The Lord Peter Wimsey Collection: Books 1-5

Whose Body?; Clouds of Witness; Unnatural Death; Lord Peter Views the Body; The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

By: Dorothy L. Sayers

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 38 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

This audiobook includes unabridged recordings of the first five Lord Peter Wimsey detective books, read by Audie award-winning narrator Jonathan Keeble. A must-listen for fans of Agatha Christie's Poirot and Margery Allingham's Campion Mysteries, Lord Peter Wimsey is the immortal amateur sleuth created by Dorothy L Sayers.

Whose Body?, Book One: In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath. The naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder - especially with a pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better.

Clouds of Witness, Book Two: The Duke of Denver, accused of murder, stands trial for his life in the House of Lords. Naturally, his brother Lord Peter Wimsey is investigating the crime - this is a family affair. The murder took place at the duke's shooting lodge and Lord Peter's sister was engaged to marry the dead man. But why does the duke refuse to cooperate with the investigation? Can he really be guilty, or is he covering up for someone?

Unnatural Death, Book Three: The wealthy Agatha Dawson is dead - a trifle sooner than expected - but there are no apparent signs of foul play. Lord Peter Wimsey, however, senses that something is amiss and refuses to let the case rest--even without any clues or leads. Suddenly, he is faced with another murder: Agatha's maid. Can super-sleuth Wimsey find the murderer and solve the case before he becomes the killer's next victim?

Lord Peter Views the Body, Book Four: In this delightful collection of 12 Wimsey adventures, Dorothy L. Sayers reveals a gruesome but bewitching side rarely shown in Lord Peter's full-length adventures. He deals with such marvels as the man with copper fingers, Uncle Meleager's missing will, the cat in the bag, the footsteps that ran, the stolen stomach, and the man without a face.

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Book Five: Ninety-year-old General Fentiman was definitely dead, but no one knew exactly when he had died—and the time of death was the determining factor in a half-million-pound inheritance. Lord Peter Wimsey would need every bit of his amazing skills to unravel the mysteries of why the General's lapel was without a red poppy on Armistice Day, how the club's telephone was fixed without a repairman, and, most puzzling of all, why the great man's knee swung freely when the rest of him was stiff with rigor mortis.

Public Domain (P)2024 SNR Audio

Exceedingly well done

I’ve tried other performances of the novels and couldn’t get into them. The narrator is excellent, and I came away with a completely new appreciation of Lord Wimsey. The short story collection was entirely new to me and absolutely delightful.

Wonderful narrator. A treat to listen.

Just remember the books contain disgusting prejudices prevalent at the time Sayers wrote these novels. I chose to hold my nose and read on because the plots are ingenious and the characters delightful in spite of their foibles.

Excellent narration & interesting stories

They start out sort of slow, but build momentum and unexpected solutions. The date of these writing lend themselves to a touch of racism on rare occasions, but it’s fleeting and not the view of the hero or main characters who are charitable to all. So in a sense, they were “before their time”.

I love the narrator, the wittiness of Lord Peter, and the humor written into the characters. It’s more light hearted than Agatha Christie or Doyle.

Five for one credit

This package gives the listener 5 Lord Peter Wimsey books for one credit. Four novels and her first collection of short stories. Jonathan Keeble does a creditable job of narration - he isn't Ian Carmichael, my favorite narrator of this series, but I feel he does a good job. And to get the first 5 for one credit is a bargain, if you don't already own these already. And I admit, I did already own the four novels, and purchased this to get the short story collection Lord Peter Views the Body, but this version of some of the novels will now become my go to listen, especially Whose Body? which has been out of copyright in the US for a long time, and has been read by some dreadful narrators.

Hopefully one of these days Audible will get some of the other Sayers/Lord Peter novels available in unabridged for for US listeners. Especially Have His Carcase, Five Red Herrings, and Nine Tailors. And if they choose to do new recordings, I would be content if they had Jonathan Keeble narrate.

Marvelous

The reader is very good, just as the author and the detective are. It’s nice to deal with quality writing and reasonable milieu. I don’t like the short stories as well as the books. I love the short story form, but some writers are better at it than others. I’m hoping for another set of more of DLS books and Lord Peter and Bunter and all the other characters.

mood

false leads not resolved too early. not always the least likely. Peter is a more intelligent Bertie Wooster.

Thank you, Jonathan Keeble!

I have read these books many times and loved Ian Carmichael’s Peter W. They remain wonderful to me. It is lovely to add another version to my list of favorites.

This performance brings a slightly different take on LPW. His war history is more present and vivid in his thoughts. His humor has more of an edge. There is a palpable sense of him as a man driven to try and outrun his pain, and being able to put more of who he was before the war into who he was afterward—in terms of his fundamental kindness, generosity, honor, and decency.

Just brilliant!

Great narration

Ian Carmichael is better for Lord Peter, adding a manic note. But Keble does better with the rest of the cast and characters.

Books 1-5 Lord Peter

The narrator was fantastic! I am really looking forward to more of these Lord Peter books

The Lord Wimsey Collection books 1-5

Dorothy L. Sayers is a wonderful auther who writes not just about crime but human nature. I've loved every book I've read by her.