Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. SayersMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was my first Sayers mystery about Lord Peter Wimsey.
It was an unusual murder mystery that seems to change stylistically with every chapter. It seemed Sayers was trying out her literary skills at describing different scenes in this story.
A major emphasis was showing the indirect cunning of Lord Peter as a detective. Maybe this is characteristic of all her novels.
It was interesting that Wimsey and the police were resolved to pursue the criminals to the top of the drug chain, even though they know the ringleaders will just be replaced anyway.
[Spoiler alert]
That ending! Was it right of Wimsey to let Tallboy be killed by the drug ring? He sees them out his office window and lets Tallboy go, knowing they will kill him. (Tallboy is the middle man in the office dealing drugs between the suppliers and the street.)? It was poetic justice, letting the bad guys he profited from kill him off. Axnd there was mercy there in sparing his posthumous reputation with his family. This ending is the classic murder mystery conundrum of pursuing official justice, which will always be incomplete or unjust in some ways, OR allowing justice outside of the law to run its course, which is truer and more proportional to the crime.
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