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Concept
Lord Peter Views the Body
Summary
Lord Peter Views the Body, first published in 1928, was the first collection of short stories about Lord Peter Wimsey by Dorothy L. Sayers. All of them were included in later complete collections.
Members of London's "Egotists' Club" are telling stories of mysterious happenings, when one of the members' guests, a cinema actor named Varden, relates that he was invited to model for a wealthy sculptor, Eric Loder, and spent several months at Loder's New York mansion. After the war, Loder invited Varden back to New York, and Varden noticed that Loder's mistress, Maria Morano, had disappeared, though a life-size silver-plated sculpture of her now occupied the living room. One night, Varden was wakened and told to flee for his life by a "funny-looking" monocled man. This man then smashed the arm of the "statue" with a fireplace poker, showing Varden a bone beneath the silver plating. Varden fled the house immediately, but afterwards wondered if it was all a practical joke.
Then the "funny-looking man" – Wimsey, also a member of the club – appears and explains the mystery. While Wimsey himself was a guest in Loder's mansion, a burst water bottle led him to abandon his bed and try to sleep on the living room sofa. There, he secretly witnessed Loder enter a secret workshop behind a bookcase. After Loder left, Wimsey investigated the room and discovered an electroplating apparatus, as well as plans that showed that Loder had killed and electroplated Maria, intending to do the same to Varden once he returned. Loder had believed (incorrectly) that Varden and Maria were having an affair.
After Varden fled, Wimsey confronted Loder in the workshop. Loder tried to turn off the lights and attack Wimsey, but tripped and fell into the plating apparatus' cyanide tank, dying instantly. In trying to turn on the lights, Wimsey accidentally turned on the apparatus, causing Loder's hands to be electroplated in copper. Loder's death was ruled an accident, and Wimsey and Bunter gave the statue of Maria a Christian burial with the help of a sympathetic priest.
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