Murder Must Advertise
(1933)
Blurb:
My review:
‘The particular crookedness of advertising is so very far renewed from the crookedness of dope-trafficking.’
‘Why? As far as I can make out, all advertisers are dope-merchants.’
‘So they are. Yes, now I come to think of it, there is a subtle symmetry about the thing which is extremely artistic…’
A vivid and witty tale set in an advertising agency whose sense of hustle and bustle is conveyed as clearly as the personalities of the large cast of group-managers, copy-writers, typists and drug fiends. Wimsey goes undercover as his black sheep cousin Bredon to investigate the ‘accidental’ death of one of the copy-writers, and discovers a really clever scheme for drug-smuggling, relying on advertisement (and the moral qualities of the trade?). This is the most energetic and colourful of her books since the very early ones, but infinitely more elegant and mature.