Murder Must Advertise

Title: Murder Must Advertise

Author: Dorothy L Sayers

Number of pages: 388

Started: 3 March 2008

Finished: 17 March 2008

Opening words:

And by the way,” said Mr. Hankin, arresting Miss Rossiter as she rose to go, “there is a new copy-writer coming in today.”

“Oh, yes,Mr Hankin?”

“His name is Bredon. I can’t tell you much about him;, Mr Pym engaged him himself; but you will see that he is looked after.”


Plot summary:

When ad man Victor Dean falls down the stairs in the offices of Pym’s Publicity, a respectable London advertising agency, it looks like an accident. Then Lord Peter Wimsey is called in, and he soon discovers there’s more to copywriting than meets the eye. A bit of cocaine, a hint of blackmail, and some wanton women can be read between the lines. And then there is the brutal succession of murders—five of them—each one a fixed fee for advertising a deadly secret.

What I thought:

I quite liked this book, but it was not one of my favourites. I read various Dorothy L Sayers’ books as a teenager and remember liking them more than I did this book. I didn’t really like the drug storyline, it just didn’t appeal to me. I did like the advertising agency part of it though, and I thought it was interesting how similar the advertising world is to today. So this book was ok, but not one to rave about.