Whose Body?
- 212
- Pages
- about 4 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Whose Body?” introduces Lord Peter Wimsey in a short, witty puzzle that plays fair with the reader. An unidentified body turns up in a bathtub, and Sayers handles the riddle with a light touch and the manners of the English upper class between the wars. Some readers feel this debut would have gained from more polish. The Wimsey novels start here.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Whose Body? is a 1923 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers first published in the UK by T. Fisher Unwin and in the US by Boni & Liveright. It was her debut novel, and the book in which she introduced the character of Lord Peter Wimsey. Clouds of Witness (1926) would be the next novel in which the character appears.
Reading order · Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries
Full order & progress →- Whose Body?This book
7.47.4 / 10 - Clouds of Witness
7.67.6 / 10 - Unnatural Death
7.67.6 / 10 - The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
7.77.7 / 10 - Strong Poison
7.87.8 / 10 - Five Red Herrings
–Not ranked yet - Have His Carcase
–Not ranked yet - Murder Must Advertise
–Not ranked yet - The Nine Tailors
–Not ranked yet - Gaudy Night
–Not ranked yet - Busman's Honeymoon
–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.2 across 168 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 53% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Classics average of 7.7. That is how 7.4 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.6 | 29 | 17% |
| Hardcover | 6.9 | 139 | 83% |
Frequently asked
How long is Whose Body??
It has 212 pages — shorter than 96% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 7.3 and 7.6, closest to this book.
