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Murder Must Advertise
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October 2014 - Murder Must Advertise
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Diane
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rated it 4 stars
Oct 23, 2014 07:26AM
I think it was a good solution also.
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I really like this book. I like the picture it presents of the advertising industry. I like the insight it gives into Lady Mary's and Charles Parker's family life and I like the cricket match.
I agree. It was interesting that Lady Mary only got enough of her fortune to match what Charles makes.
I don't know how to remove spoilers so I'll just say that I liked the ending. I had no sympathy for the killer but I did for his family. I, too, enjoyed reading about the advertising agency and Lord Peter's family. Good book.
There is a passage in chapter 11 where Lord Peter reflected on the role and power of advertising on society, and considered what might happen if all advertising were to halt. This passage really resonated with me, and I've tried to imagine what might happen to our economy, our relationships, our society in general, if advertising did indeed stop. Until this point I thought of ads as something of an annoyance, with no real value. Now I wonder how something I saw as benign was instead quite the opposite.
Bh84 wrote: "There is a passage in chapter 11 where Lord Peter reflected on the role and power of advertising on society, and considered what might happen if all advertising were to halt. This passage really re..."Interesting thought, isn't it? Certainly some advertising is beyond annoying (spam emails, for one). But without any advertising, how would I find out about sales on products I buy, new products in my field of interest, new books, etc.?
Everyman wrote: "Bh84 wrote: "There is a passage in chapter 11 where Lord Peter reflected on the role and power of advertising on society, and considered what might happen if all advertising were to halt. This pass..."I thought he had a valid point about advertising keeping the economy going, but I get annoyed by the manipulative advertising that seems so predominant now. Advertising used to seem a lot less "driven", but then I guess there were a lot fewer products on the market too.....
Sandra wrote: "Advertising used to seem a lot less "driven", but then I guess there were a lot fewer products on the market too....."And a lot fewer outlets for advertising. Newspapers and magazines were the main outlets for advertising, and you didn't have to look at those unless you wanted to. Even when the TV started, there were only a few channels, and my memory seems to remember many fewer ads on the limited amount of TV there was (TV in my day wasn't a 24 hour offering, but there was an end of the TV day when the stations signed off.) No Internet blasting ads into our faces constantly. No spam emails. Much less "junk mail." When there is only a limited number of outlets, and a limited number of ads demanding attention, advertising seems more of something useful than something massively intrusive.
I like to think it's interesting that the necessity of advertising seems to be so timeless. It was just as pervasive in the 30's as it is today, and I think the consumer has to be just as diligent in checking out the accuracy of statements. I don't know if there used to be less advertising in the past, or if we were less aware of it. It seems like it's everywhere now. Doesn't it seem ironic that if you want to opt out of ads on your email or music service, you have to pay a premium?
Everyman wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Advertising used to seem a lot less "driven", but then I guess there were a lot fewer products on the market too....."And a lot fewer outlets for advertising. Newspapers and magaz..."
In NZ we had a cartoon of a Kiwi climbing the transmission tower - he had a bed made up in the dish, tucking himself in and turning out the light at the end of the transmission day. 1962 that was and we had 3 channels, all black and white....
Bee wrote: "I like to think it's interesting that the necessity of advertising seems to be so timeless. It was just as pervasive in the 30's as it is today, and I think the consumer has to be just as diligent ..."As Everyman said - fewer channels - only newspapers and magazines, and I guess billboards back then......
As Sandra said just 3 channels that were regional (South Island, Wellington, Auckland) so not seen by everyone in the country. Reels carrying news items pertaining to each region were flown between regions so you might see news that was 3 or 4 days old! There was certainly less advertising -beginning, midway and end of each programme, but we paid a fairly hefty annual licence fee. When that was done away with advertising grew rapidly. Print advertising occurred mostly in daily newspapers. Very little, if any, junk mail existed along the lines of today. Paper was a precious commodity and one of NZs main exports - after sheep!
Bee wrote: "I don't know if there used to be less advertising in the past, or if we were less aware of it."I think there was less of it. Stores were more local, and at least as I was growing up people didn't drive thirty miles to get to a mall, but shopped in their local towns and communities and basically knew what they could get where. And companies didn't feel the need to introduce so many new products; when there is only one type of Cheerio, one type of Shredded Wheat, a few shampoos, there's no need to advertise so many other products to try to get a smidgen of market share from somebody else.
The most assertive advertising I recall growing up was from gas stations, since they were all basically selling the same thing, so they had lots and lots of promotions to try to get you to buy Atlantic instead of Esso or Sunoco.
This was my first book by Dorothy Sayers, and it was very enjoyable. Does anyone have other recommended titles? Was this book exemplary of her writing style?
Yes, I'd say this is a good example of what you get from Sayers. Strong Poison is the one where you first meet Harriet (Lord Peter's beloved). Clouds of Witness gives you more of the Wimsey family. IMO they're all good, though!
Bee wrote: "This was my first book by Dorothy Sayers, and it was very enjoyable. Does anyone have other recommended titles? Was this book exemplary of her writing style?"I agree with Corvida; they're all excellent, but I think Murder Must Advertise is one of her best, and the other one I think is equally good is The Nine Tailors.
Bee wrote: "This was my first book by Dorothy Sayers, and it was very enjoyable. Does anyone have other recommended titles? Was this book exemplary of her writing style?"All of hers are good, though there are a few that I think are not quite as excellent. I'm not a great fan of Five Red Herrings (I find it too finicky for my taste) or The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club.
Her Harriet Vane/Lord Peter novels are wonderful, but you really should read them in order: Strong Poison, Whose Body, the superb Gaudy Night, and the wonderful Busman's Honeymoon, though in that one the mystery takes second place to the personal relationship (Sayers subtitled the first edition "A Love Story with Detective Interruptions). The first chapter of Busman's Honeymoon is absolutely hilarious and wonderfully written, but you have to have read the previous three Vane/Wimsey books to get the full benefit of it.
Karen wrote: "I agree with Corvida; they're all excellent, but I think Murder Must Advertise is one of her best, and the other one I think is equally good is The Nine Tailors. "I agree, though I think Gaudy Night is also up there, and Busman's Honeymoon, though less strong as a mystery, is glorious.
I discovered Dorothy Sayer's books quite by accident - and became an immediate fan - Murder Must Advertise is my favourite (probably because my mom worked for an advertising agency during the same time period). Another of her books, Clouds of Witness, has an excellent twist to it - I never would have guessed the ending! Jill Paton-Walsh has continued the series, incorporating some material left by Dorothy Sayers - she is an amazing writer! I highly recommend "The Attenbury Emeralds" as one of the best Lord Peter mysteries I have read.
Everyman wrote: "Her Harriet Vane/Lord Peter novels are wonderful, but you really should read them in order: Strong Poison, Whose Body, the superb Gaudy Night, and the wonderful Busman's Honeymoon, though in that one..."Really?? I am pretty sure that Whose Body? is NOT a Harriet Vane one... in fact, I think it is Sayers' first book in the series (based on the fact that it is the only one of hers in public domain here in the US).
Leslie wrote: "Everyman wrote: "Her Harriet Vane/Lord Peter novels are wonderful, but you really should read them in order: Strong Poison, Whose Body, the superb Gaudy Night, and the wonderful Busman's Honeymoon,..."The 2nd Harriet Vane is Have His Carcase
Sandy wrote: "The 2nd Harriet Vane is Have His Carcase ."You're both right, of course. My very bad. I should have learned at my age not to rely on memory but to go up to the mysteries shelves to check for sure (I failed to to that because they are in the balcony of my library and so require climbing the stairs. But laziness is never an excuse for error, is it?)
Just glad to know that my memory of that book (Whose Body?) is at least somewhat reliable :PIn any case, I would agree with your recommendation to Bee that they be read in order. Personally I would read the non-Harriet ones first but I had a bad case of jealousy about Harriet as a 14-year-old so I am prejudiced against her!
Leslie wrote: "Personally I would read the non-Harriet ones first but I had a bad case of jealousy about Harriet as a 14-year-old so I am prejudiced against her! "You probably aren't alone. Whether it's apocryphal or not, Sayers is supposed to have said that she created Lord Peter as the ideal husband, so it makes sense that any other intelligent woman would be jealous of the woman who actually did capture him. (Or was captured by him??)
Well, it wasn't an easy capture for him, was it?
I love Harriet! I envied her the holiday she was having in Have His Carcase (until the corpse showed up). And Gaudy Night--I have to admit it--is one of my all-time favorite books.
Corvida wrote: "I love Harriet! I envied her the holiday she was having in Have His Carcase (until the corpse showed up). And Gaudy Night--I have to admit it--is one of my all-time favorite books."I agree completely. I need to reread the Vane books. I hardly remember Busman's Honeymoon, and I think there is an addition by another author, Has anyone read it?
Sandy wrote: "Corvida wrote: "I love Harriet! I envied her the holiday she was having in Have His Carcase (until the corpse showed up). And Gaudy Night--I have to admit it--is one of my all-time favorite books."..."Jill Paton Walsh has continued the series. I enjoyed them very much.
Ellen wrote: "Sandy wrote: "Corvida wrote: "I love Harriet! I envied her the holiday she was having in Have His Carcase (until the corpse showed up). And Gaudy Night--I have to admit it--is one of my all-time fa..."Thanks
I haven't read Jill Paton Walsh (or any other non-Sayers continuation of the Lord Peter/Harriet series). Re-reading Murder Must Advertise made me think that I do need to re-read a lot more Sayers.
Corvida wrote: "I haven't read Jill Paton Walsh (or any other non-Sayers continuation of the Lord Peter/Harriet series). Re-reading Murder Must Advertise made me think that I do need to re-read a lot more Sayers."There is a lot of controversy among the LPW aficionados about the Jill Paton Walsh continuations, but on the whole, and as someone who has loved all the the Lord Peter books for years, I find them an interesting exercise. They do carry forward many of the key characters, and the changes that they go through, in WWII and beyond, are reasonable and believable. My personal favorites were Thrones, Dominations [following closely after Busman's Honeymoon in the chronology] and The Attenbury Emeralds.
Personally, I like the portrayal of the time that you get from the time. Jill Paton Walsh knows how the war turned out! But if Sayers were writing about the war during the war, she wouldn't. For me, that makes the Sayers book more of a direct window into the past.
