hospitals in the late 19th and 20th centuries, but it was not common practice in England except for religious reasons.Īt the same time Lord Peter is called to investigate the mysterious appearance of this naked corpse, his friend Parker is investigating the disappearance of Sir Reuben Levy, a well-known financier.īetween the two cases, we manage to squarely hit every nasty Jewish stereotype in the book. Since the one body discovered at the beginning of the story is completely naked, it’s left up to a reasonably knowledgeable reader to infer that the man is circumcised. The central fact of the story is that the two victims bear a superficial resemblance to each other, part of which is that they are both Jewish. We also have to deal with a big, glaring problem in the book: it’s blended, boiled, and baked in anti-Semitism, fried in a vat of anti-Semitism, and dusted with a sprinkle of anti-Semitism on top. It’s not just fear of spoilers that holds me back from discussing the plot. It’s Parker who pushes Wimsey to take the case seriously, and reminds him that solving murders isn’t a game, but a duty to society and to a higher truth. And we get to know his friend Detective Inspector Parker, the thoughtful and methodical bloodhound who provides the hard evidence to back up Wimsey’s flashes of insight. We meet Wimsey’s mother, the Dowager Duchess of Denver, who talks nonsense as glibly as Wimsey himself, all the while observing people and situations just as shrewdly. We also get to know some of the best characters in the Wimsey canon: his stolid manservant Bunter (formerly Sergeant Bunter of Wimsey’s old regiment), who takes care of his schedule, his hobbies, his household and his health with a fierce loyalty. He must figure out which he holds most dear: the sanctity of human life, or the “old boy” code he learned at school? He must forge his own identity as a detective, rather than a dabbler.
This case forces Lord Peter to confront his own motives and ethics. We get to see in depth how Lord Peter uses his hobby of detection to cope with the lingering effects of shell-shock (known to us now as PTSD) from the first World War. Whose Body?, published in 1923, is the first of Sayers’ 12 mystery novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey (though Lord Peter’s first appearance was in the short story “The Attenbury Emeralds” in 1921). The story is so tightly constructed that nearly everything in it connects to a clue, and once you figure out the plot twist, you’ll never be able to forget it. That’s the basic premise of the book, and I’ll be walking on very thin ice to tell you more.
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