English writer of detective fiction, creator of Lord Peter Whimsey, a cross between the heroes of P.G. Wodehouse and the Scarlet Pimpernel. Sayers wrote her first mystery, "Whose Body?", in 1923. Her plots often tended to be intricate and ingeniously conceived. She was also a poet, essayist, penned religious plays, was a translator of Dante and an amateur theologian.