Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers was first published in 1933. My edition is a Hodder reprint from 2016.

The very successful advertising agency Pym’s Publicity has taken on a new copy-writer by the name of Death Bredon, it is of course Lord Peter Wimsey looking exactly like himself but claiming to be his disreputable cousin Bredon when he is recognised.

There had recently been a death within the offices of the company. Victor Dean had fallen down a metal spiral staircase, but was it purely an accident or a dastardly murder? Lord Peter is engaged to go undercover and get to the bottom of the mystery, but the bodies pile up before he cracks the case. In some ways the plot seems quite a modern one involving fast living upper class types and illegal substances, but I suppose there’s nothing new in crime.

There’s an introduction by Peter Robinson.

I read this one about 30 years ago and as I’m quite a fan of Sayers it was about time I had a re-read. It doesn’t feature Harriet Vane, those ones are my favourites, but it’s still really enjoyable, with what I’m sure was a very authentic setting as Sayers got the idea for the book while she was working as a copy-writer in an advertising agency. It’s thought that she came up with the famous Guinness adverts featuring a Toucan. She injects plenty of humour into the tale with quick witted wordplay  as you would expect from such characters.