Monday, March 10, 2014

Murder In March Madness Day #10

Welcome to Murder In March Madness. I will highlight one title with the word Murder, or a variant,  in it each day all during the month of March. Today we are on day ten of this event and I will highlight Dorothy L Sayers' Murder Must Advertize published in 1933.

Murder Must Advertize (1933)
Written by Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)
 

Lord Peter Wimsey accepts an offer from the highly respectable management of Pym's Publicity, Ltd. to investigate a mystery and avert a scandal. Copywriter Victor Dean has died in a fall down the spiral iron office staircase, but he left a half-finished letter to the management hinting that something potentially scandalous is going on at Pym's. 


The iron staircase at Pym’s Publicity is a deathtrap, and no one in the advertising agency is surprised when Victor Dean tumbles down it, cracking his skull along the way. Dean’s replacement arrives just a few days later, a green copywriter named Death Bredon. Though he displays a surprising talent for the business of selling margarine, alarm clocks, and nerve tonics, Bredon is not really there to write copy. In fact, he is really Lord Peter Wimsey, and he has come to Pym’s in search of the man who pushed Dean. As he tries to navigate the cutthroat world of London advertising, Lord Peter uncovers a mystery that touches on catapults, cocaine, and cricket. But how does one uncover a murderer in a business where it pays to have no soul?

Printing History

 Victor Gollancz
1933, July 1945

Harper Collins
ISBN 0 060 55024
September 1986

Pocket Books
November 1939
 

3 comments:

  1. Ooh, first Agatha Christie and now Dorothy Sayers! I love it! Thanks, Scott!

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  2. This is one of my favourite murder stories, but I have never seen either of these covers - the top one is much better than the lower one, I think this is a case where you want detail.

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  3. Thanks for the comments. The top one was published in 1985 by Avon Books, and the bottom by HarperTorch in May 1995.

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