Whose Body? with eBook

Name: Whose Body? with eBook
Brand: Tantor Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers
ISBN: 9781400181308

Author: Dorothy L. Sayers

Narrator: Roe Kendall

Unabridged: 6 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/09/2009

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

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.

First published in 1923, Whose Body? established the disarmingly debonair—and somewhat foppish—Wimsey as one of the most enduring characters in English literature. It remains one of the most significant (and most charming) of the Golden Age mysteries.

About Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy L. Sayers was born at Oxford on June 13, 1893, the only child of the Reverend Henry Sayers, the headmaster of Christ Church Cathedral School. She was brought up at Bluntisham Rectory, Cambridgeshire, and went to the Godolphin School, Salisbury, where she won a scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford. In 1915, she graduated with first class honors in modern languages. Disliking the routine and seclusion of academic life, she joined Blackwell's, the Oxford publishers, and from 1922 to 1931 served as copywriter at the London advertising firm of Bensons.

In 1923, Dorothy published her first novel, Whose Body? which introduced Lord Peter Wimsey, the hero of fourteen novels and short story collections. She also wrote four other novels in collaboration and two serial stories for broadcasting. Writing full-time, she became Britain's premier crime writer and, in due course, president of the Detection Club. Her work, carefully researched and widely varied, included poetry, the editing of collections, and the translating of the Tristan of Thomas from medieval French.

Dorothy married Arthur Fleming in 1926. In 1928, her father died, and she bought a cottage at Witham, Essex, to accommodate her mother. On the latter's death a year later, Dorothy moved in herself and bought the house next door, turning the two houses into one. There she worked until her death in 1957.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on January 24, 2024

What tremendous fun! No wonder Sayers is considered one of the "Queens of Crime" alongside Agatha Christie. Assigning a motive for the murder of a person without relations or antecedents or even clothes is like trying to visualise the fourth dimension — admirable exercise for the imagination, but......more

Goodreads review by Jack on October 17, 2022

The very first Lord Peter Wimsey novel, and thus the genesis of one of the most engaging characters I've ever encountered, literary or otherwise. Actually, make that at least two (since Bunter is equally astounding), and maybe three (because the Dowager's quite engaging, too). In rereading this, I f......more

Goodreads review by Anne on February 11, 2025

This kind of reminds me of a cross between Agatha Christie's Poirot and PG Wodehouse's Jeeves series. Not as interesting mystery-wise as Poirot and not as funny as Jeeves. The gist is that Lord Peter Wimsey is a gentleman detective (much to the annoyance of his older brother) who has a faithful valet......more

Goodreads review by Melindam on August 20, 2020

Time to meet Lord Peter Wimsey, archetype of amateur gentleman detective & his sidekick, the invaluable valet Bunter. “Bunter!” “Yes, my lord.” “Her Grace tells me that a respectable Battersea architect has discovered a dead man in his bath.” “Indeed, my lord? That’s very gratifying.” “Very, Bunter.......more

Goodreads review by Jaline on July 31, 2017

Dorothy L. Sayers wrote mysteries (notably, the Lord Peter Wimsey series) from the 1920’s through the early 1950’s. She also did translations, such as Dante’s Inferno. She was a controversial writer of her time and a very accomplished one. From letters she wrote, she had begun working out her plot f......more