Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
Oct. 6th, 2010 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Victor Dean fell to his death on the stairs of Pym’s Advertising Agency, but no one seems to be sorry. Until an inquisitive new copywriter joins the firm and asks some awkward questions ...
Disguised as his disreputable cousin Death Bredon, Lord Peter Wimsey takes a job – one that soon draws him into a vicious network of blackmailers and drug peddlars.
Five people will die before Wimsey unravels a sinister and deadly plot.
When Victor Dean dies after accidentally falling down a spiral staircase, Pym’s Advertising Agency takes on a new copywriter, Death Bredon. Bredon’s colleagues soon discover that while he’s a dab hand at coming up with slogans for such illustrious clients as Nutrax and Dairyfields, he’s also immensely curious about Dean’s death. Little do they suspect though that Bredon’s actually the famous sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, investigating both the death and the agency at the behest of Mr Pym himself.
Wimsey’s investigation brings him into contact with the Bright Young Things of London society, blackmail and a sinister drug smuggling gang. As he works to maintain his fiction of posing as his own cousin though, his investigation brings violence and death closer to home and soon he has more bodies to contend with ...
Sayers draws on her own experience as a copy writer for an advertising firm in conjuring this delicious mystery that sees Wimsey doing an ordinary day’s work for the first time in his life. Part of the delight is his reaction to this novel situation and the affability and dedication that he shows to even the most mundane tasks. As a piece of social history, it’s fascinating to see that advertising in 1933, whilst less sophisticated than that in modern life, operated by the same principles – although the 1933 casual racism is very squirm inducing.
Vane fans will be disappointed as she doesn’t make an appearance in this novel, restrained as she is to one oblique reference. There is Bunter however, and there are also scenes with Wimsey’s sister Mary and brother-in-law Chief Inspector Parker and their young son – their domesticity permitting Wimsey to display another facet to his character.
The mystery itself twists and turns in a way that makes it difficult to guess both the culprit and the motive and Sayers joins Evelyn Waugh in examining the lives of the decadent bright young things and successfully draws out the dark underbelly and the desperate boredom fuelling their lives.
The only duff note in the book is the end when Wimsey unmasks the killer and this is only because the cold way in which he despatches justice is at odds with his reaction to similar situations in later books. Even this though doesn’t spoil the enjoyment to be gained from a master storyteller in complete control of her craft.
The Verdict:
A fascinating detective novel that’s full of twists and turns, this is also an interesting look at working life in the early 1930s and the roots of modern advertising. It’s a great read and although the racial attitudes are very much of the time, it’s nevertheless one that I have no hesitation in recommending.
Disguised as his disreputable cousin Death Bredon, Lord Peter Wimsey takes a job – one that soon draws him into a vicious network of blackmailers and drug peddlars.
Five people will die before Wimsey unravels a sinister and deadly plot.
When Victor Dean dies after accidentally falling down a spiral staircase, Pym’s Advertising Agency takes on a new copywriter, Death Bredon. Bredon’s colleagues soon discover that while he’s a dab hand at coming up with slogans for such illustrious clients as Nutrax and Dairyfields, he’s also immensely curious about Dean’s death. Little do they suspect though that Bredon’s actually the famous sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, investigating both the death and the agency at the behest of Mr Pym himself.
Wimsey’s investigation brings him into contact with the Bright Young Things of London society, blackmail and a sinister drug smuggling gang. As he works to maintain his fiction of posing as his own cousin though, his investigation brings violence and death closer to home and soon he has more bodies to contend with ...
Sayers draws on her own experience as a copy writer for an advertising firm in conjuring this delicious mystery that sees Wimsey doing an ordinary day’s work for the first time in his life. Part of the delight is his reaction to this novel situation and the affability and dedication that he shows to even the most mundane tasks. As a piece of social history, it’s fascinating to see that advertising in 1933, whilst less sophisticated than that in modern life, operated by the same principles – although the 1933 casual racism is very squirm inducing.
Vane fans will be disappointed as she doesn’t make an appearance in this novel, restrained as she is to one oblique reference. There is Bunter however, and there are also scenes with Wimsey’s sister Mary and brother-in-law Chief Inspector Parker and their young son – their domesticity permitting Wimsey to display another facet to his character.
The mystery itself twists and turns in a way that makes it difficult to guess both the culprit and the motive and Sayers joins Evelyn Waugh in examining the lives of the decadent bright young things and successfully draws out the dark underbelly and the desperate boredom fuelling their lives.
The only duff note in the book is the end when Wimsey unmasks the killer and this is only because the cold way in which he despatches justice is at odds with his reaction to similar situations in later books. Even this though doesn’t spoil the enjoyment to be gained from a master storyteller in complete control of her craft.
The Verdict:
A fascinating detective novel that’s full of twists and turns, this is also an interesting look at working life in the early 1930s and the roots of modern advertising. It’s a great read and although the racial attitudes are very much of the time, it’s nevertheless one that I have no hesitation in recommending.
