Trivia / Lord Peter Wimsey

• Science Marches On:
  • In Peter's defense, his cigarette ad in Murder Must Advertise came decades before the cancer link was discovered. However, a connection between smoking and reduced lifespan — and the fact that must already be apparent to the tobacco companies that there is one — is lampshaded in the discussions about the advertising campaign Peter masterminds. Collecting Whifflets coupons will allow the smoker to buy anything they want. Except a coffin, it not being admitted by the cigarette manufacturers that any smoker would ever need one.
  • The solution of Strong Poison, in which a particular character had a strong motive for killing the victim with arsenic, but had no opportunity since he'd eaten and drunk exactly the same things during the meal they shared, is that the person in question had built up an Acquired Poison Immunity to arsenic by regularly consuming small amounts of it. This was believed to be possible in the 1930s, but nowadays is considered not to work and to be an urban legend.
  • On the other hand, the solution of Unnatural Death, in which a murderer uses injected air bubbles to kill her victim, was panned at the time as implausible but these days is absolutely known to kill. It was used in a Nazi euthanasia campaign, among other murderous uses.
• Write Who You Know: Since Pym's Publicity in Murder Must Advertise is based on the real advertising agency where Sayers worked, several of the characters are fictionalisations of her co-workers.
  • The "Whifflets" scheme Lord Peter comes up with is based on the real-life "Mustard Club" invented by Sayers.
  • The book also coyly mentions one of her most famous slogans: "Guinness is good for you".