaqworded it to me a few days ago) "a superscilious upper-class fool."  I think my personal description would be "overly-absorbed, facetious twit."  This does, however, seem to largely be a surface personality, and the "real" Peter Wimsey is a determined, observant investigator who often aids Scotland Yard, dragging his valet, Bunter, along with him.  Most fans of the series I know seem to be fans primarily for later books in the series (which is also one of the draws for me, but I mustmustmust start series at the beginning) but this book stands up well on it's own.

Mostly a straightforward "whodunnit?" murder mystery, Wimsey is made aware of a body found in a bathtub wearing nothing but an expensive pince-nez, at the same time a prominent financier goes missing.  While there is an obvious conclusion to be drawn, and one Scotland Yard's investigator eagerly jumps at, Wimsey has his suspicions, though, and lauches his own investigations into the matter.

Mixed in, though, are hints and references to Wimsey's past, indicating that the war caused a mental breakdown of some sort, including a scene where he hallucinates that he's back in the war.  Perhaps I've simply encountered it too much in fiction and am jumping to conclusions, but I am assuming that Bunter is a war buddy of some sort, who entered Wimsey's service after the war.  (If so, it's a setup I typically find interesting.)

I have a confession to make, though:  I often got distracted from the plot by the excellent, witty dialogue, and had to reread some parts because of that.  And I probably still missed something...

Comments

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I've seen a BBC production of one of the books (involving, IIRC, Wimsey's sister's fiance being murdered and both her and their brother being suspects) but never read one.

That would have been Clouds of Witness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clouds_of_Witness) (spoilery Wiki page, but if you've seen the TV version I assume you're quite spoiled already); it's one of the books that were filmed with Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter back in the 1970s. I must confess rather shamefacedly that I have never seen any of the Carmichael versions -- they have their own fierce fan contingent, but since I came to the books by way of the Edward Petherbridge TV versions, he is THE perfect Lord Peter in my head and I'm not quite sure I could deal with someone else in the role.

And this honestly was one of the weakest of the lot for my tastes, not to say that it's a bad book but they just get better and better; so if you enjoyed this one, I have fairly high hopes that you'll like the rest of the series, too.

Most fans of the series I know seem to be fans primarily for later books in the series

I love both the pure mysteries and the Harriet-and-Peter books, but in different ways. The mysteries are light and witty, delightful period pieces chock-full of sparkling dialog and charmingly eccentric characters, the ones with Harriet add much more depth and heart to the formula.

Mixed in, though, are hints and references to Wimsey's past, indicating that the war caused a mental breakdown of some sort, including a scene where he hallucinates that he's back in the war. Perhaps I've simply encountered it too much in fiction and am jumping to conclusions, but I am assuming that Bunter is a war buddy of some sort, who entered Wimsey's service after the war.

Yep, Sergeant Bunter was Major Wimsey's batman during the Great War, and as I was mentioning in Cho's journal the other day, Peter suffered from a severe case of shell-shock. (Nothing terribly spoilery about this, this background is mostly just referred to in bits and pieces throughout the series without ever being a real plot point.) Bunter saved Peter's life during the war, and they made an agreement that if both survived, he'd take up service with Lord Peter when they resumed civilian life.

I often got distracted from the plot by the excellent, witty dialogue, and had to reread some parts because of that

Nothing wrong with that: I fell in love with these, and have reread them many times over the years, for the dialog and characters and literary and philosophical ramblings, not the plots. Without looking up references, I'd stand a better chance telling you which stories have passages going on about Bach fugues, or wine, or artistic temperaments, or the timelessness of ducks, rather than who got killed and whodunit.

BTW, if you want to be really, really strict about reading in pure story-chronological order, you should hurry up and get the short-story compilations: after Clouds of Witness, there are a bunch of stories that fall in the gap between the second and third novels (and you might even want to skip back to the one story that takes place before Whose Body?, which shows Peter first taking up his detective hobby.) There's a fairly thorough non-spoilery timeline here (http://www.leftfield.org/~rawdon/books/mystery/sayers.html) -- the only thing it's missing is Jill Paton Walsh's latest, A Presumption of Death, which is set in 1939, between the last two short stories "The Haunted Policeman" and "Talboys".

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

I'm from the Ian Carmichael period, although I enjoyed Petherbridge. But this series is my alltime favorite mystery series, and it still holds up very well as a picture of post WWI Britain.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I'm a Petherbridge fan, because I think he's much more like Book!Lord!Peter than Carmichael is. But also, he benefitted from being in the adaptations of the Harriet Vane entries in the series, and I much prefer those to the non-Harriet books.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

I do love me some Lord Peter Wimsey.

I also see that a lot of points have already been addressed, but I did want to chime in and say that the books tend to get better as they go on. For me, that's less about the Peter/Harriet books and more about the stories becoming more cohesive and richer as she fleshed out the characters. Last spring, I went back and read Whose Body, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, etc. and in many ways Lord Peter felt like a caricature of himself in the early stories, compared to the character you see later.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Weird timing -- I was just digging through a box of books yesterday and found this, along with a couple other Sayers novels.

[ladysaotome.livejournal.com]

I just recently finished reading all the Wimsey novels (in 2 months) excepting the compilations which I'm working on at the moment. I loved the books from the opening swear in Whose Body but Wimsey affection steadily grows throughout. Tried sitting through an Ian Charmichael version of The Nine Tailors but disliked it too much to finish (they spoiled the entire mystery right from the beginning?!).

I did sometimes skim when the descriptions took up multiple paraghraphs, etc. But otherwise, they are fun to read. I have to confess I loved Bunter most, though, & was highly disappointed that his role decreases as the series progresses.