This little murder mystery book was so much fun. I don't always like the 1920's - 1930's lingo - their phrases, reactions and odd slang can get annoying, but in this book it was playful and fun.

The idea of this staircase is truly scary to me! I love how everyone just easy breezy mentioned that someone fell down and crushed his head! Each of their little conversations were like little clues. I loved that we knew Death Bredon was doing based on side conversations/gossip that the members of the office had. It was an interesting writing style and I enjoyed it completely! I will definitely read more of [a:Dorothy L. Sayers|8734|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1206564934p2/8734.jpg] ( )

(20) The 10th I think in the Lord Peter Wimsey series. I did not love this one. Wimsey goes undercover at a London ad agency hired by the owner as one of his recently deceased employees wrote a letter implying there was a game afoot at the company. Wimsey is aghast ... a working man. Working 9-5 writing inane slogans for products no one really needs. He suspects the dear departed copy editor did not just trip and fall down the staircase as initially suspected. And so this caper begins.

Neither Harriet Vane nor Bunter feature in this installment. Detective Parker plays a smaller role as well. Instead the narrative is filled with endless Brittish-icisms that fell flat for me. An entire chapter narrating a cricket match! A lot of advertising copy as contextual detail or red herring, I dunno but I found it tiresome. In the end the detecting and the whole dope-peddling scheme was not even very clever. The novel kept my interest but was definitely not amongst my favorites in this series. Either that or I am tiring of the whole schtick.

I will continue the series but I can't say that I love them. In this instance I much prefer the more modern Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series for a British mystery. Perhaps I will go back to Inspector Wexford to continue my summer mystery fix. ( )

There's 2 levels to this - as a murder mystery and as a depiction of life in the advertising industry. The setting here is given much more prominence than it is in other murder mysteries and obviously reflects Sayers' own experience in it.

As a murder mystery it's *fine*. Something I noticed here that's also in Strong Poison and Have His Carcase is there's a surprisingly limited pool of suspects and barely any attempt to set up red herrings. Here there's *technically* lots of characters introduced who could have done it but there's only 2 that are developed to have any suspicion or motive attached to them, really.

The advertising setting though... the actual key contrast in the book is between the evils of the cocaine trade and the slightly less evil but still pretty grubby world of the advertising industry. It's clear that Sayers is a bit vague on the drug stuff but the advertising industry is clearly deeply personal to her. A small but important subplot is Lord Peter coming up with a highly successful advertising campaign for a brand of cigarettes that gets people smoking more and gets new people into smoking The precise health effects of cigarette smoking were I assume not widely known but it's still clearly taken as read that they're not great (mention is made of the risks of people being struck down by nicotine poisoning). The parallel is extremely obvious, although it's not really tackled - the detective got rid of one murderer and helped break up a drug gang but at the same time promoted a major takeup of drugs, the only difference being it was perfectly legal. Especially knowing what we know today it's hard not to see him as morally culpable for tens of thousands of deaths ( )

This is Lord Peter Wimsey at his most sparkling when he is requested to investigate a death at an advertising agency. In order to do his investigation, he goes to work there undercover. ( )

A sprawling spider-web of a mystery that begins by encasing you in layers of murkiness.
Who? What? Why? For the longest time you can't even get a grip on what exactly the problem seems to be.
Seemingly erratic behavior by Lord Peter leads to eventual elucidation. This is a clever book and it tells a complex story.
And, as an intriguing bonus, it's set in a 1930s advertising agency so sharply detailed that it comes as no surprise that Dorothy Sayers is speaking from her own job experience. There's a lot of interesting stuff here, but (and maybe this is just me) I found it too long this time through.
Also, the resolution is pretty sad ( )

In this addition to the Lord Peter series we find the protagonist working undercover at an advertising agency. The reader not only gets a thoroughly entertaining story but also an insider's look at the advertising industry of the 1920s. Included is a secondary plot involving illicit drug culture and smuggling which I found interesting. While I remembered some details from my last read, 35 or so years ago, I still enjoyed the characters and the plot. Definitely recommended, even as a standalone.

With an overly complicated vocabulary and a too large cast of characters, this book was entirely to confusion to be regarded as an easy read (as I coincidentally acquired an copy meant for educational language lessons). With too many characters constantly jumping in and out of the frame it falls short as a book which one can follow and enjoy to its fullest. As a visual media it could have rather blossomed better as the storyline in itself is rather fascinating, but falls short in book format. ( )

"My brother, being an English gentleman, possesses a library in all his houses, though he never opens a book. This is called fidelity to ancient tradition. "

This was even more complicated than I remember it being -- complicated plotlines, complicated relationships. I enjoyed it the second time around, especially the social commentary on the roll of advertising in furthering capitalism and creating even more stratification and divisions. Every single Sayers book that I've re-read thus far has included at least one cringe-worthy racial slur or generalization, so that sucks. ( )

Really pretty excellent.

The mystery was interesting enough, but the real fun of the story was in the Wimseyisms and the send-up of advertising. Sayers always goes all-in on whichever topic is relevant to the mystery— though in this case she apparently drew on nine years’ experience as a copywriter at an ad agency!

Some other stuff was less convincing, especially the whole Bright Young Things subplot and Wimsey’s double-identity shtick. ( )

Reading the nonfiction book [Square Haunting] has led me to try a few authors that I hadn't gotten to yet. Dorothy Sayers is one of them. This book comes in the middle of her Lord Peter Wimsey mystery series. The reason I chose it is that it is on the 1001 books to read before you die list.

I enjoyed this and will say that of the Golden Age mystery writers, I think that Dorothy Sayers' writing craft stands out. But honestly, I thought the mystery was weak and I lacked connection with the setting of an advertising company. I think there was humor there that was too dated a hundred years later for me to really appreciate. I'd consider reading this whole series from the beginning for fun, but I'm not going to make it a priority. ( )

Fun read ( )

Well done, but doesn't match the novel in interest.

Better than butter and half the price.

The world of advertising long before Mad Men, and no less scandalous.

An enjoyable mystery until some dubious ethics right near the end. ( )

Lord Peter is incognito at an advertising agency to see if there is anything to investigate about a death and an unsent letter from the deceased. Lots of office politics and dark side of society shenanigans. One of the best, if Bunter-less books. ( )

This is, I think, maybe the second best of the Wimsey series (I liked Strong Poison better, but that's my opinion). This one is an intriguing mystery story, plus it has lots of humor (but it's not silly humor, it's the character-oriented kind that does not make the plot trivial). ( )

Lord Peter goes undercover at an advertising agency to investigate an irregular death, but he also discovers a drug ring in the process. He nearly slips up with his cover a few times. The office staff provides interesting characters. I just don't like the series that much. Although this is one of the better installments, Bunter is largely absent, and I really enjoy his character. ( )

Murder Must Advertise is such a fun book. Witty, word-play-y, though it works best if you're already familiar with Lord Peter. Great characterisations, and not even that bad of a plot (always the weak point with Sayers). The characters were life-like and good and touching in unexpected places. Keen eye for British class and culture. Loved the banter, missed the Bunter. I'm very happy my re-read arrived here, because Murder Must Advertise and the next book, Nine Tailors, seem to me the best of Sayers' work. ( )

Probably my third trip through this particular one. ( )

Wimsey Undercover
Review of the Hodder & Stoughton paperback (2016) reissue of the Victor Gollancz "Murder Must Advertise" (1933) original

There is a lot of fun to be had in this 1930's Golden Age mystery set in an advertising agency. Dorothy Sayers had the full background experience to write this as she herself had worked as an advertising copywriter for many years and builds an office full of quirky character types from it.

She puts her amateur detective character Lord Peter Wimsey into the mix playing his own invented cousin Death (pronounced as two syllables: De-ath) Bredon who joins the firm as a fledgling copywriter while secretly working to solve the mystery behind the death of his predecessor. On the way there are office secrets & politics, the charming recruitment of an office delivery boy as junior detective, some experimental stream of consciousness writing, an wild party orgy, a drugs gang, several more murders, a cricket match and more advertising jingles than you could ever imagine. ( )

As I mentioned elsewhere, I have many fond memories of Dorothy L. Sayers' books from our days in Pittsburgh and first settling back in the Boston area (back in the good old days before Regan, when economists still made an attempt at being honest purveyors of their alleged craft, rather than lap dogs of the white-collar crime set). But after Clouds of Witness, I was a bit worried about trying another: Clouds was rather tedious. Fortunately, this book is vastly better. Sayers is now back in my good graces, and I'll soon be hunting up another of her books (of course, I could always look on the book shelf at the top of the stairs, but then I'd have to lug around a heavy, dead-tree paperback).

Anyway, this book concerns an advertising agency and drug pushing. It seems that one of the people at Pym's Ad Agency tumbled down the stairs and died instantly. Perhaps he just slipped on the iron stairs, or perhaps not. Mr. Pym was a bit worried because the deceased was found to have begun writing a letter to him, i.e. Mr. Pym, about how all was not well at Pym's. So Mr. Pym hired Lord Peter Wimsey to join the ad agency, but under cover, as a black sheep cousin Death Bredon (Death as a name mostly rhymes with teeth). Along the way, Mr. Bredon, has quite a night life, garbed as a harelquin, masquerading his way through the "bright life" lived by London's rich and useless (Yup, yet another another reason to oppose inherited money).

The background and word play at the advertising agency is ever so much fun, and the coked-up druggies are also rather amusing. All in all, a rather entertaining read. My spouse agrees that this one is a GoodRead indeed. ( )

Amazing, how apt the insights into how advertising shapes our lives are in this novel published originally in 1933. ( )

Previously read years ago but I purchased a Kindle copy because I remember it fondly. ( )

The idea behind the mystery was interesting, but the book bogged down often in just way too much detail. I’m sure readers from ex-British colonial countries (as well, of course, U. K.) probably enjoyed the long play-by-play chapter about a match. I suppose I’m lucky it wasn’t a 5-day event. ( )

Wimsey goes undercover at an advertising agency to investigate the suspicious death of one of their copywriters & the unknown conspiracy he seems to have been involved with. MURDER MUST ADVERTISE, the most satirical novel in the series, serves up deliciously acerbic one-liners on consumer culture & office politics. In later parts of the novel, Wimsey's various identities get tangled to both humorous & suspenseful effect. There's an employee cricket match that goes on too long, but that's the only slow bit. REC: READ ( )