This dissertation introduces a new method for studying the translation and interpretation of allusions, tested in a case study. The method is based on the cultural and textual properties of source-text allusions: their cultural familiarity to the target readership, markedness of style and form, and the coherence of their meaning in the cotext, without the referent. Combinations of these properties produce the interpretive possibilities (the allusive, pseudo-allusive and non-allusive ones and the culture bump), and may co-occur with particular translation strategies. The case study applies the method to Dorothy L. Sayers’ detective novels translated into Finnish in the 1940s and 1980s and investigates the socio-cultural contexts of the translations, including the status of detective fiction, readers’ expectations of translations and translators’ working conditions. The results indicate that the textual properties of ST allusions may influence translators’ decisions and that pseudo-allusions can be a valid option for conveying source-text functions.