"His long, amiable face looked as if it had generated spontaneously from his top hat, as white maggots breed from Gorgonzola..."
This first Lord Peter Wimsey novel, 'Whose Body?', was published in 1923 and proved to be enormously popular.
Lord Peter's first case opens on a particularly curious note: a stark naked body is found lying in a bathtub--with a pair of golden pince-nez glasses deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the victim's face appeared to have been shaved after death.
Lord Wimsey is an intriguing character: the younger son of an aristocratic family, dilettante, collector of rare books, he likes solving crimes because it breaks the boredom.
He gives off a seemingly nonchalant attitude towards everything. But Lord Wimsey is still dealing with shell shock after his service in WWI.
(We also get a hint that there's a traumatic romantic disappointment in his past.)
In summary, he's what very few women can resist: a damaged man.
Put that together with his intelligence, wit and being the most sought-after bachelor in London and you have a winning combination.
Lord Peter's energy is contagious straight from page one and it's also a pleasure to follow his faithful manservant, Bunter, who, à la Jeeves, patiently suffers his master's eccentric activities.
DOROTHY L. SAYERS (1893-1957) the bestselling author of numerous novels is one of the most respected writers of fiction. A renowned English crime writer and poet, she was also a student of classical and modern languages. For sheer emotional force, few practitioners of narrative prose can equal her. Her works have been translated into numerous languages and have been made into scores of movies. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between the First and Second World Wars that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, which remain popular to this day.
