Krishna
This is a book with an old world charm and understandably so: it was written in 1933.
Lord Peter Wimsey is a detective who appeared in her first book `Whose Body?” by Dorothy much earlier and stayed in her books for most of her works.
Lord Peter Wimsey is hired in this novel by Pym, the owner of Pym’s Advertisement agency, when Victor Dean, a copywriter in the agency falls off the stairs and dies suddenly. There are vague suspicions of foul play but nothing concrete exists, and Pym is anxious that the matter be cleared up without causing too much of a bad publicity to the agency. He does not know who Lord Wimsey is, only that he is a detective.
The plan is that Wimsey join the advertisement agency in the guise of a new copywriter, with the name Death Bredon. (Death as the first name? Really?)
The ad agency is populated by a long list of really charming, old world characters; there is Ms Meteyard, Ms Rossitor and Ms Parton, a group of secretaries; Mr Copley, and Mr. Tallboy. The second in command is Mr Hankin, to whom everybody shows deference. There is the delicious gossip that goes on behind everybody’s back…
When Victor Dean’s sister Pamela Dean contacts Bredon and takes him to the shady world that Victor inhibited, Death meets Diane de Momerie and her boyfriend Milligan. Bredon shows his flamboyant side by arrogantly displaying his skills and manages to impress both Pamela and Diane. They both woo the mysterious Bredon unsuccessfully.
Pamela’s interest in Bredon causes the envy of Willis, another copywriter in the agency, who loves Pamela.
In the meanwhile, there is a big row between Mr Copely and Mr Tallboy, because the former found some money stuffed carelessly in the latter’s desk – he was searching for a finished design due to an advertising related emergency – and moved the money for safekeeping in his desk.
As Death Bredon alias Wimsey probes more into the affairs of the agency, he stumbles across a huge plot that uses the agency as the centrepiece of a huge drug trafficking scheme. Who is behind the operation? Is it possible that Mr Pym himself is somehow involved?
Meanwhile Bredon’s disguise is almost penetrated thrice and he successfully covers it up the first two times: The secretaries meet Lord Wimsey in all his glory once, and Diane Momerie meets Wimsey in an aristocratic party that they decide to gatecrash.
Finally, in a cricket match, Bredon loses his head and plays a superb game, far more skilled than any mere copywriter can play, when his disguise comes crashing down.
With all these gaffes nonwithstanding, he manages to brilliantly unravel the plot, with the help of his brother in law, Chief
Inspector Parker (who also appears in many of Dorothy’s Wimsey stories).
It has an old world charm and style. It makes easy reading and manages to keep the reader’s interest. However, it is not a great mystery and does not have many twists and turns like Agatha Christie or Anne Perry for that matter.
Let us say a 4/10