Status Updates From Murder Must Advertise (Lor...

Tod acts like it’s terrible but he does the same thing! LOL LPW wants to live a quiet life so his cousin is a pain. Dian says LPW is moribund and his cousin sounds like her type. Tod offers to go and Dian gives her address in case the others need it. She invites him for a drink. He says no, out of duty to the duchess. They leave and LPW wonders if the fly is too big and gaudy.

He explains the DB refuses to take off his mask because the police are after him. He gives a quick sketch of all the times he’s had to help his cousin out of trouble. DB goes out of his way to copy LPW to help him avoid getting caught. He reveals the ugly truth that he thinks DB is running drugs, which, to Tod, would explain why he’s at Pym’s. He objects to DB taking advantage of addicted people when he is not one.

He asks if he’s the Milligan who lives down the road. He adds that his bil Inspector Parker has brought up his name. Tod says he entertained DB one night. LPW warns him about his cousin. He eyes Dian coldy and warns her about DB’s intentions. Because the cousins are dopplegangers, DB likes to impersonate LPW which is why he has to keep tabs on him. He asks Dian what she knows. She narrates the dive and the woods.

He invites Dian and Tod in. He orders whiskey and brandy and, since the butler complies, it’s proof that he belongs. He takes him to the library. He explains that the house belongs to his brother. Tod asks why he’s never heard of his cousin and LPW implies he was born on the wrong side of the tracks. He offers them smokes, too. He acts like he doesn’t know Tod’s last name.

He whistles “Tom, Tom” and I’m wondering why! He speaks to her formally and she calls him Harlequin. Wimsey tells her it’s a mistake and Tod steps in to accuse him of taking her of wild rides. Wimsey tells him they are not invited. She calls LPW an ass and he starts telling her about his unfortunate cousin DB. Tod says she should apologize but LPW wants to learn about his cousin’s latest antics. Nice stroke!

The Duchess’s first mistake is being satisfied with her party. LOL She perseverates on some cutting remark the Dowager Duchess made. Meanwhile, her party goes to hell. She doesn’t spot her dh, so she snags LPW and asks him about the strangers. Yikes! She’s horrified when he tells her who they are. He makes a quick calculation and improvises on the spot. It is so delicious how he strings them along.

Tod asks to meet him but Dian doesn’t know his name, much less how to find him. She thinks he’s dangerous to them. She tells him she wants to get off drugs because her looks are going. They decide to gate crash and the most hilarious thing is that they crash LPW’s mother’s party. The front gate is a no-go so they make it through the back gate, coming behind Freddy Abruthnot, to his surprise.

Tod asks her about PD because he wants more scoop on Pym’s. Does that mean the VD’s killer has nothing to do with him? Dian asks him why he asked her to chuck VD and reel him back in. He says that VD was trying to double-cross him. If Tod does not have an insider, was an outsider there that DB has not taken into account? Dian tells Tod that a little bird told her VD was bumped off and he guess that it was Harlequin.

Dian’s shadow-frontier ministers drink and drugs and it’s minister is death. She has the key but neither DB nor Dian know that. She does know that the Harlequin is a good luck charm. She won money by picking Acrobat and Harlequin as horse race winners the day after seeing him. She can’t tell him because ti might break her lucky streak. She and Tod (saturnine, large, black morals but sober habits) are chatting.

DB believes she lives in a shadow frontier and she has the key to uncovering VD’s murderer, even if she does not realize it. VD stepped out of the land of daylight into her land of bright flares and dark abysses. Her questions told DB that there is a connections between Pym’s and the drug running. Whoever killed BD was the cold killer who covers tracks, not the mad passion of Dian’s crowd.

He sees the poor as pitiful ghosts living in a cloud cuckoo land, a utopia where people believe the impossible may happen. LPW experiences what actors and spies feel or anyone trying to hide a double life. He wonders if Dian hates him, is tired or him, or thinks it’s the product of a hashish-addled mind. He fears she might commit suicide. She asked once if they have souls when they were talking about judgment.

Ch. 11 LPW’s life is like a dream as he juggles three personalities on little sleep. He’s like an avatar in a morality play along with the personalities who buy the products that DB peddles. While Harlequin is an one races, DB watches another: people racing to buy whatever is advertised. It is preying on the poor because the rich buy what they want when they want it. The poor buy what they don’t want because of ads.

In Chapter 9, Dian meets a demon and it’s a warning that her days are numbered if her life does not change and she knows it. The difference here is that LPW is disguised as a demon but he is sharing truth, mercy, and kindness. He’s trying to guide her to change her life for the better. I almost feel sorry for her because she is tired of this life but she doesn’t have the will to get out of it. She feels trapped.

I knew it!!! I did a little digging. Harlequin comes from a "devil" in passion plays. In one a monk is chased by a pack of demons wandering the coast of Normandy at night! In the Germanic wild hunt, the Hellequin may be connected with the Erlkönig (Schubert) ), the devil’s black-faced emissary. And Alichino in Canto XXI and XXII is also connected to the Harlequin. MInd blown! Sayers is a genius.

TB posts the cricket team roster up in their game against the Brotherhoods (ha, ha, ha). He says, “Life’s the devil.” Well, yeah, if you work in HELL.. Then he says, “My God! how I hate this blasted place. It gets on my nerves!” His friend tells him he needs a vacation but he can’t go until September. He curses nursing mothers and works on Nutrax ads for them.

As management, Hankin can’t take sides but he’s aligned. Copley works for him and all of his corrections and advice annoys him. He’s weary of saying, “Quite so, Mr. Copley.” He suspects that Copley has no respect for him. When Copyley jumps the chain of command, it irritates him. Barrow supports TB only because he is not a copyist. He doesn’t want to play cricket and only does so because of Pym.

TB is ashamed until he does a sorry, not sorry, blameshift maneuver. He’s more acrobat than DB. McAllister does everything he can to spread gossip about the TB-Smayle affair. The whole agency is either anti-TB or pro-TB. Down in the typist’s room, Miss Rossiter drops a bomb about Smayle going out with a lady friend in fish-net stockings and a hedonistic look after midnight. His wife is pregnant so it was not her.

Smayle falls in the comparison trap over education. Then TB lets himself be goaded into arguing back and he asks which public school he is sending his son, too. He does not realize that Smayle has a child like my dd and the insult wounds deeply and turns white. TB asks what the devil’s the matter with him and others explain why his comment is so offensive. This is when the tide turns against TB.

TB walks into DB’s office, singing ad slogans. DB asks about the Nutrax campaign. When asked about cricket, he says he played country-house cricket to avoid having his Oxford credentials checked. He asks to be put at the tail as batsman and TB agrees and leaves. He pretends that he has to take off Smayle to give DB a chance. TB could have smoothed thiings over but his high and mighty attitude makes it worse.

To go with the educational theme is the annual charity cricket match. Of course! If they act like middle schoolers and boast about schools, there has to be cricket. TB is captain of the team. Ah ha! TB is the big man on campus. He’s going to keep Smayle off the team but gaps arise from injuries, vacation, and the office fueds. They go through different candidates and decide to ask DB even though he’s a stiff (old).

Miss M tells Smayle that, because he feels awkward, others feel awkward. He says he must prove himself because they are better. They try to build him up which gives him a little comfort. DB has a hilarious comeback to Ingleby’s dumb remark about equality. The banter continues and Miss M acts offended and leaves. She does believe DB for she looks at her bones in the mirror. Meanwhile, TB vents his hatred for Smayle.

Smayle can’t let go of the TB dust-up and points the finger at him without saying what he did with his fingers. He has an inferiority complex over their difference. TB, college, but not Smayle who asks DB and Ingleby to explain the system and do the typical talking smack about schools. Then DB tells Smayle not to be self-conscious. What matters is the kind of education! Bravo! He’s envious in a Leonard Smalls way!

The office reminds me of middle schoolers. Our high schoolers are more mature than this. Smayle and Tallboy are why we need a hands-off policy at school! LOL Could it be intentional that she is portraying the seven deadly vices and the circles of hell here? Miss M points out that TB’s smarting over the Copley issue and he’s sensitive. Ingleby and DB walk in with a dictionary because they are doing a crossword puzzle.

Smayle reminds me of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge guy in Monty Python. He’s poking Tallboy and kids around in the most awkward way. Tallboy physically moves Smayle who doesn’t get the hint and calls him an old man and insults him even more. Tallboy harshly tells him to keep his hands off and Smayle calls him your Highness. Niether understand the idea of deescalation. After TB leaves, Smayle apologizes to Miss M.

The ad agency is one raging battlefield. It’s a bit like Hogwarts! The Nutrax war goes on between Tallboy (getting sympathy) and Copley. Another row breaks out between Tallboy (not getting sympathy) and Smayle. They wait at the BOTTOM of the lift. Miss Meteyard is there too. They greet and have small talk about income tax. Smayle and Meteyard teases Tallboy about not needing to worry about it and he gets heated.

While the rookie is on fire, DB strikes out. Some people lost their pencils while others collected several. Some borrowed when asked about it. Wouldn’t they think it’s an odd obsesssion of his? Some pencils were left lying around in the typist’s room. I hope there’s no important clues because that was a slog. One person asked for his address: Willis. DB always took odd turns and different routes to avoid surprises.