Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

The naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder--especially with a pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the mystery of the corpse in the bath.

Clever plot, but tedious detail causes the plot to move at a glacial pace. And the humour was no doubt funny in 1923, but isn't 98 years later. Wimsey's mode of speech is ludicrous, losing ending “g”'s like an Irishman and sprinkling “don't you know” and “what?” at the end of half his sentences. This is in addition to the casual racism of “a bit of Tar-baby in his background” and a “decent enough Jew”. Very very dated and not for me. No Lord Peter Wimsey in my future.

Lord Peter, the sleuth
gentlemen need their hobbies
his involves corpses.

Love this author and her books. On to the next one! :)

I have a hard time to put away a book I don't like, to stop reading it feels like admitting defeat. I know that I won't finish it but I won't admit it and I try to read, for months, and then I give it up.

We were watching a quiz show my dad and I and he got the question “Who wrote the books about Lord Peter Wimsey?” right and I was pretty impressed by that. Dad said he knew because grandma used to read them. So I wanted to read these books, but I won't because the first one was putting me to sleep. I would love to have a cup of tea with my grandma and ask her what it is about the books that she likes, maybe she could convince me to give it another try? I wish I had known my grandma better, I wish she was still around. I think I would have appreciated her more now when I'm older.