A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery by Dorothy L Sayers
The ninth
novel by Dorothy L Sayers to feature her aristocratic, amateur detective Lord Peter
Wimsey, Murder Must Advertise, is beautifully written and very entertaining.
Murder Must Advertise is the
ninth Lord Peter Wimsey novel
Most of the
action takes place in an advertising agency in London, a setting Dorothy L
Sayers knew well because she had worked in one herself as a copywriter in
London between 1922 and 1931.
Because I
enjoyed reading this 1933 novel again after many years, for the purpose of
writing this review, I was surprised to discover that according to Barbara Reynolds,
the official biographer of Dorothy L Sayers, the author did not like Murder
Must Advertise herself.
Barbara Reynolds claims that Sayers disliked the novel, because: ‘she
wrote it quickly in order to fulfil her publisher's contract, and was unsure
whether it would ring true with the reading public.’ This shows that the
writing life wasn’t always easy, even for a Queen of Crime.
For me,
the characters, the office politics, the gossip, and the small fallings-out, all
rang true and I think they would do for anyone who has ever worked in an office,
whether in the 1920s, or the 2020s.
Wimsey is working as a copywriter at Pym’s
Advertising agency under cover, at the request of the owners. They have been shown
a letter that makes them feel uneasy about what caused a recent accident on
their premises that led to the death of a member of their staff.
He is pretending to be his own disreputable
cousin, who doesn’t actually exist, using his own two middle names, Death
Bredon.
As is so often the case, the victim of
the original crime is found to be an unpleasant, not particularly worthwhile,
individual.
I liked many of the the characters in
the novel so much that I was sad at the end when Wimsey unmasks the murderer
and it becomes clear that they face a miserable end.
Murder Must Advertise features an
ingenious way to commit a murder and there are many possible suspects for
Wimsey to consider. The novel allows Wimsey fans to get to know their hero better
and to admire his talent for cricket as well as for creating advertising
campaigns.
The Crime Writers’ Association placed Dorothy L. Sayers’ Murder Must Advertise at
number 22 on its list of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time in 1990. I think it is
well worth reading, even if you have read it before.
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