Whose Body?: Dorothy Sayers first Lord Peter Wimsey novel with Bunter

Written by Dorothy Sayers

Narrated by Deaver Brown

Dorothy Sayers first Lord Peter Wimsey novel with Bunter, the Duchess of Denver and other delightful characters with irony, English banter, wit, passion, and great fun. In an American voice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simply Magazine Inc.
• Release date: Jan 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781614965763

Dorothy Sayers

One of the great mystery novelists of the 20th century, DOROTHY L. SAYERS was born in Oxford in 1893 and was one of the first women to be granted a degree by Oxford University. She wrote more than a dozen Lord Peter novels and short stories, and three more novels were written by Jill Paton Walsh. Sayers was also noted for her Christian writings and plays and her translation of Dante. She died in 1957.

Reviews for Whose Body?

[judygibson-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite series, but this first one had some beginner flaws such as too much exposition. Still, love the characters and can't wait to see them develop.

[lisahistory · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My first full Dorothy L. Sayers as I try to like Lord Peter Wimsey. This one made it easier, as he plays off of the Inspector to untangle a body in a bathtub who is not who it should be. His whimsy is at least enjoyable, although he can be quite nasty at times, which is why he's never been my favorite detective. Excellent story, lots of twists, and a brilliantly macabre solution.

[phoenixcomet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lord Peter Wimsey is back from WWI and has taken up detection as a hobby. When a man is found dead in a bathtub wearing only a pince nez, Lord Wimsey starts investigating.

[nordie_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The stark naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder -- especially with a pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath

Considering this is the first in the series, Wimsey (plus Bunter, plus the Duchess) are strong characters already, with Wimsey being presented with a dead body in a bathroom, whilst the police are investigating the disappearance of Sir Reuben Levy, a financier who disappeared whilst on a night out.

It's fairly evident the significance of the unidentified body, but it's just a case of proving it. The written confession unfortunately, comes late in the book, and is all but redundant, as the reader should have worked it all out for themselves by the time it comes out (and it's all done bar the shouting).

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

On second reading (this time via audio book), I still find Wimsey an utter delight -- I had forgotten or not noticed his interest in early printed works, so that just added to the story for me -- and I found myself chuckling at his witty conversation more than once. Also, I have missed Bunter.

That said -- wow, what a product of its time. While there was nothing fully anti-semitic expressed, the constant need to comment on one of the victim's Jewishness and offer sweeping stereotypical views caused me quite a bit of dismay. I'm taking the opportunity to explore how things I didn't consciously examine in my previous reading may have tainted my worldview, and we'll see how far I get in the re-read of the series.

Also, hilariously, the audio version that I listened to was a legitimately published copy, but had clearly been copied off the CD, including both the change-CD now prompts and a portion obscured by disk damage. It surprises me that a publisher would release digital content in such a poorly edited state. The reader also took some getting used to -- very British, very lugubrious and languid in his speech, with a great many mouth noises as the the tale progressed. Very... authentic.

[chazzifrazz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mr. Thripps discovers a dead body of a man wearing only pince nez, in his bath tube first thing in the morning. After contacting the proper authorities, Thripps puts through a call to the Dowager Duchess, who in turn contacts her son Lord Peter Wimsey thinking he may be able to help Thripps. Lord Peter has a hobby of criminal investigation and this turns into his first serious case.At first it is supposed the victim was a well-known financier. How his body wound up in Thripps’ bath and what connection there is between the two men are more questions to be answered. Wimsey finds himself with a tangle of clues, some good and some leading to dead ends. Among those is if the body isn’t the financier, then where is he?The first of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy Sayers, written in 1923, it is an enjoyable read from the era. I’ve read the series before and am enjoying revisiting them.

[vesper1931 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lord Peter Wimsey begins his investigation when he is called in to a suburban home where a naked body of a man has been discovered in a bath. At the same time a financier has gone missing but is not the dead man.
An interesting mystery, my first Wimsey read but I am unsure that I like the writing style

[infjsarah · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think I read all the Lord Peter Wimsey stories when I was a teenager. Someone suggested one of the novels for my reading group so this was a reread. I struggled with it. I think my tolerance for the style was higher as a teenager! I ended up on a mix of reading and listening to it - fortunately it is short. I remember the 1980s BBC TV version of this which helps in picturing the character and makes him less annoying. But I did struggle with the read so I don't think rereading the rest is on the agenda.

[nx74defiant · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyable classic cozy mystery. Peter is a quirky character. I enjoyed his family too.There is a missing man and a dead body in a bathtub. Peter's mother asks for his help. Are the two cases connected? Of course they are!

[wishanem · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A charming old mystery story about an English nobleman in the 1920's who investigates interesting crimes as a hobby. At first he seems shallow and vain, and is only recommended to the reader by the loyalty of his more down-to-earth hyper-competent servant. However, a core decency and a surprising tragic element provide extra depth to his character over the course of the novel.
The murder mystery moves along at a steady pace without any real surprises or disappointments, and is brought together in a satisfying way.

[themulhern · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent mystery novel. The dated slang is really distracting, and I can't place some of the references. On the other hand, the epistolary bits and the morbid bits are really quite good. The murderer is a true psychopath; but nobody comes out and says it. He's really quite disturbing. The conversations about morality are worth the trouble. The novel is actually a bit like a play, conveying so much through the conversations, and this works very well.My recollection is that in later novels Sayers just got better and better at what she was already clearly exceptionally good at in this, her first detective novel.

[avanders_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

DNF. I really really disliked the audio version of this. I think I might enjoy the book itself, but the audio narration was awful. I generally couldn't tell who was speaking based on voice, tone, or inflection. It seems as if the author herself was reading the audio version I was listening to (no narrator was listed) .. In any event, picking a female narrator for a book in which a vast majority of the characters are male seems ill-planned in the present case. I can't finish this. I will try again w a paper version some day.

[john257hopper · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the first Dorothy Sayers novel I have read and I am fairly sure there won't be another one. I found the central protagonist irritating; obviously meant to be Woodhousian, this personality didn't work for me as a sleuth and he isn't a patch on Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes (though he invokes the latter on a couple of occasions). I thought the plot was just absurdly convoluted and completely unconvincing as recounted in the post-arrest confession of the murderer. Disappointing.

[jbd1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not nearly as good as most of the later Wimsey stories, but the framework is there. An entirely decent quick read, though.

[brokentune · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Original Review (17 March 2014):" ‘You see, Lady Swaffham, if ever you want to commit a murder , the thing you’ve got to do is to prevent people from associatin’ their ideas. Most people don’t associate anythin’ – their ideas just roll about like so many dry peas on a tray, makin’ a lot of noise an’ goin’ nowhere, but once you begin lettin’ ’em string their peas into a necklace, it’s goin’ to be strong enough to hang you, what?’ ‘Dear me!’ said Mrs Tommy Frayle, with a little scream, ‘what a blessing it is none of my friends have any ideas at all!’"There is a certain resemblance between Lord Peter Wimsey and Bertie Wooster and the worlds they both inhabit. Of course, the obvious similarity is that both are somewhat nit-witted upper-class toffs who are aided through life both their valets and a group of strong-willed female relatives - Bertie by his aunts and Peter by his mother.For the first part of Whose Body? I just could not get over this similarity, because it seemed that Mrs Tommy Frayle's circle of friends may as well have included most of the book's characters, including Lord Peter. I just could not find an angle to his character that showed him to be more than a two-dimensional caricature of the Wooster archetype.However, then it happened: Whose Body? presented a pivotal moment that changed my appreciation of Lord Peter and his relationship with Bunter, his old friend and servant. I don't want to spoil this experience of discovery for any prospective readers so I won't go into much detail, but the main reason I came to appreciate Lord Peter - and to be fair this is the only memorable part of the story for me even after only a few short weeks of reading the book - is that he is portrayed as a man of his times. Sayers lifts Wimsey out of the cliche and attributes him with a real world experience and complexity that is lacking not only in Bertie Wooster - who of course was always meant as a caricature - but also other notable fictional contemporaries (maybe with the exception of Poirot).Had it not been for this sub-plot, I am not sure I would have enjoyed the story much at all.Thoughts on re-read (14 March 2020):LoL. This book was so much better on the re-read. Whose Body? was still a far cry from the quality of the rest of the series, but knowing the characters better from the other books gives this story so much more life and depth. I may have laughed out loud when Peter argued with his brother about Peter's hobby of sleuthing:‘I do wish you’d keep out of the police courts,’ grumbled the Duke. ‘It makes it so dashed awkward for me, havin’ a brother makin’ himself conspicuous.’‘Sorry, Gerald,’ said the other, ‘I know I’m a beastly blot on the ’scutcheon.’‘Why can’t you marry and settle down and live quietly, doin’ something useful?’ said the Duke, unappeased.‘Because that was a wash-out, as you perfectly well know,’ said Peter. ‘Besides,’ he added cheerfully, ‘I’m bein’ no end useful. You may come to want me your-self; you never know. When anybody comes blackmailin’ you, Gerald, or your first deserted wife turns up unexpectedly from the West Indies, you’ll realise the pull of havin’ a private detective in the family. “Delicate private business arranged with tact and discretion. Investigations undertaken. Divorce evidence a speciality. Every guarantee!” Come, now.’‘Ass!’ said Lord Denver, throwing the newspaper violently into his armchair.Hehe. Those of you who know, will know. But this made a lot more sense on re-reading. I also enjoyed Peter's relationships with all of the other main characters much more because of knowing how these will develop.It is such a strange first novel for a series, tho. There is a lot more of the feel of a Stevenson story to this than there is of Conan Doyle. This is changed in the later books, of course, but on the re-read I was reminded of a particular Stevenson short story (to name it would be a spoiler). Still, I really liked re-reading this, and would rate the book much higher if the onslaught of Wimsey (which is toned down in the books that follow) weren't such a distraction from the mystery and hadn't, after my first encounter with this book, made me put off reading the second for so long.

[streamsong_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. Lord Peter is a moneyed gentleman about town who enjoys dabbling in mysteries but also occasionally suffers bouts of ‘nerve exhaustion’ from fighting in WWI.In this first installment, a gentleman wakes up to find an unknown, thoroughly naked dead body in his bathtub. Lord Wimsey takes on finding the how, why and who. He is aided by his friend, Detective Parker of Scotland Yard who is coincidentally missing an esteemed Jewish financier – and although the easy solution, embraced by the bungling Inspector Sugg, is that the two are the same, Wimsey soon proves this wrong, but continues to search for a connection in the cases.We also meet Wimsey’s amazingly competent valet Bunter, who along with Wimsey’s mother, are excellent minor characters.It took me a while to engage with the plot, but the characters drew me in.I’ll be back for more.

[eurohackie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A delightfully clever story staring the absolutely adorable Lord Peter Wimsey as a gentleman detective who takes up cases at his fancy. Here, he works with Scotland Yard detective Charles Parker to determine (1) whose body it is that's found in poor Mr. Thripp's bath, and (2) what connection, if any, it may have to a missing financier.The whodunit is twisty and smart, and the unravelling has that nice feeling of anticipation and dread that comes with suspecting the least-possible suspect, or so it appears on the surface.The length of this is closer to a novella than a novel (142 pages, or 70% of the Kindle file), and its not quite as tightly written as the Wimsey short stories, but it is just as much fun. We get a bit more of Lord Peter's character here, too, beyond the witty book collector. Looking forward to the next!

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

2020 reread via audiobook narrated by Ian Carmichael.
I love this series and have read it multiple times since I was introduced to it in my youth. This time I listened to the audiobook instead of reading it since I found an audiobook that was narrated by Ian Carmichael. I loved his narration & the mystery was pleasantly complex enough that I could be entertained even though I clearly remembered the solution.

[fuzzi_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An above-average mystery set in post WWI England, with Lord Peter Wimsey playing amateur sleuth. The mystery is interesting, but the interplay of Wimsey and other characters like his valet Bunter are what makes this more than just another murder whodunit.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, his mother interests him in a case in which a corpse is found in a man's bathtub. Then his friend Detective Parker of Scotland Yard seeks his assistance in locating a missing man. Although Inspector Sugg suggested the man in the tub and Levy were one and the same, Detective Parker and Lord Peter knew evidence suggested otherwise. While the book is well-plotted, the writing style takes a while to engage the reader. I listened to the version read by Nadia May, a pseudonym for Wanda McCaddon. She read a bit more rapidly in places than the ideal speed.

[kmartin802_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the first adventure of Lord Peter Wimsey, amateur detective. His mother brings him his new case when she tells him that a body was found in the bathtub of "the little architect man who is doing the church roof." Lord Peter is intrigued and seizes on the chance to solve the mystery.Then his friend Parker, who is a detective with Scotland Yard, brings him another puzzle. A Jewish financier named Sir Reuben Levy has also disappeared. Lord Peter's mother is a friend of the financier's wife which makes Peter eager to solve this problem too. While Inspector Sugg is certain that the body in the bath and the missing financier are the same man, neither Parker nor Lord Peter believe that to be the case. While Parker and Lord Peter, with the able assistance of his man Bunter, follow the clues and unearth potential villains, we get to know this bright young aristocrat who looks at solving crimes as a hobby and who is a veteran of World War I who came home with flashbacks and nightmares. I enjoyed the witty dialog even though I cringed at some of the stereotypes in the story written in 1923. I liked the way the clues were all presented so that the reader could potentially identify the villain along with Lord Peter.

[zhoud2005 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very happy to discover Dorothy L. Sayers, a true master of classic cozy mystery.

[ashleytylerjohn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Delightful to rediscover Lord Peter Wimsey. This was a surprisingly grisly murder, once all was said and done, but not too much for my delicate sensibilities, thank goodness. Although I can recall have a marked preference for the novels which Harriet Vane appeared in, this was an awfully fun read, it went very quickly, all the characters seemed delightfully differentiated, and I'm so pleased to get to read them all again.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).

[casualfriday_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The body of the title is a naked (except for a pair of glasses) corpse lounging in someone's bathtub. Indeed, who is it? A Jewish business man who has been reported missing? The corpse looks Jewish, but doesn't look like a business man.I downloaded this audio book from my library's Hoopla account, and I did it by accident: I thought it was the first Harriet Vane book, Strong Poison. Instead, it was the first Peter Wimsey book, and like many first books in a series, it lacks the richness of later books and was much more of a simple puzzle-mystery. Still, Wimsey was Wimsey from the start, a brilliant and sensitive man disguised as an upper-class twit. It's amusing just to hear him speak, and his banter with Bunter is delicious.

[sheiladeeth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Whose Body is the first of Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. The book is shorter than later novels in the series, but it stands the test of time well, told with beautifully English voice, combining good manners and bad deeds in a truly enticing blend, and introducing a great protagonist. Lord Peter proves he loves books, reveals his wounded WWI psyche, and retires to his country home… but first there’s a body to be buried and a name to be given. There’s satisfaction in following the arguments, guessing their resolutions, and seeing the pleasing interactions whereby the truth will be revealed. Great characters, great time and place, and the promise of much much more to come.Disclosure: As a treat, I’ve decided to read all the Lord Peter Wimsey novels in order, so this is where I start, and I’m enjoying the ride.

[margaretfield · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

naked body with only pince eres found in bath tub, Lord Peter Wimsey series

[hopeevey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Why haven't I read Sayers before? This is so good!!!

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In his first novel, Lord Peter Wimsey is called on to solve the mystery of a corpse found in the bathtub of a middle-class couple's apartment. The man was a stranger to the homeowners. The police are also investigating the disappearance of financier Sir Reuben Levy. If the man in the bath was Sir Reuben, that would tie both cases together. Wimsey can see that it's not going to be that easy...This is one of the classics from the Golden Age of mystery. The plot and solution are clever, but it relies too much on the confession/disclosure of the murderer. It's been years since I read any of the Wimsey novels, and I had either forgotten or overlooked the first time around that Wimsey suffered from post-traumatic stress from his World War I service.

[laytonwoman3rd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When a mysterious naked body turns up in a bathtub, and a prominent Jewish businessman disappears, Lord Peter tries to put one and one together. He comes to the right conclusion, without any red herrings, (he leaves those to the police, in classic fashion) but it is a bit daunting to follow his reasoning. This was my first Lord Peter Whimsey outing. I was surprised at his character, which struck me as somewhere between Sherlock Holmes and Bertie Wooster, with a hint of American sloppiness of speech thrown in. I see that it was also Sayers' first novel, and other readers have noted that she refined his character over time. That being the case, I may try another. I hope she also cast aside the unmistakable anti-Semitism that stains this story. I thought I was missing something of Wimsey's back story until I realized this was the earliest of his adventures. I can't rate it very highly, but as I said, there is enough there to make me want to see if this series got better.2014

[razinha-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Delightful introduction to a character found by way of a suggested other book in the series. Fascinating that it was published in 1923. I found it more enjoyable, engaging, and intelligent than Conan Doyle's Holmes stories. I might have pushed another star were it not for the Melvillian hyper-detail tedium of an inquest proceeding in the middle.

Ms. Sayers was quite the literary polymath. I hope to find time to read more of these. I'm dead in the water with Doyle's Holmes as it is just dull, but the non inquest parts of Whose Body? were far from it.