A review by mschlat
Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers
5.0
I reread [b:Whose Body?|192893|Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey, #1)|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387573241l/192893._SY75_.jpg|1090544] and [b:Clouds of Witness|192888|Clouds of Witness (Lord Peter Wimsey, #2)|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1287510321l/192888._SY75_.jpg|1576206] (the first two Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries) in quick succession, so I thought I would do a quick comparison.
Whose Body? reads like a novella; it's a very focused work that's almost all about the peculiarities of the mystery (an unidentified naked body is found in a bathtub at the same time a rich businessman goes missing). It's not an origin story for Wimsey --- he has already started detectiving --- but it does give some background on him and his manservant Bunter, especially with regards to their experiences in the Great War. And the writing does a lot to emphasize the nuts and bolts of detective fiction, with the characters even commenting how the current case does and does not compare to Sherlock Holmes stories.
Clouds of Witness, on the other hand, focuses less on the mysterious death (there's much less of the "locked room" feel about it) and much more on Wimsey and his family. His brother is accused of the murder, his sister is deeply entangled in the goings on, and both are full fledged characters that fill out the reader's knowledge of Wimsey. If Whose Body? reads like an expanded novella, Clouds of Witness feels like a full novel. Sayers gets in not only the mystery and the family drama, but some moments of thrilling drama for Wimsey and the pageantry of a nobleman's trial. It's a deeper, richer work that still scratches the itch of mystery fiction.
Mind you, I'm a big fan of Wimsey as a character --- I've always liked the idea of the frivolous character hiding a more serious thinker --- so I love these books anyway, but I think both are well done mysteries. If you really wanted to just dip into the series, I think Clouds of Witness is more representative of Sayers's work, but there's nothing wrong with beginning with the beginning.
Whose Body? reads like a novella; it's a very focused work that's almost all about the peculiarities of the mystery (an unidentified naked body is found in a bathtub at the same time a rich businessman goes missing). It's not an origin story for Wimsey --- he has already started detectiving --- but it does give some background on him and his manservant Bunter, especially with regards to their experiences in the Great War. And the writing does a lot to emphasize the nuts and bolts of detective fiction, with the characters even commenting how the current case does and does not compare to Sherlock Holmes stories.
Clouds of Witness, on the other hand, focuses less on the mysterious death (there's much less of the "locked room" feel about it) and much more on Wimsey and his family. His brother is accused of the murder, his sister is deeply entangled in the goings on, and both are full fledged characters that fill out the reader's knowledge of Wimsey. If Whose Body? reads like an expanded novella, Clouds of Witness feels like a full novel. Sayers gets in not only the mystery and the family drama, but some moments of thrilling drama for Wimsey and the pageantry of a nobleman's trial. It's a deeper, richer work that still scratches the itch of mystery fiction.
Mind you, I'm a big fan of Wimsey as a character --- I've always liked the idea of the frivolous character hiding a more serious thinker --- so I love these books anyway, but I think both are well done mysteries. If you really wanted to just dip into the series, I think Clouds of Witness is more representative of Sayers's work, but there's nothing wrong with beginning with the beginning.