Quick review: Murder Must Advertise

...by Dorothy L Sayers

I'm gradually reading through the Wimsey novels in order.  What struck me about the first novel was not simply the fiendish plot, but also the revelation that the wise-cracking, one-liner detective was already around in the 1920s (did he start here?).  And though I have enjoyed the subsequent half-dozen books, that kind of easy wit has been gradually slipping and so, whilst still a complex mystery, became less entertaining along the way.

But we're back to form here - though sadly minus Bunter (Wimsey is a kind of uber-intelligent Bertie Wooster, complete with Jeeves/Bunter).  Also fascinating was to see the inner workings of a 1930s advertising agency.  Sayers had worked in one (and is, apparently, responsible for some of the more famous Guinness taglines), and her carefully drawn sketch of life in a London agency is a great backdrop.  What is interesting is how all contemporary it sounds:  aside from the change in technology, not a lot seems to have altered in the aims and ethics - or perhaps I should say: it's surprising how much of what we assume is contemporary has in fact always been around.  And Sayer's philosophical asides could have been written about posters you saw on the tube last week.