Whose Body

by  Dorothy Sayers

This is the first book by this author about her amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.  Peter is a man of means who likes to try his hand at solving crimes.  The book was originally published in 1923, there is a great deal of class snobbery and anti semitism in it.

Wamsey has an acquaintance in the police force that he enjoys working with.  There is another police official who does not appreciate him getting involved in cases.

There are two cases that pop up about the same time, one a wealthy financier apparently vanishes from his bedroom.  In the other case a naked corpse, wearing only a monical is found in the bathtub of a London architect.

The police arrest the architect who denies all knowledge of the yet to be identified man.

It is Peter Wimsey who eventually figures out that the culprit in both crimes is a local doctor.  The doctor had a grudge against the financier, and killed him, dressing up as the man and pretending to come home, only to be discovered absent the next day.

The dead man in the tub is a corpse donated to the hospital for medical teaching purposes.  The doctor put the financier in the coffin intended for the donated corpse and crawled along the roofs of buildings to dispose of the donated corpse.  He took advantage of an open window in the architect's house to dispose of the building. However he shaved the corpse and fixed him up so he would appear to be a gentleman and not a worker.  Wimsey had noticed that the man's hands made it appear that he was a labourer.

It was an interesting story but I prefer mysteries where there is a bit more description of setting and character development.  As early mysteries go I think Agatha Christie's are much better written.