Lord Peter Views the Body (A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery)
Lord Peter Views the Body is a collection of the early  adventures of Lord Peter Wimsey, Sayers's upper-class detective.  Those already familiar with Wimsey's foibles and illustrious  career from Sayers's full-length novels, will meet the "early"  Lord Peter here. At this period, his character still alternates  between being a "silly ass" (to quote his own description) and a  superhero of detection. Regular listeners will find that several  of the stories are surprisingly graphic and creepy. The insanely  jealous artist who makes his own furniture ("The Abominable  History of the Man with the Copper Fingers") is someone Alfred  Hitchcock would have liked to meet, and the tale of great-uncle  Joseph's legacy to his grand-nephew ("The Piscatorial Farce of  the Stolen Stomach") requires a strong stomach. The solutions to  these problems test Wimsey's acting ability, his  counterespionage skills, his knowledge of metallurgy, and his  palate for fine wines ("The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of  Ali Baba"). He even solves one crime ("The Unsolved Puzzle of  the Man with No Face") without having ever seen the body, the  clues, the scene of the murder, or any of the possible suspects.  Actor Ian Carmichael's fluid reading allows the listener to  appreciate fully Sayers's skill with language and vocabulary.  Oddly, although this audiobook is marketed as "unabridged,"  there are only nine mysteries here; the complete print version  contains 12. One of the missing tales concerns the visual clues  involved in a complex crossword puzzle, so it is not hard to  understand why that one has been deleted. Originally produced in  1993, these tapes have been repackaged into a flimsy cardboard  box. Most libraries will want to move the cassettes into a  sturdier case that will hold up to circulation. Recommended  where the works of Sayers are popular. Barbara L. Rhodes,  Northeast Texas Lib. Syst., GarlandCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.