Sayers did not include this specific detail, instead having the identity hang on a couple of scars and some badly-bitten nails, but if Wimsey was any sort of detective, he would have spotted this immediately. The plot is actually based on a true case, but in that one, the corpse was identified as not being Jewish by the fact that it wasn’t circumcised. Of course, the book is still somewhat bound to sensibilities of the time. It’s vital to remember that this book was published just five years after the war had ended, and there wasn’t a soul in the country who wasn’t cognisant of the effect it had had on the serving population. This is referred to as Wimsey’s “shell shock”, but of course we would know it better now as PTSD. His butler calms him and returns him to bed. It turns out that he saw active duty during World War One and Sayers does not shy away from this, as in one scene, Wimsey wakes up in the night convinced that he is still in the army. Wimsey is a character I was immediately charmed by and find him silly and whimsical but immensely sharp and good company. However, Wimsey is pretty sure that it isn’t and so begins a mission to find out where Levy went and whose body is in the bath…Īs ever with the murder mysteries of the twenties, it’s a surprisingly modern and funny tale. To Inspector Sugg, it seems an open and shut case – the body is clearly that of Levy. The body is also, surprisingly, naked, save for a pair of pince-nez.Įlsewhere across town, Jewish financier Sir Reuben Levy has gone missing, last seen walking out of his house apparently without any clothes on. Thipps has never seen the man before, and can’t explain how he ended up in his bath. It’s a pleasant room, except for the fact that there’s a dead body in the bath. Lord Peter Wimsey, aristocrat and detective, has been called to investigate the bathroom of Mr Alfred Thipps. Just as mysterious, macabre and magnificent as the others, Sayers was responsible for gifting the world Lord Peter Wimsey, so I felt it was about time I introduced myself. There were three personalities that really created and gave life to the Detective Club, which is ironic given they they dedicated the rest of their lives to ending lives. “‘Oh damn!’ said Lord Peter Wimsey at Piccadilly Circus.”
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