Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers
Feb. 25th, 2008 02:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreSayers'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 believesmillaraaqworded 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...
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...
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no subject
Date: 2008-02-26 06:00 pm (UTC)I was expecting the bad writing and the wooden characters and the blatantly plagiarized passages and all that. But while I was expecting the plot to be stupid, I really wasn't prepared for it to literally be at the level where divine intervention had to be involved!
The heroine, a conveniently widowed and implausibly-named redheaded young mother, is killed off within the first two or three chapters by a renegade band of Bad Indians and their Bad White Buddies, who in an earlier chapter had gone and critically wounded the Mighty Wang hero (also a convenient widower). Bad Renegade Leader, who's been exiled from his tribe ever since Mighty Wang exposed his badness, steals her infant son (who of course has easily recognizable red hair and a birthmark) as a present for his sister, who is not bad but has gone into exile anyway out of loyalty to her brother and love for one of his Bad White Buddies. Her Bad White Husband has been killed while out doing Bad Things with her brother, and the shock and grief provoked a miscarriage for reasons of plot, so he's hoping a random white baby he found lying around will perk her up...hey, FTD and Hallmark hadn't been invented yet.
So, the hero's off dying in the woods and the heroine is dead. In a perfect world, the story would have ended there. But nooooooo. Our heroine now has an audience with God, who explains that she has a choice to go on to heaven or return to earth as an angel, where she will be tested and yadda yadda if she passes she will be given the chance to come back to life and eventually be reunited with her son yadda yadda yadda. And it just gets stupider and stupider from there.
Also, Mighty Wang hero has a hunting dog who routinely pulls off "what's that, girl, Sexy-Modifier-Sexy-Animal fell down the well?" stunts.
And did I mention the really, really bad poetry?
Or the evil character who's been an enabler and coconspirator of one of the main villains -- until the main baddie caught out and exiled, and then suddenly the supporting baddie just stops being bad?
Or remember the stolen baby? Who was still nursing when he was stolen? Which the author conveniently manages to forget all about over the course of several days worth of story time and multiple sex scenes including lots of breast stimulation, until she finally decides the heroine suddenly needs to develop a case of painful milk engorgement for reasons of plot? (Insert huge S_D style "BREASTS DON'T WORK THAT WAY" tag here.)
And if you thought her prose was bad...wait 'til you see her idea of poetry.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-26 06:32 pm (UTC)I think I'll save myself. (If I don't get rid of the other 2 sitting here soon, though, I may cave to temptation...)
One thing of curiosity, though: The villain in SA was portrayed as evil at least partly because he wanted to rape the heroine...but not simply because he wanted to rape her, but because he wanted to rape her because he thought she was a boy. Something like that I wouldn't have noticed in high school, but I'm wondering if it's a common element in the books.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-26 06:54 pm (UTC)So far, there's been no crossdressing in either one, so maybe that was just a special touch for SH? SG didn't have any rape attempts, Savage Persuasion so far has had one at the very beginning -- the heroine and her twin sister are assaulted, as they expected they might be, by their skeezy drunken uncles who may or may not have been responsible for killing the girls' parents while placing the blame on Indian raiders.
(The girls are identical twins...except for notably non-identical eye color. MONOZYGOTIC TWINS DON'T WORK THAT WAY, etc.)
no subject
Date: 2008-02-26 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-28 12:06 pm (UTC)Along with the "gay = evil rapist" and "woman should do whatever the man says" of the book you waded through, I bet you'd loooooooove the two I've been battling with. They add in "fat = evil", "poor hygiene = evil", "woman who likes sex too much but isn't goopy about motherhood = evil", and oh yeah, "crossdressers = ok, maybe not quite *evil*, but definitely pathetic, unmanly, and good only for mockery and working as beauticians".
Stupid, OTOH, does not equal evil in the Edwards-verse, because at this point I'm pretty sure the only character with an IQ higher than room temperature is the dog in Savage Grace...
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Date: 2008-02-28 05:39 pm (UTC)Sadly, there was no pet in SH to bring up the general IQ level...
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Date: 2008-02-29 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 09:17 pm (UTC)And it's still a pretty minor quibble next to the other book's "heroine comes back from the dead" deus ex machina, but still...I think what makes it particularly noxious here is that even with the eye-color difference to conveniently tell them apart, the plot such as it is mostly hinges on the girls constantly being mistaken for each other, to the point where the Poor Dumb Injuns are confused and freaked out and thinking spirits are at work until the Nice White Girls explain about twins.
No, REALLY.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 10:23 pm (UTC)That book sounds even more brain cells killing than the one I read.
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Date: 2008-02-29 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 03:53 pm (UTC)I brought the Savage WTFeverit'scalled with me to work...
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Date: 2008-02-29 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 07:24 pm (UTC)