Death Solves a Mystery

[dxmachina]

Finished Murder Must Advertise this morning. It had been long enough since I last read it that I'd completely forgotten whodunnit, and I was inordinately pleased with myself that I figured out most of the mystery about two-thirds of the way through. Still, I was a bit disappointed. Wimsey is just too perfect in this book. The fact that he is the greatest cricketer ever really just throws it over the top. There is no plot reason requiring that he be that good with a bat. Also, there is a hole in the mystery that is never really addressed, and that's bothering me. It's an enjoyable read, but it's not as good as I remembered it.

Back to the bookcases! Picked up the necessary router bit (a 1" flush cutting bit) so that I can start working on the shelves this weekend. Also need to do some spring cleaning. Time to get to work...

Comments

[helvirago]

Also, there is a hole in the mystery that is never really addressed, and that's bothering me.

What is it? Mind you, been long enough since I've read it that I too have forgotten who the butler is, but I'm still curious.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

It's not so much a hole in the mystery at the ad agency, per se, just something in the more nebulous background mystery that is never adequately explained. There is a scene where a member of the drug ring is tailed by the police into a train station, and he is bumped by another man, and they both fall onto the tracks into the path of an oncoming train. The man being tailed is chopped into little tiny bits, but the other man, who initiated the contact, miraculously survives with some bruises. Wimsey later points out that the second man (a doctor) must also be part of the ring and is probably a higher up, and that what happened wasn't coincidence, but murder.

That's pretty much the end of it. It's never explained, and it bugs me. Whatever comeuppance happens to the doctor (if any) occurs offstage, and is never mentioned. To me, it's beyond unbelievable that someone would attempt to murder someone by throwing oneself in front of a train. There's really far too much that could go wrong, and, for that matter, how does one practice? If you are going to put something like that in the book, you have to tell the reader how the doctor expected to survive the attempt. It was an act of desperation by a group of people who were never otherwise shown to be desperate.