Tammy’s Reviews > Murder Must Advertise > Status Update

Anti-KKK if you ask me! There sure is a lot of flipped imagery. His shoes and seal ring gave him away. LPW doesn't think Willis has the brains to pull off the murdered. If he had, he would have turned himself in for the cause of purity. Plus, VD and PD had long parted ways from the BYP crowd. Charlie wonders if PD is lying due to a secret vice. Peter asks where the dope comes from. He saw a lot at the party.

He thinks the key to identifying the murdered is identifying a crime that needs to be covered up. He has to casually ask questions to avoid giving himself away. He's also been tasked by Pym to find irregularities in the office. He explains why VD had a falling out and there sure is a lot of Dantesque wording. PD thinks he's an officious prig, too. They were at daggers for 3 months! He called Willis' costume KKK.

PD said her brother had great ambitions but never explained himself. He speculates that he wanted to marry her and took PD to a tame party, which was too much for her. Why would he risk corrupting his sister? Willis hated VD, although they were once BFs, and Willis adores PD, which is why he hates DB. Willis was in the lavatory, which is next to the roof. Easy access.

Dian enjoys corrupting the bourgeois because they still have a conscience. While taking her home, she proved herself bad. He pumped her for details about VD; she spilled before passing out in his car, which needs a disinfectant. He dumped at her place and did not have to debauch himself. VD did not use dope according to PD. No drugs showed up in the post-mortem. Dian said PD was not a sport. He hung on for 6 mon

When he slipped down the pipe, he found a great spot where a person could hide from you and use a slingshot. Clocking in and out doesn’t help because they are not required to clock out for dinner. It would be easy to find a quiet time to slip in and slip out. People move up and down the stairs all the time, so VD would eventually do that and get whacked. Plausible because nobody is ever in their office.

Paint was also scraped off the skylight, which could have been the flying scarab, giving it a chip. Ah, now I get what he’s at. So he thinks someone chucked the scarab at him through the skylight. The pebbles were from practicing during dinner when nobody is around. Oh wow! Is she doing literary alchemy? The scarab represented the sun god Ra: rebirth, transformation, and protection.

LPW talks about the witnesses and how he clung to a book while falling. I looked it up and there is such a thing as instant rigor mortis. Hitting one’s head could cause it. The other thing is the scarab--it’s chipped and PD swears that it was not chipped before the fall. He also mentions the pebbles. None of this is suspicious to them nor me. The skylight windows have been open because of the weather.

Lady Mary asks how he got the job. His friend was at dinner with Pym who told him about a letter that troubled him. They passed on LPW’s name. Charlie has him back up to the beginning, VD’s death, which he describes. PD sends a half-finished letter that VD started ten days before his death. She finds it on his desk when she was grabbing his things. Even though he’s in advertising (telling lies), Pym has rigid morals.

Ch 5. LPW visits his sister Lady Mary and her husband, a police detective. Their family had to adjust to having a working man in the family. She is sitting by the fire, knitting an infant vest. LPW tells them of how pride he is to earn his own money. Peter and his older brother are trustees over Mary’s money to insure the littles will have something. Based on what dh tells me, it makes sense. Many can’t manage money.

The descent imagery is interesting. He is descending into a scene of debauchery. How does one stay clean in such a situation? Is diving into water a way of wishing off the filth? He had already met Harriet and perhaps this was part of him growing up to deserve her in Sayer’s mind.