A review by tombomp
Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers
3.0
All pretty enjoyable because Sayers is a good writer, but the mysteries themselves are mixed quality. The crossword one is really impressive and a few of the others are interesting and comment on the mystery genre itself but the longest story is a bit silly (one of the main elements had no use at all and was actively dangerous to the plan, which relied upon a really major but highly unlikely thing another person did that everyone else in the story tried to stop, and that going exactly according to how they wanted it as well). Enjoyable but not a stellar collection. Worth reading if you enjoy mystery stuff though cause Sayers is great, even if she has her own ridiculous prejudices. She can convincingly write a charming detective and funny dialogue (not laugh out loud funny, but smile-raising), which is rare among detective writers.
A side note, an example of the bizarrely twisted morality at work in these sorts of books: an uncle makes a will leaving all his money to his sister and his niece, but hides it. His niece is a socialist and he doesn't like her. He makes an easily findable will that leaves all his money to an organisation promoting the Tories. Lord Peter Wimsey thinks this is hilarious and doesn't see why he should help find the first will, cause he doesn't like socialists (the author whines about socialism in other books in the series too, sadly). Yet there's no mention of the uncle's sister doing anything "wrong", and in fact she's disabled and needs an expensive operation! She was in fact a witness to the easily findable will, where she was given a silver teapot. That's it. The uncle seems like a cruel man who punishes his sister for no reason at all but I guess a woman possibly dying cause her rich brother is arbitrarily cruel to her is all fun and games to Lord Wimsey? Christ. It's just obnoxious. It's not like any of the golden age detectives cared much about this stuff other times.
A side note, an example of the bizarrely twisted morality at work in these sorts of books: an uncle makes a will leaving all his money to his sister and his niece, but hides it. His niece is a socialist and he doesn't like her. He makes an easily findable will that leaves all his money to an organisation promoting the Tories. Lord Peter Wimsey thinks this is hilarious and doesn't see why he should help find the first will, cause he doesn't like socialists (the author whines about socialism in other books in the series too, sadly). Yet there's no mention of the uncle's sister doing anything "wrong", and in fact she's disabled and needs an expensive operation! She was in fact a witness to the easily findable will, where she was given a silver teapot. That's it. The uncle seems like a cruel man who punishes his sister for no reason at all but I guess a woman possibly dying cause her rich brother is arbitrarily cruel to her is all fun and games to Lord Wimsey? Christ. It's just obnoxious. It's not like any of the golden age detectives cared much about this stuff other times.