Murder Must Advertise is a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, published in 1933.
 :Early paperback edition cover | |
| Author | Dorothy L. Sayers |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Lord Peter Wimsey |
| Genre | Mystery Novel |
| Publisher | Victor Gollancz |
Publication date | 1933 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 352 pp |
| ISBN | NA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Preceded by | Have His Carcase |
| Followed by | The Nine Tailors |
Most of the action takes place in an advertising agency, a setting with which Sayers was very familiar. It is often considered to be the best book of the Wimsey series, although she herself considered it something of a failure.
Plot summary
Template:Spoiler Lord Peter Wimsey, under the pseudonym of "Death Bredon" (actually his middle names), takes up employment as a copywriter for an advertising agency in order to discover more about the recent mysterious death of one of the employees. In the process he discovers much of the convoluted private lives of the other employees, not to mention getting a feel of what it is to actually work for a living. Eventually he traces the connection to a drug-smuggling operation, which he proceeds to infiltrate and uncover. Wimsey makes the connection between the drug-smugglers and the employee who has become their tool and has responded to a blackmail threat with murder.
It is interesting to note that Lord Peter Wimsey (the hero) plays an significant role in advertising cigarettes, and in fact developes a reward points system that is explicitly stated to greatly increase sales of a particular brand of cigarettes. This shows that, at the time, tobacco advertising was a morally neutral act.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Murder Must Advertise was adapted for television in 1973 as part of a series starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter.