Line #15 Literature/MontagueEgg


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/montague_egg.jpg]]
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3	Montague Egg features in a series of short stories by Creator/DorothyLSayers, better known for her Literature/LordPeterWimsey stories. Egg is a {{traveling salesman}} for Plummett & Rose Wines and Spirits, and usually has a couplet from his Salesman's Handbook to cover the situation. He is often embroiled in murder cases.
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5	!!This series provides examples of:
6	* AssholeVictim: ''False Weight'' is about the murder of a salesman with a SecretOtherFamily in every town he visits.
7	* BitterAlmonds: Actually the title of one of his stories, where an elderly man was supposedly poisoned by his nephew after threatening to disown him over his engagement to an actress. [[spoiler:In reality, after the young man had stormed from the table, the "victim" pulled out a bottle of almond liqueur that had sat in his liquor cabinet unopened for twenty years. The small amount of bitter almond oil in the liqueur had risen to the top and concentrated over the years, giving the first glass poured out a lethal dose of cyanide. This is a case of RippedFromTheHeadlines - such a liqueur actually did exist and at least one death was attributed to the phenomenon.]]
8	* TheButlerDidIt: ''[[spoiler:The Poisoned Dow '08]]'' is a rare example of the trope actually played straight.
9	* CanonWelding: In ''Dirt Cheap'', Mr. Waters is a traveling salesman for Brotherhood, the soft drinks firm last seen when Literature/LordPeterWimsey forgot he was under an alias and pwned the Brotherhood employees' cricket team in ''Murder Must Advertise''.
10	* CryingWolf: In one story, the murderer invokes this in order to get off the hook. It doesn't work.
11	* CutAndPasteEnvironments: In ''Murder in the Morning'', it's a plot point that two petrol stations are built from standard prefabricated parts (and operated by similar-looking brothers).
12	* FalseConfession: Mr Temple in ''Murder at Pentecost'' has a reputation with the police as an attention-seeking eccentric who claims responsibility each time there's a murder in the town. [[spoiler:So they don't take the possibility seriously that he actually did it this time.]]
13	* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath
14	* FictionalDocument: The Salesman's Handbook.
15	* FrightDeathtrap: ''[[spoiler:Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz]]''
16	* HaveAGayOldTime: "Account with rigid honesty/For £. and s. and even d." At the time ''Dirt Cheap'' was published, LSD was a very new chemical synthesis and certainly not a household word.
17	* IHaveManyNames: See SecretOtherFamily, below.
18	* KickTheDog: ''Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz'' features cruelty to cats.
19	* MeaningfulName:
20	** Montague Egg is a 'good egg'.
21	** ''Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz'' means "he who makes haste to the spoils"--a warrior's name [[spoiler: for a cat who fights off the person trying to drown him and finds his way across London back to his home]].
22	* OnceAnEpisode: At least once in each story, Monty quotes a rhyming couplet from the ''Salesman's Handbook''. At the start of ''Murder at Pentecost'' he can't think of one that suits his current situation, so composes a new one on the spot.
23	* SecretOtherFamily: Wagstaffe from ''False Weight'' had married a woman (using various aliases) in every town his rounds took him to.
24	* RougeAnglesOfSatin: A vital clue in ''[[spoiler:A Shot at Goal]]''.
25	* TravelingSalesman: Monty Egg.
26	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: In ''Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz'', [[spoiler:once the ailurophobic old man had his heart attack, the murderers had no further use for the cats. Into the water barrel they went, and only one got away.]]
27	* YouJustToldMe: In [[spoiler:''Sleuths on the Scent'']], Monty tricks the murderer into making a run for it by suddenly calling his real name.

Context Literature / MontagueEgg