Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 6/25/2024 + 1223 more book reviews

Murder Must Advertise was published in 1933 and is the eighth novel by Sayers featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, who is also an amateur detective. In this one, Lord Peter goes undercover at an ad agency using the name Death Bredon to try to find out if an ad copy writer was murdered. He takes the place of Victor Dean, who died in a fall down the office's iron spiral staircase. But was the fall an accident or murder? And if it was murder, why? Most of this book was set in the advertising agency of Pym's Publicity Ltd. Dorothy Sayers was very familiar with this environment since she had herself worked as an advertising copywriter until 1931. The story has Wimsey working undercover at the agency but also has him infiltrating a lair of party-goers who also are cocaine users. Is the ad agency also a front for cocaine smuggling?

This one was really outside the norms of the other Wimsey books I have read. It has Peter in the depths of the advertising business with some very detailed descriptions of the advertising world at the time and how advertisers try to paint rosy pictures of the products to entice the public to buy (not much has changed since the 1930s!). This one was full of dialog among the workers at the agency as well as a myriad of whimsical campaign slogans for various products. The novel was very British and contained many words and phrases that I had to google to get the meaning strait. One point in the novel involved a "catapult" as a possible murder weapon. Based on how this was used, I surmised correctly that a catapult was the same as a sling-shot. (I don't recall the word being used as such, rather I always pictured catapults as medieval machines that threw heavy objects at fortifications). The novel also has a chapter detailing a game of cricket. Lord Wimsey is portrayed as a champion cricketer and athlete which played into the story but I didn't really understand any of the cricket details about how the game was played. It obviously is not baseball!

I enjoyed this one overall but thought there was too much detail spent on the advertising agency leaving the plot related to the murder and cocaine business as somewhat secondary. This one also did not include Wimsey's love interest, Harriet Vane, who Wimsey had been romancing in the previous novels. This one is included on the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die but I think some of her other novels are better. I have been binge reading and enjoying several books in this series and look forward to reading more but may take a break from them for now.

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