Welcome to the Tea, Tonic & Toxin book club and podcast! We’re reading and discussing the best mysteries and detective stories ever written.
Whose Body? (1921) is the first of 16 detective novels published by Sayers, one of the queens of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The story introduces Lord Peter Wimsey, considered the father of the amateur “gentleman sleuth” who will appear in many British novels for decades to come.
Can Wimsey solve a seemingly unsolvable murder? Can you?
Here are some conversation starters and questions here. Please also share your thoughts using the form above!
IS LORD PETER WIMSEY A “TYPICAL ARISTOCRAT”? Did you find Wimsey delightful? Did he bug you? Did he seem like a “typical aristocrat,” or did he seem more complex? Were you able to identify with him? In what ways — and why?
IS BUNTER A TYPICAL SERVANT? What is a “typical servant,” and does Bunter fit that bill? Is Bunter better off than Wimsey (as Wimsey suggests)? In what ways does Bunter hearken back to old-fashioned norms? In what ways is Bunter possibly ahead of his time? And what does Bunter really think about anything?
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH INSPECTOR PARKER? How well do we get to know this guy? What’s his deal? (Throughout Whose Body?, Carolyn kept wanting to know him better.) Are you inclined to like him? Why or why not? (He will return in future stories, including The Nine Tailors.)
DETECTIVE WIMSEY, INSPECTOR PARKER, AND THE BODY IN THE BATH – Wimsey and Parker make quite the detective team. Do they seem on par as detectives, or do they seem Holmes/Watson-like (or Poirot/Hastings-like) to you? What familiar character traits do these two detectives have? What traits make their stand out?
TELLING THE STORY THROUGH DIALOGUE VS. ACTION – Whose Body? contains very little action. Characters sit and talk throughout most of the book. Telling story through action is a much more conventional storytelling technique — Carolyn would argue for good reason.
How did you feel about the dialogue that dominated the pages of Whose Body? Did you want more action? Did you follow the characters’ verbal tics and manners of expression? In what ways did the dialogue engage you or disengage you from the story?
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF REUBEN LEVY: ODE TO TRENT’S LAST CASE – Wealthy business magnate Reuben Levy bears some similarity to Sigsbee Manderson. Levy is the “terrible fighter of the Stock Exchange, who could with one nod set the surly bear dancing, or bring the savage bull to feed out of his hand, whose breath devastated whole districts with famine or swept financial potentates from their seats.” Levy left his home without his watch, checkbook, clothes, or spectacles. And someone impersonated him in his own home.
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Stay mysterious...
