Whose Body

[sawyl]

Having an unexpected gap in my reading schedule, I've decided to revisit a few Dorothy L Sayers novels, starting with Whose Body.

When Lord Peter Wimsey learns that Alfred Thipps has found the naked body of a unknown middle-aged man in his bathtub, he naturally an interest. Inspector Charles Parker, meanwhile, has been called in to investigate the disappearance of Sir Reuben Levy, a wealthy middle-aged financier. The only things linking the two events are the friendship of Parker and Wimsey and the fact that Sir Reuben wears pince-nez and the only thing the corpse was wearing when it was discovered was a pair of pince-nez. Are the two cases connected? Is the body in the bath Sir Reuben? If not, whose body is it and how was he killed?

Despite being the first of Sayers Wimsey mysteries, the principal characters are fully formed and as charming as ever: Parker, slightly repressed and unimaginative, but also determined and methodical; Wimsey, brilliant but also flighty and unwilling to accept the really nasty consequences of his actions; the Dowager Duchess, kindly and insightful and given to amazing flights of speech. The murderer, too, is one of Sayers' best: organized, ruthless, conceited, and able to bring the full force of their terrible will to bear on their horrific goal — a truly modern psychopath.