Sayers In London Spoilers for Whose Body

 Dorothy enjoyed her time in Bensons, the advertising agency, at first, though she later came to be dubious about the morality of advertising..  She loved to write, and at the time it was about clever writing, making slogans, and thinking up ideas to promote products.  She wrote copy for Colman's Mustard and may have invented the slogan "It Pays to Advertise".  She also wrote copy for Guinness.

She kept very busy with her work and her writing, believing that if she could do well out of "Lord Peter" books, she could eventually quit advertising and become a full time writer.  However her affair with Cournous was a difficult one and depressed her.   Eric Whelpton had flirted with her but he had made it clear that he was not seriously interested in her.. whereas Cornous did engage in a deeper way with her and she half believed that she might persuade him to marry her, although he claimed to be opposed to marriage.   He seems to have felt that he would only commit to her up to a certain point, and that he still did not wish to marry, but that if Dorothy was willing to become his mistress he might consider marriage. 

However he did not take into account the fact that outside Bloomsbury, most people did not agree with the new freedoms, especially for women.   Dorothy was cautious because she was essentially conservative and too religious to think of having an affair without a great deal of thought and stress.  Eventually she broke off with him, because she could see no future in the relationship, and Cornous went to America to promote his novels there.  

Sayers had written her first Lord Peter novel, "Whose Body" which was a little clumsy but well written and an enjoyable read.  Peter becomes involved in a murder case when his mother's architect, Mr Thipps, finds a dead body in his bathroom.  It seems that the body is that of a missing Jewish financier, Sir Reuben Levy, whose wife was a friend of Peter's ditzy, charming mother, the society hostess who is the Dowager Duchess of Denver.   Peter realizes that the body is not that of Levy, because he is not circumcised but the case takes quite a complicated investigation.  Peter finds that the murderer is a well known neurologist Julian Freke who was once in love with Lady Levy.. but he has substituted the body of a pauper for that of Levy, and dissected the victim's body. 

The novel did not sell as well as Dorothy hoped but it was a start and in her next book she created a case set in Yorkshire, and involving members of Peter's family,  his sister Mary and his brother the Duke of Denver.  In this novel,  there is a shooting party.. and Denis Cathcart is found dead, he was the fiancé of Mary.. and the Duke is accused of his murder but refuses to say where he was during the night. 

By now Dorothy was finished with John Cornous but she met a very different man, Bill White and "chummed up" with him...