Lord Peter Wimsey - Whose Body? - Book 1

Welcome to the Whose Body group read.

Please alert or hide spoilers when you can. And maybe we can open the discussion to include spoilers generally say around the 15?

Thanks! I've starred this thread for future reference.

> 2 Yes. I have also.

I've got a couple of holdover books from last year (heh) which I should finish tomorrow, then I'll get to Whose Body?. It's been awhile since I read it so looking forward to this.

I'm also reading along with The Lord Peter group - an email discussion group. If anyone is interested in that group let me know and I'll send you info on it.

I guess I should have also added that I'll begin listening to the audio version on the way home tomorrow. I have about 3 hours remaining of another audio book. When it's done, I'll begin Whose Body?. I should be close to a good stopping place where I can take a pit stop and punch the buttons on the phone without violating any driving laws about using phones.

Count me in! I just downloaded the eaudiobook and plan to start it this evening. My narrator is Roe Kendall.

>6 lkernagh: I've got the Roe Kendall audiobook too. I started listening to it this afternoon. It is fun hearing Peter and Bunter piffle.

I've been reading the Lord Peter books in order for a few years now. My next read will be Gaudy Night which is the twelfth book, but I will be dropping in to see how everyone is doing throughout the year.

Well, after two false starts, I am now 5 chapters in and really enjoying it!

I should finish up Whose Body? either on the way to or from church tonight.

>10 thornton37814: an audio book...I hope? 😉

>11 fuzzi: Yes. I finished the audio book tonight!

I started my reread Whose Body? last night, but was too sleepy to get far.

I'm enjoying my re-read, er listen. Listening to the piffle between Peter and Bunter is a hoot. Well, between Peter and anyone really. Altho the duchess obvious dissing of Jews is a bit jarring, but then fits with the times.

Parker is a distinct difference from Watson given some folks comparison of LPW's similarity to Sherlock. But Peter has far more astute accomplices.

Also, I love the idea of finding a dead person in the bathtub rather than some mundane place like a library. ;)

>14 majkia: It was an unusual location for a body!

I finished my audio 'reread' of Lord Peter yesterday, too. I ended up fairly pleased with the narrator - and, of course, it's always a pleasure to be with Lord Peter and Bunter.

I love how "Sherlocking" is a verb in this story!

I just saw this and will make a note to visit for next month's read Clouds of Witness. This is another series where I have read the books out of order.

>18 lsh63: Glad to have you!

Don't forget that several books in this series were adapted for television. Ian Carmichael played Wimsey, and he's who I see in my mind as I read the books.

Ooh, look! Someone's uploaded them to YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYvjYjvA1EG7S08WKEExdYQ/videos

>20 fuzzi: - Oooohhh.... bookmarking the YouTube channel. Many thanks for posting the link!

I finished my combined audio-ebook read of Whose Body? this evening. I really enjoyed the story but I found I was too distracted to pay proper attention to the audiobook on its own. Was happy to discover and purchase a copy of The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries for my ereader, so I am now set for remainder of the group read.

>22 lkernagh: I have a hard time keeping focused on audiobooks, so I only read paper now (with an occasional ebook).

I love audiobooks. I've trained myself to pay more attention to them. But sometimes distractions happen so I have to back up and re-listen sometimes. It took some time to learn the tricks to audiobooks though, for me.

>24 majkia: I've only come to enjoy audiobooks in the last two years or so - initially, they all seemed too slow! I frequently do a read/listen combo, but more and more often, now, I listen to a book in its entirety. Originally, I stuck with cds from the library, but I finally broke down an got Audible when there was a deal last summer. Whose Body? was from Audible - Clouds of Witness will be library cds. I truly prefer Audible, now.

>25 Dejah_Thoris: Dejah, I also struggled with audios at first, finding them way too slow, I now usually up the speed to 1.25 and that works much better for me. I love audios, but I also had to train myself to listen and not get distracted.

>24 majkia: >26 DeltaQueen50: I definitely agree that it takes some self-training to focus and follow - I've greatly improved. I tries going up to 1.25 once a while back, but I bailed pretty quickly because that seemed TOO fast. I suppose I ought to try it again, although now I do a better job focusing (from an actor's viewpoint) on the performance itself.

I read most of the Wimsey books as a teenager, and out of order, too. I listened to the audio of Whose Body? a couple of years ago and was surprised by Wimsey's PTSD. I didn't remember that from my first time through the series. I'm not even sure I knew what PTSD was then. Not sure if this is really a spoiler but hiding the comment just in case!

>28 cbl_tn: I think the television series touched upon that, and Wimsey's service.

I finished the book last night, and enjoyed my reread, though the identity of the murderer came back to me at one point, aha!

Yes, the identity of the killer came back to me pretty quickly too.

There's been a lot of discussion on LordPeter about how different the books are. Text differences. Primarily around what DLS could put in the book to say that the man in the bath was or wasn't Jewish. She couldn't make it clear about circumcision, they wouldn't let her. So it was a question of talking around that.

>30 majkia: good point, didn't think of that.

I read all the books in the mid-70s, so I don't recall much about differences between them. I'll keep that in mind as I reread for this challenge.

I'm afraid I've read Whose Body? enough times that I remembered quite clearly who the murderer was, but that makes for interesting reading/listening, too. Knowing the end result let's you watch for the clues as well as the red herrings and to admire the structure of the mystery, not to mention the relationships she develops.

Possible spoilers ahead:

>28 cbl_tn: Part of why I like the Lord Peter series so much is because Sayers endows Peter with lingering issues from his military service. It isn't just the flashbacks - it's also his real horror of making decisions that affect others. It appears again and again throughout the books - investigation is a distraction for Peter, an intellectual exercise, but he doesn't always like the end results. While he can agree that it's for the good of society to catch and punish murders, he cannot escape the self-imposed guilt arising from the fact that only his intervention prevented the criminal to escape payment for their crime(s).

I think Sayers does a remarkably fine job (particularly as a first time novelist) developing Lord Peter - and his relationships with those close to him - over the course of the novel. initially, he does come off as a fatuous ass, but by the end, Lord Peter has been exposed as a flawed, sensitive, even damaged person of great intelligence, whose social persona is a mask or shell protecting him. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, here I suspect, knowing the later novels as well as I do, but still - Whose Body? never disappoints me.

Of the recurring characters, Bunter is my favorite I think. After Peter of course.

On this reread of the novel, I was struck most by the moments when Sayers experiments with point of view, as in the exhumation scene and, to a lesser degree, the interview of the medical student and Lord Peter's shellshock flashback. While a smidge clumsily done at times, the integration of additional or nontraditional perspectives enhances the novel, I think.

Like several others, I also listened to this one; my edition was a new one from Mark Meadows, and I think he did a great job with the wide range of voices and accents. The antisemitism and other distasteful features can't be avoided, of course, but with a good narrator moving along briskly (I listened at my usual 1.25-1.5 speed), it's easier to ignore them and focus on the high points, like Lord Peter's chatty banter and speculation. I particularly enjoy the bit where he's propounding all sorts of theories about the owner of the pince-nez.

I enjoyed the revisit to Whose Body. I don't do rereads very often which probably helps because I didn't remember the murderer. I probably this edition soon after I bought it on sale in the '90s. So maybe my memory is not that bad after all. My favourite character is Bunter who seems to be the most level headed one and truly caring of Lord Peter which we get from his thoughts after Lord Peter has his bad night. It almost sounds like there was a connection between the two of them during the war. Not sure if Sayers actually goes there in later books. I can't remember that either.

I just found out about this thread. Great! I love the Lord Peter mysteries, especially the ones with Harriet.

>32 Dejah_Thoris: Really well said. It was a surprise the first time around to learn of his vulnerability and doubts.

>35 Familyhistorian: Not giving away what and how, but yes, there is and you do know about it.

I started reading these as a teen - Peter was my first literary crush. ahhh! I read them all in order the year before last, so I will dip in here & there with my favourites. When my husband and I moved in together we merged out book collections, with well over 1000 books between us there were about 20 duplicates - several of which were Wimsey books. >:-)

>37 Helenliz: Maybe my subconscious knew that and was giving me a hint but then I thought it might be from a different story somewhere else. I'm sure that connection has been used more than once by more than one writer.

I’m so glad to see the Sayers love here. I re-read all the novels last year (and the short stories, too) so won’t read them again quite so soon.

>20 fuzzi: There are also the Wimsey/Vane productions by the BBC – they only did the first 3 books of the quartet, alas, but they’re fantastic, IMO. Edward Petherbridge played Peter and Harriet Walter played Harriet Vane.

>32 Dejah_Thoris: I’ve read ‘em enough times to remember the murderer, too, but still love re-reading them. I like your spoiler comments.

February Clouds of Witness thread is up. https://www.librarything.com/topic/315976