The style used by Dorothy Sayers throughout the novel is rather intellectual, employing an extensive vocabulary, numerous allusions to various works of literature, and phrases in Latin and French that are presented to the reader without translation. In many ways, Dorothy Sayers assumed that her work would be read by highly-educated people like herself, or else she was hoping that exposure to her writing would be educational in its own right. This was rather innovative during the time when Sayers was writing, where mystery and crime fiction was often sensationalized, lurid and targeted to the masses. In this novel, Dorothy Sayers attempts to write in a "classy" literary style and tone while staying with the plot conventions and expectations of the "whodunnit" genre.
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