Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

 (Lord Peter Wimsey #1)

212 pages / 5 hrs, 51 mins

"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."  --from the publisher

This book was first published in 1923. I saw it on a list of "bests," so I gave it a try. I found it interesting and engaging. The reader of the audiobook is very good, but was hard to hear at times. I think I would have enjoyed it better by reading it in print. I gave it four out of five stars.

The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh

The Late Scholar: The New Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery; Based on the Characters of Dorothy L. Sayers by Jill Paton Walsh --- 356 pages

This is Paton Walsh's fourth Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane mystery, continuing the story of the noble sleuth and his novelist wife, but the first in which Paton Walsh ventures beyond the plots, articles and notes that Dorothy Sayers left unfinished to chart new territory for the Wimseys.

Lord Peter, who reluctantly assumed the title of Duke of Denver upon his brother's demise in The Attenbury Emeralds, is called upon to exercise the ducal hereditary authority as the "Visitor" or patron to settle a dispute among the Fellows (faculty) of St. Severin's College, Oxford University.  The College finds itself in a precarious financial position, and some of the Fellows want to sell a valuable codex or manuscript from the college library. The money from the sale of the manuscript would then be used to buy land on the outskirts of Oxford that the college can lease for development as part of the postWorld War II building boom. The lease payments will provide a steady stream of much needed income for the college.

The issue has been hotly debated for months and repeated votes have ended in stalemate. And so the Visitor is summoned to settle the dispute. But the actual situation that Peter and Harriet discover upon arrival in Oxford is far more complex. Several Fellows have suffered from a peculiar series of accidents, and one is dead from a fall down a college staircase. The Warden (Chief Adminstrator) of St. Severin's has left his post and no one seems to know where to find him. As more fatal accidents befall the Fellows, Peter and Harriet realize that some person or persons unknown seem to be choosing methods from Harriet's mystery novels to settle old grievances related to the manuscript in question.

A clever mystery and a chance for Peter and Harriet to return to Oxford with all its memories and connections, and to bring their readers with them.

Click HERE to read a recent interview with Jill Paton Walsh discussing the challenges of continuing the saga of Sayers' iconic characters.

The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Paton Walsh

The Attenbury Emeralds: The New Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery by Jill Paton Walsh, Based on the Characters of Dorothy L. Sayers  --- 338 pages.

In her third mystery featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and his wife Harriet Vane, our story begins in 1951. Peter and Harriet, like many in Britain, are coping with the immense political, economic and social consequences of the war. Among these is the death during the Battle of Britain of Peter's nephew, the only son and heir to Peter's elder brother the Duke of Denver. This leaves Peter contemplating the unwelcome probability that he and his own son Bredon are next in line to inherit the dukedom and all its burdens.

The story begins with Harriet reading the obituary of an old Wimsey family friend, Lord Attenbury. Peter is mentioned in relation to an odd scandal, the 1921 disappearance and recovery of a magnificent emerald that was part of the Attenburys' famous collection of heirloom jewels. It was the case that launched Peter --- a shell-shocked veteran of the First World War --- on his career as a detective.

Scarcely has Peter finished recounting the details of that case to Harriet when the new Lord Attenbury --- grandson of Peter's original client --- arrives on his doorstep to beg Peter's help. Someone has filed a challenge contesting the Attenbury's ownership of the jewel. The emerald has spent most of the last thirty years in a safe deposit box at the Attenbury's bank, and the new Lord Attenbury is desperate to sell the stone in order to pay the death duties on his much impoverished estate.

The cast of characters is large and sometimes confusing to the reader as the story moves back and forth between the events of 1921 and the present day. Paton Walsh portrays just how difficult the postwar transition was even for those who welcomed the changes.

The Attenbury Emeralds was published in 2010, and a fourth novel, The Late Scholar, appeared last year in Britain and is scheduled for U.S. publication in 2014. 

Click HERE to see an interview with Jill Paton Walsh discussing the challenges of taking on Dorothy L. Sayers' literary legacy.

A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L. Sayers

A Presumption of Death: A New Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery by Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L. Sayers --- 376 pages

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) was of course one of the great mystery novelists of the "Golden Age" of British detective fiction, and her noble sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey first appeared in 1923 in the novel Whose Body. Sayers wrote eleven novels and two sets of short stories featuring Lord Peter. The best known of these are the four in which Peter meets, pursues, proposes to and marries mystery writer Harriet Vane.

Harriet and Peter meet in Strong Poison when she is being tried for the murder of her lover and Peter is looking for evidence that will exonerate her. At the end of the book he proposes and she refuses to marry him for nothing more than gratitude. In Have His Carcase Harriet has gone off on her own to recover from her ordeal when she stumbles across another gruesome murder. Her recent notoriety makes her instantly a suspect and once again Peter rushes to her defense. The two, working in uneasy tandem, are successful in discovering the real murderer and his motive.

After several intervening novels sans Harriet, the two are reunited in Gaudy Night. Harriet has been invited to attend a gaudy (something like a reunion) at her college in Oxford; it turns out the college is being harrassed by someone with a grudge against the scholars and dons, and Harriet is asked to quietly investigate and avert a scandal. She invites Peter's assistance and begins to seriously consider whether it's possible for a marriage to be a real partnership of equals. When the mystery is resolved, Peter proposes for the last time --- and Harriet makes up her mind at last. The last novel, Busman's Honeymoon, was adapted from a successful West End play of the same name, and finds Peter and Harriet embarking on matrimony and finding a corpse in their honeymoon cottage.

Sayers subsequently published one more short story, 'Tallboys," that shows us the Wimseys' domestic life. Sayers turned to other interests, but during World War II she published a series of articles known collectively as "The Wimsey Papers," describing the Wimseys coping with the challenges of wartime. Sometime in the 1930s Sayers began, but put aside unfinished, another Wimsey-Vane novel. Sixty years later the manuscript re-surfaced in her publisher's office in London.

The trustees of Sayers' estate contracted with British author Jill Paton Walsh to complete the book, which was finally published in 1998 under the title Thrones, Dominations, a mystery set during the run up to World War II.

In 2002 Paton Walsh published A Presumption of Death, using materials and ideas from "The Wimsey Papers." The story is set in 1940, at the start of the London Blitz. Peter and Bunter have been sent on a secret mission against the Germans by British Intelligence. Harriet has taken the children, and the children of Peter's sister Mary, to the relative safety of their house in Hertfordshire. But even quiet Paggleham is suffering the effects of war: refugees billeted in the village; dashing young RAF pilots from nearby airfields and land girls working on local farms upsetting village notions of propriety; and the blackout and rationing regulations have everyone feeling anxious. When the village's first air raid drill ends with the discovery of a dead body in the middle of the village square, Harriet is asked to assist the local police in their investigation.

Paton Walsh has combined a clever mystery with a vivid evocation of the fears and uncertainties of the opening months of the war, with Britain confronted by an enemy at its gates and a government that did not inspire confidence.

For fans of Lord Peter and Harriet, it's particularly wonderful to see their story continue. If you are not familiar with the original books by Dorothy L. Sayers I suggest you start with them. Click HERE to find the Wikipedia article on Sayers with a list of the titles.