History Literature / WhoseBody

* {{Bowdlerise}}: In the original manuscript, Peter and Parker know at once that the body can't be Sir Reuben's because he, being Jewish, was circumcised and the body isn't. The publishers thought this was too crude and made Sayers change it. In the published version, the detectives deduce the deceased man was poor and out of work -- and therefore couldn't be Sir Reuben -- from the state of his teeth and the fleabites on his back.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: In the original manuscript, Lord Peter and Parker know at once that the body can't be Sir Reuben's because he, being Jewish, was circumcised and the body isn't. The publishers thought this was too crude and made Sayers change it. In the published version, the detectives deduce the deceased man was poor and out of work -- and therefore couldn't be Sir Reuben -- from the state of his teeth and the fleabites on his back.
* BrokenHero: Lord Peter always appears to be a cheerful UpperClassTwit and a MotorMouth, but he suffers from [[ShellShockedVeteran shell shock]] from his time in the War. Part-way through the case, [[spoiler:he has flashbacks and believes he's back in the trenches]].
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Lord Peter himself. A motor-mouthed British nobleman who drops literary quotations almost continuously, plays word games with everyone he meets, and has a hobby as an amateur detective. He's a ''very good'' amateur detective.

* CluelessDetective: Inspector Sugg tries the "Accuse Everybody" method, even at one point genuinely considering a mostly-deaf octogenarian of being in on the crime (which she only found out about ''days'' after her son was arrested by Sugg). It's noted that the only reason Sugg ''didn't'' try to arrest her is just how obviously unaware of the discovery of the body -- let alone anything else related -- she so obviously is. As it is, Sugg gets publicly reprimanded for his arrests of [[spoiler:Mr Thipps and Gladys]] on theories which are essentially mere suspicion.

* NonIdleRich: Lord Peter.

* ShoutOut: It's Lord Peter Wimsey, so there are shout outs all over the place; it comes part and parcel with the literary quotations he seasons his speech with. Literature/TheBible and [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] aside, examples include:

* ThatCameOutWrong: The jurors at the inquest are taken to see the injuries on the deceased (who was found naked); watching them as they return to the courtroom, Lord Peter's mother observes that one of the female jurors is looking shocked while another is trying to look "as if she sat on undraped gentlemen every day," then immediately adds that she didn't mean that the way it came out.
* TheoryTunnelvision: The murderer boasts that he planned out his murder on very logical lines, avoiding all the irrational impulses that usually trip up murderers, and was only caught due to a piece of bad luck that he couldn't have predicted. He goes on to relate, without apparently recognizing the significance, the only reason Mr Thipps got caught up in events (and thus the only reason Lord Peter was on the case so quickly) was that the murderer changed part of his plan at the last moment due to a sudden vindictive impulse.

* WorkingTheSameCase: Wimsey and Parker question whether a missing man and the title body are even related at all, leaning to the negative. [[spoiler:Turns out they are]].
* YearX: Lord Peter receives a letter dated "17 November, 192-".[[note]]It was established in subsequent books as having taken place in November 1922.[[/note]]

* DramaticIrony: In his long missive, [[spoiler:Freke claims that "In twenty minutes his own wife could not have recognized him."]] He evidently was much too caught up on the human head: just the previous chapter, [[spoiler:Lady Levy had no difficulties whatever identifying her husband's dissected and decaying remains by the rest of him]].

* GreenEyedMonster: [[spoiler: Sir Julian Freke and Sir Reuben Levy fell in love with Christine. She married Sir Reuben. Sir Julian nursed his grudge for ''years'' before finally murdering Sir Reuben]].
* HonorBeforeReason: Lord Peter feels compelled to visit the murderer shortly before they are arrested, and this warning very nearly allows them to escape justice.
* IdentifyingTheBody: After Lord Peter figures out the secret of the second body, Lady Levy is brought in to make a positive identification. It's shown to be emotionally difficult for her, particularly because of the condition of the corpse: [[spoiler:it has been dissected; the head has been so mutilated as to be unrecognizable, so the identification relies on her knowledge of the rest of his body; and it has been decomposing in a flimsy pauper's coffin for several days]].

* ''The Mourning Bride'' by William Congreve.

* TheoryTunnelvision: The murderer boasts that he planned out his murder on very logical lines, avoiding all the irrational impulses that usually trip up murderers, and was only caught due to a piece of bad luck that he couldn't have predicted. He goes on to relate, without apparently recognizing the significance, the only reason Mr Thipps got caught up in events (and thus the only reason Lord Peter was on the case) was that the murderer changed part of his plan at the last moment due to a sudden vindictive impulse.

* GreedyJew: Averted. Sir Reuben is a Jewish financier, and several characters (though notably, only the ones intended to be unsympathetic) express anti-Semitic attitudes towards him. He himself displays none of the trope's traits. Even his supposed stinginess -- going by bus instead of getting a taxi -- is indicated to not be done out of greed; it's a way of reminding himself he's a SelfMadeMan who was once unable to afford taxis. It's also noted that Levy was very generous to those he cared about, especially his wife and daughter.

* BrokenHero: Lord Peter always appears to be a cheerful UpperClassTwit and a MotorMouth, but he suffers from [[ShellShockedVeteran shell shock]] from his time in the War. Half-way through the case, [[spoiler:he has flashbacks and believes he's back in the trenches]].

* EvilCounterpart: [[spoiler:Sir Julian Freke]], a genius who kills without remorse, motivated by [[spoiler:sexual jealousy (more humiliation than jealousy in the novel) and anti-Semitism, as well as his own medical theories]], is contrasted with Lord Peter, an intelligent man who catches criminals as a fun diversion and feels deep guilt.

** There is also chapter ten, wherein Wimsey spends the bulk explaining that the statement form seen in stories isn't really how information is obtained, and uses the man's activities the day after the crime as an example, simultaneously extracting the necessary information for the case.

* MatterOfLifeAndDeath: Sir Julian's attempt to get into Parker's cab [[spoiler: and there murder him]] has him urging this.

* ShoutOut: It's Lord Peter Wimsey, so there are shout outs all over the place. Literature/TheBible aside, examples include:

* EvilCounterpart: [[spoiler:Sir Julian Freke]], a genius who kills without remorse, motivated by [[spoiler:sexual jealousy and anti-Semitism, as well as his own medical theories]], is contrasted with Lord Peter who catches criminals for the fun of it and feels deep guilt.

-->A bump on the roof of the end house--Levy in a welter of cold rain talking to a prostitute in the Battersea Park Road--a single ruddy hair--lint bandages--Inspector Sugg calling the great surgeon from the dissecting-room of the hospital--Lady Levy with a nervous attack... all these things and many others rang together and made one sound...

* AboveGoodAndEvil: Sir Julian Freke believes that morality is a neurological reflex, redundant in a modern, individualist society, and that one who can commit immoral acts without guilt or shame is therefore a more enlightened human being. [[spoiler:This is part of his motivation for committing at least one murder]].

* BigSecret: Thipps becomes a suspect in part because he gives a confused account of his whereabouts during the time the corpse was deposited in his apartment. He eventually admits that he had been persuaded to go to a nightclub, and narrowly avoided getting arrested when it was raided by the police.

* CaughtMonologuing: [[spoiler: Freke]] intends to deprive the law of its target by committing suicide, and has time to do it, but can't resist the temptation to write an extensive and detailed suicide note explaining just how clever he was. The police bust in and catch him while he's in the middle of adding a second postscript.
* CluelessDetective: Inspector Sugg tries the "Accuse Everybody" method, even at one point genuinely considering a mostly-deaf octogenarian of being in on the crime (which she only found out about ''days'' after her son was arrested by Sugg. It's noted that the only reason Sugg ''didn't'' arrest her is just how obviously unaware of the discovery of the body -- let alone anything else related -- she so obviously is. As it is, Sugg gets publicly reprimanded for his arrests of [[spoiler:Mr Thipps and Gladys]] on mere suspicion.

* TheoryTunnelvision: The murderer boasts that he planned out his murder on very logical lines, avoiding all the irrational impulses that usually trip up murderers, and was only caught due to a piece of bad luck that he couldn't have predicted. He goes on to relate, without apparently recognizing the significance, that the only reason Mr Thipps got caught up in events (and thus the only reason Lord Peter was on the case) was that the murderer changed part of his plan at the last moment due to a sudden vindictive impulse.

* WorkingTheSameCase: Peter questions whether a missing man and the title body are even related at all. [[spoiler:Turns out they are]].

* CluelessDetective: Inspector Sugg tries the "Accuse Everybody" method, even at one point accusing an octogenarian lady who can barely sit up (and has little idea of what is going on on account of being mostly deaf) of carrying a dead body while climbing up a drainpipe to a second story window, and is ready to make an arrest on that suspicion.
* CulturedBadass: Lord Peter Wimsey, the second son of a duke, speaks multiple languages (including French and Latin), is a book collector, a well-known cricket player, very careful of his clothes, and is famed across Europe for his taste in wines. Takes up detective work as a hobby, which he claims to be either out of boredom or to distract himself from his memories of World War I (probably both), and the result of inexhaustible curiosity which he has been in the habit of acting on nearly his entire life.[[note]]Later books indicate that he might have been doing intelligence work during the war, but it is not mentioned in ''Whose Body?''[[/note]]
* DeadlyDoctor: [[spoiler:Freke kills his victim, and then dissects the body as part of a lecture to his students]].

* DramaticIrony: In his long missive, [[spoiler:Freke claims that "In twenty minutes his own wife could not have recognized him."]] He evidently much too caught up on the human head: just the previous chapter, [[spoiler:Lady Levy had no difficulties whatever identifying her husband's dissected and decaying remains by the rest of him]].

* IdentifyingTheBody: After Lord Peter figures out the secret of the second body, Lady Levy is brought in to make a positive identification. It's shown to be difficult for her, particularly because of the condition of the corpse: [[spoiler:it has been dissected; the head has been so mutilated as to be unrecognizable, so the identification relies on her knowledge of the rest of his body; and it has been decomposing in a flimsy pauper's coffin for several days]].

* BrokenHero: Lord Peter always appears to be a cheerful UpperClassTwit and a MotorMouth, but he suffers from [[ShellShockedVeteran shell shock]] from his time in the War. Half-way through the case, [[spoiler:he suffers from flashbacks and believes he's back in the trenches]].

* DramaticIrony: In his long missive, [[spoiler:Freke claims that "In twenty minutes

* IRememberBecause: Averted. Investigators and witnesses spend several pages painstakingly reconstructing memories with reference to physical records, and where IRememberBecause explanations are specifically referred to as inadmissible in court. There is also a chapter wherein Wimsey spends the bulk explaining that the statement form seen in stories isn't really how information is obtained, and uses the man's activities the day after the crime as an example, simultaneously extracting the necessary information.
* LongGame: [[spoiler:Julian Freke pretended to be friends with Reuben and Christine Levy for decades, all the while waiting for the perfect opportunity to murder Reuben for "stealing" Christine from him]].

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The Adolf Beck case gets mentioned, among others.

* RefugeInAudacity: The murderer's plot: replace the victim's body with the body of someone who died of an injury and looks slightly like the victim. Which is, at that, less audacious than their original plan -- to [[spoiler:make it look like Sir Reuben disappeared into thin air, leaving behind a pile of empty clothes.]]

* SecondPersonNarration: Ther narrative switches to second-person twice - once with 'you' as a medical student Peter and Parker are interviewing, and again with 'you' as Lord Peter during the exhumation sequence.

* AboveGoodAndEvil: Sir Julian Freke believes that morality is a neurological reflex, redundant in a modern, individualist society, and that one who can commit immoral acts without guilt or shame is therefore a more enlightened human being. [[spoiler:This is part of his motivation for committing at least one murder.]]

* BeardnessProtectionProgram: Inverted. Sir Reuben has a very thick beard. The body in the bath shows signs of having been recently shaved. The obvious conclusion is that someone shaved Sir Reuben to prevent his corpse being identified, right? [[spoiler: No; the murderer chose a man who bore a passing resemblance to Sir Reuben, including the beard. The murderer shaved the substitute, correctly guessing that as no one knew what Sir Reuben looked like without the beard, anyone who ''did'' notice the body didn't look quite like him would assume it was just because of the missing beard.]]
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: Freke]], on discovering that his arrest is imminent, opts for suicide (though in the event the police get to him before he carries out the decision). Interestingly, he had enough time to have made a run for it, but chooses not to; he sees it as just delaying the inevitable, and in any case it would mean [[spoiler:he would have to abandon his medical researches]].
* BigSecret: Thipps becomes a suspect because he gives a confused account of his whereabouts during the time the corpse was deposited in his apartment. He eventually admits that he had been persuaded to go to a nightclub, and narrowly avoided getting arrested when it was raided by the police.

* BrokenHero: Lord Peter always appears to be a cheerful UpperClassTwit and a MotorMouth, but he suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in the War. Half-way through the case he suffers from flashbacks and believes he's back in the trenches.

* CluelessDetective: Inspector Sugg tries the "Accuse Everybody" method, even at one point accusing an octogenarian lady who can barely sit up of carrying a dead body while climbing up a drainpipe to a second story window, and is ready to make an arrest on that suspicion.
* CulturedBadass: Lord Peter Wimsey, the second son of a duke, speaks multiple languages (including French and Latin), is a book collector, a well-known cricket player, very careful of his clothes, and is famed across Europe for his taste in wines. Takes up detective work as a hobby, which he claims to be either out of boredom or to distract himself from his memories of World War I (probably both), and the result of
mostly because he's bored and got a lot of experience doing intelligence work during World War I

* DefectiveDetective: Lord Peter Wimsey has a lot of advantages, being a rich aristocrat, but he also has a severe case of shell-shock (post-traumatic stress disorder, in modern terms).

* EvilCounterpart: [[spoiler:Sir Julian Freke]], a genius who kills without remorse, motivated by sexual jealousy and anti-Semitism, is contrasted with Lord Peter who catches criminals for the fun of it and feels deep guilt.

* GreedyJew: Averted. Sir Reuben is a Jewish financier, and several characters (though notably, only the ones intended to be unsympathetic) express anti-Semitic attitudes towards him. He himself displays none of the trope's traits. Even his supposed stinginess -- going by bus instead of getting a taxi -- isn't done out of greed; it's a way of reminding himself he's a SelfMadeMan who was once unable to afford taxis. It's also noted that Levy was very generous to those he cared about, especially his wife and daughter.

* CulturedBadass: Lord Peter Wimsey, the second son of a duke, speaks multiple languages (including French and Latin), a book collector, a well-known cricket player, very careful of his clothes, and is famed across Europe for his taste in wines. Takes up detective work as a hobby mostly because he's bored and got a lot of experience doing intelligence work during World War I.
* DeadlyDoctor: [[spoiler:Freke kills his victim, and then dissects the body as part of a lecture to his students.]]
* DeadManWriting: Subverted. When he knows the police are close to catching him, the murderer plans to take poison and writes a gloating note to the police and Lord Peter to be found near his body. Unfortunately for him, the police burst in mid-sentence, and he's presumably tried and hanged as a common criminal.

* GreedyJew: Averted. Sir Reuben is a Jewish financier, and several characters (though notably, only the ones intended to be unsympathetic) express anti-Semitic attitudes towards him. He himself displays none of the trope's traits. Even his supposed stinginess -- going by bus instead of getting a taxi -- isn't done out of greed; it's a way of reminding himself he's a SelfMadeMan who was once unable to afford taxis.
* GreenEyedMonster: [[spoiler: Sir Julian Freke and Sir Reuben Levy fell in love with Christine. She married Sir Reuben. Sir Julian nursed his grudge for ''years'' before finally murdering Sir Reuben.]]

* InspectorLestrade: Inspector Sugg is the kind who spends the entire novel being territorial and barking up wrong trees. Lampshaded, with Lord Peter remarking that he's "like a detective in a novel".
* IRememberBecause: Averted. Investigators and witnesses spend several pages painstakingly reconstructing memories with reference to physical records, and where IRememberBecause explanations are specifically referred to as inadmissible in court.
* LongGame: [[spoiler:Julian Freke pretended to be friends with Reuben and Christine Levy for decades, all the while waiting for the perfect opportunity to murder Reuben for "stealing" Christine from him.]]

* ShoutOut: Lord Peter references Joseph Bagstock from Dickens' ''Literature/DombeyAndSon''.

* ThatCameOutWrong: The jurors at the inquest are taken to see the injuries on the deceased (who was found naked); watching them as they return to the courtroom, Lord Peter's mother observes that one of the female jurors is looking shocked while another is trying to look "as if she sat on undraped gentlemen every day", then immediately adds that she didn't mean that the way it came out.

* WorkingTheSameCase: Peter questions whether a missing man and the title body are even related at all. [[spoiler:Turns out they are.]]

* SecondPersonNarration: The exhumation sequence -- 'you' is Lord Peter.

* GreenEyedMonster: [[spoiler: Sir Julian Freke and Sir Reuben Levy fell in love with the same woman. She married Sir Reuben. Sir Julian nursed his grudge for ''years'' before finally murdering Sir Reuben.]]

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: Freke]], on discovering that his arrest is imminent, opts for suicide (though in the event the police get to him before he carries out the decision). Interestingly, he had enough time to have made a run for it, but chooses not to; he sees it as just delaying the inevitable, and in any case it would mean [[spoiler:he would have to abandon his medical researches]].