Lord Peter Views the Body
1928
Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey is no ordinary detective. He's an aristocrat with a passion for rare books, fine wine, and solving murders that baffle Scotland Yard. In these twelve stories, first published in 1928, Sayers reveals a darker, more grotesque strain than in her full-length novels. Here is the man with copper fingers, the stolen stomach, the cat in the bag. Here are corpses in odd places and clues that include cyanide, jewels, and a classic crossword puzzle. The wit remains impeccable, but there's an edge of the macabre, a taste for the bizarre that elevates these tales beyond mere puzzle-box mysteries. Sayers blends elegant prose with razor-sharp dialogue, sending her gentleman detective into a world where British aristocracy meets the body's grimmer realities. For readers who want their mysteries clever, their detectives cultured, and their corpses thoroughly strange.
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“And upon his return, Gherkins, who had always considered his uncle as a very top-hatted sort of person, actually saw him take from his handkerchief-drawer an undeniable automatic pistol.It was at this point that Lord Peter was apotheosed from the state of Quite Decent Uncle to that of Glorified Uncle””
— Dorothy L. Sayers
“Nobody minds coarseness, but one must draw the line at cruelty-Lord Peter Wimsey””
— Dorothy L. Sayers
“Ah! childhood! You’re living the happiest days of your life, young man. You won’t believe me, but you are.””
— Dorothy L. Sayers
“Lord Peter gave it as his opinion that book-collecting could be a perfectly manly pursuit. Girls, he said, practically never took it up, because it meant so much learning about dates and type-faces and other technicalities which called for a masculine brain.””
— Dorothy L. Sayers
“It is not known why motorists, who sing the joys of the open road, spend so much petrol every weekend grinding their way to Southend and Brighton and Margate, in the stench of each other’s exhausts, one hand on the horn and one foot on the brake, their eyes starting from their orbits in the nerve-racking search for cops, corners, blind turnings, and cross-road suicides. They ride in a baffled fury, hating each other. They arrive with shattered nerves and fight for parking places. They return, blinded by the headlights of fresh arrivals, whom they hate even worse than they hate each other.””
— Dorothy L. Sayers
“I has such a sinking in my inside I has to get up and eat biscuits.””
— Dorothy L. Sayers
“The young man, whose reddish hair, long nose, and slightly sodden eyes gave him the appearance of a dissipated fox, greeted Wimsey with a disagreeable stare.””
— Dorothy L. Sayers
“On the morning of the wedding-day, Lord Peter emerged from Bunter's hands a marvel of sleek brilliance. His primrose-coloured hair was so exquisite a work of art that to eclipse it with his glossy hat was like shutting up the sun in a shrine of jet; his spats, light trousers, and exquisitely polished shoes formed a tone-symphony in monochrome.””
— Dorothy L. Sayers
“In my day one had to have either brains or beauty to get on -- preferably both. Nowadays nothing seems to be required but a total lack of figure.””
— Dorothy L. Sayers
