About this episode

This episode reviews Dorothy L Sayers' 'Whose Body?', exploring its themes of mistaken identity and social commentary.

When an inconvenient corpse is discovered in a Battersea bathtub, a complex puzzle unfolds for the London authorities. What's with the pince-nez and birthday suit combo? And isn't that a surgical college just across the rooftops? In this episode we strike a match and settle in with Dorothy L Sayers' "Whose Body?" and review the first appearance of Lord Peter Wimsey, her amateur sleuth of impeccable tailoring and disarming flippancy. Layered with mistaken identity, social satire and post-war unease, this celebrated mystery from 1923 balances classic whodunnit mechanics with sharp observations about entitlement and trauma in a changing world. FastFacts@12:45; Summary@47:25; PIPES@1:18:00

People in this episode

Host: Lighting the Pipes

Topics covered

• mystery
• literature
• whodunnit
• social satire
• post-war unease

Keywords

• mystery
• Lord Peter Wimsey
• Battersea
• whodunnit
• social satire
• 1923
• entitlement
• trauma

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Whose Body?

Places: Battersea, London

More episodes of Lighting the Pipes

• Assignment Sorrento Siren (1963) · April 22, 2026 · 1h 31m
• He Who Whispers (1946) w/ The Book Graveyard · April 7, 2026 · 2h 60m
• The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb (1923) · March 27, 2026 · 54 min
• Swag (1976) · March 20, 2026 · 2h 21m
• LTP 007: The Man from Barbarossa (1991) · February 17, 2026 · 1h 46m
• LTP Noir: Nightmare Alley (1947) · February 11, 2026 · 1h 16m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Lighting the Pipes podcast page.