In a twist on the ordinary murder mystery, not only do we not know who done it, we also don’t know who they’ve done it to. Whose is the body that mysteriously appears, overnight, in Mr. Thipps’ bathtub? It certainly isn’t the body of Ruben Levy… but then where is Ruben Levy?
Whose Body? is a medium length book, longer I think than most of the Sherlock Holmes novels, around the length of The Secret Adversary by Christie.
Detective stories are in my opinion usually better for teenagers than younger children, and the villain in Whose Body? is grotesquely cold blooded—besides, naked bodies are being thrown around in the course of the mystery, and in short, I wouldn’t go lower than 15+.
At the bottom are a few concluding sentences if that’s all you need, but for complete spoilers and details, read straight on!
The Plot [spoiler alert!]
Like puzzles, mysteries are easier to explain backwards than forwards. So bear in mind that this is not at all the sequence of events as revealed in the book—but to tell it as revealed would turn my brief synopsis into a thesis paper.
Julian Freke, a surgeon who specializes in criminal pathology and brainy stuff, has an old grudge against Sir Ruben Levy. He’s a thoroughgoing, ruthless villain, and lays the trains of a super complex plan to murder his enemy. Levy is decoyed into Freke’s house, murdered, his body is switched for that of a recently dead autopsy subject, and promptly rendered unrecognizable. The autopsy subject is then deposited, whole, in a (more or less) random person’s bathtub. All this, with a host of additional precautions.
So there the story starts—the sudden and inexplicable disappearance of Ruben Levy on the one hand, and the sudden and inexplicable appearance of who knows whose body in Mr. Thipps’ bathtub. Unravelling the mystery falls to the share of Lord Peter Wimsey—a young nobleman who tries his hand at unravelling criminal mysteries purely for the fun of it. In the end, he uncovers the mystery, Freke is caught just before committing suicide, and justice is served.
I do not recommend a straight course of detective novels to anyone; but reading one or two now and then is a nice change of pace. They’re usually a little terrible—and fear-and-suspicion inducing. In this case the villain is particularly horrible, being (in theory at least) completely without a conscience.
In terms of the mystery, I figured out who it was fairly early on—second or third glimpse of the villain; and by the time Lord Peter was sure, I was sure. Granted, he had unraveled all the details (or most of them), which I certainly had not.
The crux of the mystery—the appearance of a totally random body instead of the missing man’s body—is an unusual enough idea and there are a host of interesting circumstances surrounding it for it to be fairly good.
6/10
The Point
I take it that the point of the book is to be a good detective novel; but there are two issues raised in the course of the book that are worth touching on.
Freke considers the murder he commits as an experiment to prove his theories. He believes that the conscience is only a brain phenomenon that can be controlled and eliminated in a truly “sane” criminal. Since the conscience is only useful in its social aspect, one day the truly autonomous individual will appear and have no need for such a bothersome tormentor. With the help of Freke’s scientific knowledge, he can eliminate it.
To all appearances, Freke succeeds in his experiment, and only by an unforeseeable concatenation of circumstances is he found out. Granted, this perspective is the perspective presented by him (in his intended suicide note and excerpts from his books). I think the theory can be considered to be contradicted by the general tone of the book (witness the criminal’s own name)… but in my opinion the response could have been made more philosophically explicit and satisfying.
Secondly—on Lord Peter’s side there is also an interesting reflection, which is not really integral to the plot of the book but is important to his own character development. He’s a criminal investigator for the fun of it, as previously mentioned, and that causes him some pause. What business does he have rooting out criminals—turning them over to life-altering justice—just for the fun of it? On the other hand, exposing criminals is clearly a good thing. But it’s not a game. As Lord Peter’s sidekick points out, “You want to hunt down a murderer for the sport of the thing and then shake hands with him and say, ‘Well played—hard luck—you shall have your revenge tomorrow!’ Well, you can’t do it like that. Life’s not a football match. You want to be a sportsman. You can’t be a sportsman. You’re a responsible person.”
The reflection is an interesting one. In the end, Lord Peter gives Freke half a chance of getting away—but somehow, Freke fails to commit suicide before his arrest, though he was very near it.
As I generally critique any moral issue I have with a book under this heading, I will mention two other things that are more stylistic than having to do with the moral of the book itself. One swear word is used three or four times in the course of the book (including as the opening word), God is carelessly invoked a few times; and there’s also some borderline humor—Lord Peter’s servant, for instance, throws his master to the dogs in insinuating at an immoral lifestyle, in order to ingratiate himself with the people he talks to in order to get information for the case.
5/10
The Style
Sayers’ style of writing in Whose Body? is direct, straight to her characters’ words and actions, with no narrator reflection except when the narrator takes on the persona of Lord Peter in order to think about the mystery. It brings the story immediately in front of you. It’s full of dialogue, resting on that to show the characters of the protagonists and doing so effectively.
8/10
Conclusion
6/10
I found the plot of Whose Body? fairly unique and not too easy to guess, though the identity of the villain wasn’t hard to sniff out. The book raises some interesting moral questions but doesn’t necessarily do a thorough job of answering them; it’s well written without unnecessary literary flourishes. There’s a good deal of humor in the book, although some of it is borderline inappropriate. All things considered, it’s a good detective story, but not one of my favorites.
You can download an ebook version of Whose Body? for free at Gutenberg.org: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58820
Have any questions or comments about this book? Let me hear them in the comment section below!
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Geneva D 
What do you think?