Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

[meganbmoore]

After a copywriter working for Pym’s Publicity, Ltd. mysteriously falls down the stairs to his death, a new copywriter named Death Bredon is hired. Bredon is supercilious and his shoes cost more than a copywriter can make in a week, much less a month, and is clearly Lord Peter Wimsey long before we’re told he is. There to investigate the death of the copywriter, Wimsey finds himself enjoying life as a copywriter-as he tells Parker and Mary, he’s never actually had money he earned before-and the subject of much office gossip (they like to speculate about how someone who’s obviously used to being rich ended up working in their office). Eventually, his investigations lead to him adopting yet another identity-and having to juggle all three-and to uncovering a drug ring.

If it makes sense, something about this book reads more like a recent book written about the 1930s than a book set during the 1930s. I suspect this comes from it being so engrossed in the advertising world. Reading it, I couldn’t tell if Sayers was having the time of her life writing it, or if she was gritting her teeth. According to wikipedia, she hated it, which is interesting because, though not as good as some of the other Wimsey books, I found it to be one of the more fun ones, especially with the office gossip and Peter almost getting too caught up enjoying himself working.

Like Unnatural Death, there are further deaths that may not have occurred if Peter hadn’t started investigated, and like the other, it’s indicated that Peter blames himself and hates the whole mess, though it isn’t indicated quite as strongly. Then again, people were more likely to end up dead here anyway than in Unnatural Death.

I also think that at some point, Sayers decided that he was having too much fun, and decided to have Peterkin almost trigger a flashback by waving his toy airplane in Peter’s face. Of course, he didn’t quite have a flashback as turning into a sobbing and/or raving mess simply is not what one does whilst bouncing a three year old on one’s knee.

Comments

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong that for the first paragraph, I was thinking "So there's a death at Hank Pym's company, Peter and Mary-Jane investigate"?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

...

This explains my thinking "I need to catch up with comics" several times as I read. Peter, Mary and Parker are all normal and generally unconnected enough, but once you add in Pym...

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

yeah, I found that one to be one of the funniest of those books.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Which is why it's kind of weird that she hated it.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

It's one of my favorites, and I'm still very fond of the Ian Carmichael mini=series version from the 70s.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I need to watch those.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

I do love Murder Must Advertise. I don't remember the fact that Death Bredon was Lord Peter ever not being clear, but that could just because the middle names thing was so obvious and if you aren't clued in to that I suppose it could be.

At any rate, it's just a great book. Not only is it a fun read, but the central mystery is a good one.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I had forgotten that they were his middle names, but the description made it pretty obvious from thr start.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Generally, Sayers uses the alias as a tip-in to the rest of us; she does it in one of her short stories too.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Murder Must Advertise is one of my favorites. My husband writes copy for radio commercials and frequently has the same complaints about clients and coworkers lo these many years later!

I don't recall hearing that Sayers hated writing it - I think it was actually a lighter book to balance the fact that she was also writing The Nine Tailors at the same time. I have the compilations of her letters, and can check and see if she mentions anything.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The wikipedia article for the book has a letter from her that says that she hated it and wrote it because she wasn't going to finish Nine Tailors in time.