Lord Peter Views the Body (Hardcover)

As is frequently the case, trying to match wits with Wimsey is often an exercise in futility. Unless you are fluent in French you'll miss one villain's slip of the tongue (I caught the gist of the conversation in "The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question," but nowhere near enough to keep up with Lord Peter). In the crossword puzzle mystery I answered a whopping one of the sixty-four clues correctly. Still, there are a couple stories where you can get there ahead of Wimsey, and a few where you can at least see where he's going even if you can't beat him there.

My favorite of the twelve is "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" not only because I deduced the location of the buried treasure ahead of Wimsey, but because his avuncular counsel of young Gherkins is priceless. "The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face" seems to be the genesis of Sayers' later novel Have His Carcase, but with Wimsey solving the case solo (and without the maddening cypher). It's in short stories such as these that we are able to fully explore Lord Peter's character and appreciate Sayers' craft.

All of these stories are gems. Not all are equal, however. There are a few carbuncles among the diamonds, but all are much better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Don't worry if you feel at sea at the beginning of some of these stories (only one brief scene in one of the stories actually takes place at sea): Lord Peter is not always revealed immediately, nor is what's going on always eminently clear. Patience pays off and stick-to-itiveness is always rewarded.

Strictly speaking, this is not quite an "Unabridged" set on 6 cassettes since the original book holds 12 tales. One of them is based around a crossword puzzle, so I can see how very difficult that would be to work into a reading. Still we should be grateful to have the 9 Audio Partners has treated us to.

One of them will recall "House of Wax," except this time it is metal plating ("The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers"). Most of the stories have a light tone, as you can tell from the titles: "The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag," "The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention," "The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach" (in which you will guess the solution early on), and so on.

To me, the most interesting were "The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste" in which two (or is it three?) Peter Wimseys show up to purchase secret documents, and "The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face" in which the first half is concerned with Wimsey's theoretical reconstruction of a murder as reported in the papers and the second with the actual facts. The most unusual is the last, "The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba," in which Wimsey comes very close to being killed when he poses as a member of a secret organization.

Carmichael, as the movie ads say, IS Peter Wimsey---and his voice is flexible enough to be all the other characters as well. Beautifully done.