Murder Must Advertise is a 1933 murder mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers. It's the eighth in the Lord Peter Wimsey series.
Victor Dean dies after falling down the stairs in an advertising agency. His replacement, Death Bredon, discovers a partially-completed letter from Dean to the agency's proprietor. The letter reveals Dean thought something fishy was going on in the agency. His death suddenly looks much more suspicious.
The book has been adapted into a 1973 miniseries and a 1979 radio drama.
Contains examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Chief Inspector Parker is dealing with a witness he regards as a distraction from more important matters, and gets his name wrong at one point, addressing him as "Firkin" when his name is actually "Puncheon". (Both are antiquated units for quantities of alcoholic drinks.)
- Asshole Victim: Victor Dean was a blackmailer.
- Author Avatar: Miss Meteyard, a rather ladettish, Oxford-educated advertising copywriter is actually an excellent candidate for this. She even has some kind of romantic history that she'd rather was kept secret from her straitlaced boss. She's a pretty minor character, though.
- Bastard Bastard: Invoked by Lord Peter - when warning Dian de Momerie against associating with his "cousin" Death Bredon, he drops several hints that Bredon is both illegitimate (which is why he doesn't show up in books like Debrett's guide to the peerage) and dangerous to know.
- Big Bad: The drug lord Cummings is directly or indirectly responsible for all the crimes.
- Blackmail: One of the staff at the advertising agency had tried blackmailing several of his colleagues. Miss Meteyard told him to publish and be damned, and was subsequently left alone. Mr Tallboy chose an alternative method of dealing with the problem, resulting in the murder Lord Peter is investigating.
- Blackmail Backfire: Victor Dean was murdered by someone he was attempting to blackmail.
- Brand X: All the products and advertising campaigns are, of course, fictional. (With one exception, for which see Shout-Out below.)
- Brats with Slingshots: One of the message boys brings his new slingshot to work to show the others, and has it confiscated. This prompts several of the adults working at Pym's to reminisce about their own youthful slingshot escapades. It also inspires the murderer to borrow it and use it as the murder weapon.
- …But He Sounds Handsome: Inverted. Lord Peter, encountering two people who have met him in disguise as Death Bredon, takes the opportunity to blacken the name of his supposed lookalike cousin. When the two subsequently meet Bredon again, he insults Lord Peter in turn.
- Clark Kenting: When working in Pym's advertising agency, Wimsey wears glasses and combs his hair with a side parting. It changes his appearance enough that when the Pym's typists see him in his normal evening dress and monocle, they aren't sure if he's the same person, particularly when he behaves as if he doesn't recognise them.
- Competition Coupon Madness: Lord Peter's "Whiffling" advertising scheme is described as becoming a nationwide obsession.
- Contrived Coincidence: Lampshaded and subverted. Dian de Momerie and her coterie get bored and decide to crash the next posh social event they come across; the party they crash is being hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Denver, with Lord Peter in attendance, giving Peter an opportunity to establish the legend of his disreputable cousin Bredon. When Peter tells Parker about it afterward, Parker remarks that that was an impressive bit of luck, and Peter explains that actually Dian had come up with the gate-crashing plan because somebody (i.e. Peter) had sent her an anonymous message suggesting that if she went to Denver's house she would learn something to her advantage.
- Double-Meaning Title: The first chapter is titled "Death Comes to Pym's Publicity". It has the usual poetic meaning of somebody having died (Victor Dean, whose murder Lord Peter spends the book investigating), but the main topic of the chapter is Death Bredon's first day as an employee of Pym's.
- Driven to Suicide: Suicide is a choice to keep the villain's innocent family from guaranteed poverty and social ostracism.
- The Eeyore: Sergeant Lumley, always gloomy and prepared to find fault with everything. Such as God's tendency to put so many bones into kippers.
- Face Death with Dignity: Tallboy chooses to go out alone, forgoing protection, knowing that the criminal gang has a lethal "accident" planned for him, but also knowing that if he dies in an "accident" his part in the business won't become public knowledge and his family won't suffer for his mistakes.
- Fingertip Drug Analysis: Performed by a chemist to determine that a packet of white powder labelled "Bicarbonate of Soda" is in fact cocaine.
- Follow That Car: Lampshaded:"Follow that taxi," he said, exactly like somebody out of a book. And the driver, nonchalant as though he had stepped from the pages of Edgar Wallace, replied, "Right you are, sir."
- Fowl-Mouthed Parrot: An old man in a pub tells an anecdote about his aunt's parrot, acquired from a sailor. "Fortunately, the old lady couldn't hear half what it said, and didn't understand the other half."
- High-Class Glass: The Bright Young Things' party has a female dancer who wears a top hat, monocle and patent-leather boots. And nothing else.
- Innocent Innuendo: One week's Nutrax advertisement throws the office into chaos when, at the last minute, it's pointed out that the headline "Are you taking too much out of yourself?" gives completely the wrong impression when combined with the illustration (of a couple who "look as though they'd been making a night of it").
- Lame Pun Reaction: In the cricket match Ingleby in his first innings is out for zero, called "out for a duck". When he returns to the pavilion, Wimsey tells him "Quack, quack." Ingleby throws the bat at him.
- Last-Name Basis: The staff of Pym's Publicity. Some of them have worked there for years but it's still 'Mr.' this and 'Miss' that.
- Leave Behind a Pistol: During their final conversation, Tallboy mentions to Lord Peter that he's considered suicide to spare his family the trouble that will come when his part in the criminal conspiracy comes out. Lord Peter points out that at the moment he could commit suicide just by walking down the street, as the other criminal conspirators have a history of arranging "accidents" for people who have let them down. Tallboy takes the hint.
- Lite Crème: Lord Peter, who is working undercover at an ad agency as a copywriter, explains the limitations and requirements of the English labelling laws in some detail to his sister and brother-in-law while visiting them, including details such as the difference between "made from pears" and "made with pears".
- Lost in Character: Peter gets enough into the character of Death Bredon and the details of his Whiffle campaign that an interruption from Scotland Yard with evidence related to his actual case is greeted with genuinely heartfelt cursing.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Members of the drug ring who are too indiscreet or otherwise become liabilities have a statistically unlikely tendency to be hit by runaway lorries or fall under subway trains.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Dian de Momerie, in conversation with a disguised Lord Peter, seems to have a moment of telepathy: "There's a hanged man in your thoughts. Why are you thinking of hanging?" Lord Peter's internal monologue tries to explain it as an effect of the drink and drugs she's taken.
- Meaningful Echo: Halfway through, there's a scene where a disguised Lord Peter, playing up his role as a mystery man, tells Dian de Momerie that when his task is complete he will return to the place from which he came, deliberately echoing the traditional wording of a judge handing down a death sentence. At the end, as the murderer goes to his death, Lord Peter completes the quotation to himself, picking up from where the earlier quotation left off.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The murder was an attempt to keep the lid on an extensive criminal conspiracy, and Lord Peter's investigation of the murder results in the entire criminal organisation being brought down.
- Mirroring Factions: As a few characters point out, there are distinct parallels between illegal drug distribution and the advertising industry.
- The Missus and the Ex: Mentioned by Wimsey:In all social difficulties, ask Uncle Ugly. Do you want to know how many buttons there should be on a dress waistcoat? How to eat an orange in public? How to introduce your first-wife-that-was to your third-wife-to-be? Uncle Ugly will put you right.
- More Insulting than Intended: Mr Tallboy, in an argument with Mr Smayle, sarcastically asks "I suppose you are sending your son to Eton, then?" unaware that Smayle's son is mentally handicapped.
- Plain Palate: Mr. Copley, who lives on "under-cooked beef-steak, fruit and whole-meal bread" due to his digestive problems and is very good at advertising for processed foods that he would never eat himself.
- Pronouncing My Name for You: Death Bredon's new co-workers ask him how he pronounces his first name (which so far they've only seen written down). He says that most people with the name "Death" pronounce it to rhyme with "teeth", but he prefers it to rhyme with "breath". He is promptly addressed only as 'Bredon' or 'Mr. Bredon.'
- Real Name as an Alias: Peter Death Bredon Wimsey goes in disguise under the name of "Death Bredon".
- Revealing Skill: While undercover as Bredon, Lord Peter is asked to play in the company team at a cricket match. He tries to play a careful, defensive game — but in the second innings he gets hit on the elbow by a stray ball, loses his temper, and starts flamboyantly punishing the opposition's bowling. Which blows his cover, as one of the audience recognises Wimsey of Balliol's characteristic batting style.
- Rich Bitch: Dian de Momerie; weirdly, also a Hard-Drinking Party Girl.
- Shout-Out:
- Death Bredon creates an innovative advertising campaign that he predicts (accurately) will be "the biggest advertising stunt since the Mustard Club"; the Mustard Club was a famous Real Life advertising gimmick for Colman's Mustard. Murder Must Advertise was inspired by the time Sayers spent working in advertising before the Wimsey novels took off — and now, three guesses who came up with the Mustard Club...
- Spell My Name with a Blank: Among the generic products mentioned by the narrator are "So-and-so's Silks, Blank's Gloves, Dash's Footwear, Whatnot's Weatherproof Complexion Cream and Thingummy's Beautifying Shampoos".
- Sports Hero Backstory: Lord Peter is an adept cricketer, and played for Oxford in his student days. At one point his undercover persona is endangered when he encounters a cricket enthusiast who recognises his batting style.
- Spy Speak: Part of the mystery involves trying to discover the recognition code used by members of the criminal gang.
- There Will Be Toilet Paper: Mr Copley cuts himself shaving the morning after he had to change the Nutrax headline at the last minute — so he has to explain himself to his bosses with a blob of cotton wool on his cheek.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Invoked in the invention of Peter's identical cousin, Death Bredon.
- Villainous Harlequin: Lord Peter adopts the disguise of a harlequin to infiltrate Dian de Momerie's social circle. The harlequin starts out merely flashy and acrobatic, but gradually becomes mysterious and sinister as Lord Peter adjusts the persona to better fit Dian's interests.
- We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future: In order to establish that Lord Peter and Death Bredon are separate people, Lord Peter has a photograph faked and published in the newspapers showing the two of them together. It's convincing enough that Miss Meteyard, who'd previously been sure they were the same person, changes her mind rather than consider the possibility of a fake.
- Wham Episode: The cricket match chapter ends with Lord Peter getting arrested. Howzat?
- Working the Same Case: Lord Peter looks into irregularities at an advertising firm, while Parker is occupied trying to track down a drug smuggling ring. The latter are responsible for the former.
- The X of Y: The chapters (bar the first and the last) have names of the form "(adjective)(noun) of an (adjective)(noun)".
