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A review by mariafernandagama
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
4.0
As a person who has (unfortunately) worked in a few different advertising agencies throughout her life, I can say that most of the daily life aspects and department dynamics Sayers portraits here rings true. Except, of course, for this pathetic notion that people get to leave work on time every day. That's ridiculous. But apart from that, all of the absurd nonsense of the clients that pay you for your expertise on how to write or illustrate something and then try to make their ideas and whims prevail at all cost is a totally true, and so it would seem, timeless experience. But the greatest similarity to real life is Sayers's absolute contempt for the kind of work she does. Since she wrote this based on her experiences as a copywriter herself, I can totally understand where she's coming from. Advertising, as she explains in this book, is not that different from dealing drugs: you feed people on tiny illusions to get them through the week, and in that process you make yourself (or, to be fair, the people you work for) very rich. It's a foul business. On the other hand, it was very special to read a book from 1933 where the author feels in such a similar way to me about such contemporary issues.
Regarding the mystery itself, I again am a bit disappointed with her choices. There are things you simply cannot do when writing detective stories, and she does them here. If you're going to treat that part of your book with that level of carelessness, maybe you should write a different type of book altogether. And what can I say about the Harlequin stuff? Or the cricket match described in all its details, spanning several pages? Sigh. I think I'll take a break from her books for a while. I'm reading them one after the other and I think this is making me very attentive to flaws.
But I really don't want to give the impression that this is a bad book. It's not. The pacing is good, and Dorothy is a really good writer. I just wish that she would stick to the things she's good at and pay a little closer attention to how she crafts these murder cases.
Regarding the mystery itself, I again am a bit disappointed with her choices. There are things you simply cannot do when writing detective stories, and she does them here. If you're going to treat that part of your book with that level of carelessness, maybe you should write a different type of book altogether. And what can I say about the Harlequin stuff? Or the cricket match described in all its details, spanning several pages? Sigh. I think I'll take a break from her books for a while. I'm reading them one after the other and I think this is making me very attentive to flaws.
But I really don't want to give the impression that this is a bad book. It's not. The pacing is good, and Dorothy is a really good writer. I just wish that she would stick to the things she's good at and pay a little closer attention to how she crafts these murder cases.