Whose Body?

Description

Whose Body? is among the best novels by Sayers, the woman master of detective stories rivaled only by Agatha Christie. Dorothy L. Sayers was mostly known for her work as a medieval scholar, notably for her translation of Dante, the novel being actually the first of her lighter writings, but already a mature novel in all respects.

The story starts when a dead body is discovered in a bathtub. This is when the prototype of the gentleman detective, Lord Peter Wimsey starts investigating and puts all his intelligence and originality into the service of the endeavor. Parallel with the discovery of the corpse, the reader also learns about the disappearance of a well-known financier and Wimsey sets out to discover whether the two cases are connected in any way.

Sayers’ novel is not only written in a style that keeps the attention of the reader engaged up to the last word, but it also features structural elements that add even more excitement. In a way, it is the style and the structure that make the novel so great – the outcome of the story itself can be predicted to a certain extent and the identity of the murderer can be guessed quite early on.

However, predictability does not diminish the value of the novel in any way – the characters, including not only the often frivolous detective, but also the villain who is sadistic and evil, are all so well-penned, so complex and eccentric, the events are so well integrated into the plot that the novel engages the reader’s attention to the very end. The story is exhilarating and charming at the same time – Sayers certainly made a powerful debut and, unsurprisingly, she instantly established herself as one of the finest novelists of her times.
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