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vireogirl's review against another edition
4.0
Old-fashioned, twisty, turny mystery. Might have to reread it just to catch everything I missed the first time through.
donkeykong64's review against another edition
mysterious
2.0
Decent enough start only to get bogged down by Russian family feuds and essentially two denouements, one of which is largely inconsequential
cakereads's review against another edition
2.0
And I continue on my quest to read all the Golden Age Detective Fictions!
Writing-wise, I enjoy Marsh's writing over Allingham's. Her style is cleaner, and more evocative. Her characters are rendered more personably than Allingham's too. (I compare her to Allingham because I read [b:The Crime at Black Dudley|383222|The Crime at Black Dudley (Albert Campion Mystery #1)|Margery Allingham|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388361149s/383222.jpg|1806288] before this.)
Mystery-wise, I found it pretty meh. Again, with the Russian plot - it seems to be a trope used a lot in the Golden Age books.
Anyway - on to the next mystery. I'm still looking for a series to replace the brilliance of Miss Marple! (I've read Patricia Wentworth's [b:Grey Mask|1644404|Grey Mask (Miss Silver, #1)|Patricia Wentworth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1265608132s/1644404.jpg|2186317] and the rest of the Miss Silver series, but that series gets so formulaic after a while.)
Writing-wise, I enjoy Marsh's writing over Allingham's. Her style is cleaner, and more evocative. Her characters are rendered more personably than Allingham's too. (I compare her to Allingham because I read [b:The Crime at Black Dudley|383222|The Crime at Black Dudley (Albert Campion Mystery #1)|Margery Allingham|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388361149s/383222.jpg|1806288] before this.)
Mystery-wise, I found it pretty meh. Again, with the Russian plot - it seems to be a trope used a lot in the Golden Age books.
Anyway - on to the next mystery. I'm still looking for a series to replace the brilliance of Miss Marple! (I've read Patricia Wentworth's [b:Grey Mask|1644404|Grey Mask (Miss Silver, #1)|Patricia Wentworth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1265608132s/1644404.jpg|2186317] and the rest of the Miss Silver series, but that series gets so formulaic after a while.)
maryd_smallcraft's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Mystery is my favorite genre, especially British mysteries. Agatha Christie is one of my favorite authors. So I was happy to discover Ngaio Marsh, another writer from
what is considered the “golden age” of detective fiction.
(While she’s from New Zealand, her Chief Inspector Alleyn stories are set in London.)
It was comforting to be back in the world of the “golden age” of detective fiction, in an isolated manor house setting.
I enjoyed the intro to Chief Inspector Alleyn and his eventual sidekick, reporter Nigel Bathgate.
what is considered the “golden age” of detective fiction.
(While she’s from New Zealand, her Chief Inspector Alleyn stories are set in London.)
It was comforting to be back in the world of the “golden age” of detective fiction, in an isolated manor house setting.
I enjoyed the intro to Chief Inspector Alleyn and his eventual sidekick, reporter Nigel Bathgate.
tombomp's review against another edition
1.0
The solution to the murder is just really unbelievable. It even gives a specific timeframe that's so ridiculously short plus relies on a bunch of people not noticing a bunch of things. At the end they even admit there's very little to pin it down on the murderer. The secret society subplot is goofy and doesn't make any sense either. Oh and there's a romance subplot too which is totally unconvincing and pointless but then they always are in mystery novels. There were a few sections which I had to read multiple times to understand because they were pointlessly complicated.
Overall the writing is serviceable and I read through like yeah sure whatever this is fine so maybe 2 stars but I'm rating 1 cause mystery novels hang together on a convincing conclusion and I didn't see it at all. Nothing else about it is interesting enough for me to care - no funny dialogue, no stand out characters. So yeah.
Oh also it uses the n word once. And what universe is it that someone can *remove another person's trousers* in the middle of a normal social get together and everyone just acts totally casual about it?
Some of the inconsistencies
With the murder, the murderer is specifically allotted *exactly 8 seconds* to get from the bathroom to downstairs, do the murder and turn the lights off. His method relies on the victim being in *exactly* the right place to get stabbed (he could never have turned around, he couldn't have moved away from the stairs). In those 8 seconds, after apparently sliding down a banister, he got the knife in EXACTLY the right spot between bones that was considered so impressive that the murderer needed to know anatomy well. His alibi was 2 people thinking he was in the bath but as well as those 8 seconds he also got out the bath to get a glove from his wife's dressing room. That would take some time. Surely someone would have noticed the splashing had stopped? Bath noises are actually pretty distinctive - you can usually tell when someone's getting out. And there's door noises, footsteps too. In fact, the servant who comes into give Nigel shaving water would surely have seen him on the landing? The timescale is even less than the 8 seconds allotted and it seems extremely unlikely. He'd also have dripped water EVERYWHERE! I can't believe nobody noticed. (Realised iirc he actually wasn't in the bath. He was just pretending to me. Even then splashing about would get you wet and you'd drip. And the noises are noticeably different when you're not in with your whole body. Ah well) The attempts in the scene before the murder to make it work just... don't. He also decided to do this plan even though he only had a single glove - he tried to avoid leaving prints but completely failed. Surely his wife would have thought "oh I'm sure I put those gloves in the drawer" too and realised something was up - but she doesn't; Alleyn actually misleads here by claiming he found one in the hall so the wife doesn't question it.
When Alleyn does a totally pointless "reconstruction" (he asks Nigel to play the murderer and then goes off at him when he shows a slight hesitancy... before asking the person he knows to be the murderer to do it... and him doing it was essential to his terrible plan... so why attack Nigel??)
the murderer is in no way revealed except for Alleyn accusing him and him saying "damn you".
Which he didn't need to do and would hardly hold up in court.
Also the motive of "oh he was mad at the victim for flirting with his wife" seems kind of weird given he never even attempted to stop it in any way at all and apparently let it go on for years and years. The victim seems like an utter prick by the way. Can't pretend I felt any sympathy towards him.
There's probably more but just. blurgh. Bad. Maybe also I'm stupid! I don't know
Overall the writing is serviceable and I read through like yeah sure whatever this is fine so maybe 2 stars but I'm rating 1 cause mystery novels hang together on a convincing conclusion and I didn't see it at all. Nothing else about it is interesting enough for me to care - no funny dialogue, no stand out characters. So yeah.
Oh also it uses the n word once. And what universe is it that someone can *remove another person's trousers* in the middle of a normal social get together and everyone just acts totally casual about it?
Spoiler
This bullying is even given as a motive for murder later but when it happens I had to read a few times to be like what??? whySome of the inconsistencies
Spoiler
What's with the whole secret society? They're a Russian one but 2 of the key figures are a Pole (who they murder) and someone who only speak English and Swedish. Why are they a communist society if they're centuries old? Why did the Pole give the knife to the victim in the first place? Oh and the Pole is referred to as speaking Russian and not Polish - why is he called a Pole?? How did the society even find out the Pole had given away the knife? When the society all get arrested, why did Alleyn come through the chimney when all the other police apparently got in fine at the same time by just walking in? I think he was hidden the whole time? I guess? Which is uh. Sounds very uncomfortable. What were the secret society even doing? They were arrested for sedition and treason but they didn't seem to do anything except murder each other. They're a big red herring subplot but none of their actions really make sense.With the murder, the murderer is specifically allotted *exactly 8 seconds* to get from the bathroom to downstairs, do the murder and turn the lights off. His method relies on the victim being in *exactly* the right place to get stabbed (he could never have turned around, he couldn't have moved away from the stairs). In those 8 seconds, after apparently sliding down a banister, he got the knife in EXACTLY the right spot between bones that was considered so impressive that the murderer needed to know anatomy well. His alibi was 2 people thinking he was in the bath but as well as those 8 seconds he also got out the bath to get a glove from his wife's dressing room. That would take some time. Surely someone would have noticed the splashing had stopped? Bath noises are actually pretty distinctive - you can usually tell when someone's getting out. And there's door noises, footsteps too. In fact, the servant who comes into give Nigel shaving water would surely have seen him on the landing? The timescale is even less than the 8 seconds allotted and it seems extremely unlikely. He'd also have dripped water EVERYWHERE! I can't believe nobody noticed. (Realised iirc he actually wasn't in the bath. He was just pretending to me. Even then splashing about would get you wet and you'd drip. And the noises are noticeably different when you're not in with your whole body. Ah well) The attempts in the scene before the murder to make it work just... don't. He also decided to do this plan even though he only had a single glove - he tried to avoid leaving prints but completely failed. Surely his wife would have thought "oh I'm sure I put those gloves in the drawer" too and realised something was up - but she doesn't; Alleyn actually misleads here by claiming he found one in the hall so the wife doesn't question it.
When Alleyn does a totally pointless "reconstruction" (he asks Nigel to play the murderer and then goes off at him when he shows a slight hesitancy... before asking the person he knows to be the murderer to do it... and him doing it was essential to his terrible plan... so why attack Nigel??)
the murderer is in no way revealed except for Alleyn accusing him and him saying "damn you".
Which he didn't need to do and would hardly hold up in court.
Also the motive of "oh he was mad at the victim for flirting with his wife" seems kind of weird given he never even attempted to stop it in any way at all and apparently let it go on for years and years. The victim seems like an utter prick by the way. Can't pretend I felt any sympathy towards him.
There's probably more but just. blurgh. Bad. Maybe also I'm stupid! I don't know
sokje's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
hkburke2's review against another edition
3.5
This had the right atmosphere but was a bit repetitive and unevenly paced for me. Lots of cw's in line with the flaws of books from the time. Really interesting intro for this detective though!
siria's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
1.5
A quick read, a fairly standard English Country House mystery. Ngaio Marsh's writing has some verve to it, and the characters of Nigel and Angela were some fun as Bright Young Things who assist Inspector Alleyne in figuring out whodunnit. But even allowing for the fact that what is cliché now was fresh once, <i>A Man Lay Dead</i> is a deeply silly book. The howdunnit just didn't work, and Alleyne's procedural methods had me scratching my head and wondering if any part of his case would stand up in court. I know that the Thirties were a different time—but <i>that</i> different? Then you add in a lot of classism and the xenophobic subplot that went nowhere involving the religious-yet-also-somehow-Bolshevik centuries-old secret society that is hinted to engage in (presumably gay?) orgies and/or castrations and sometimes immolates its members in locked houses , and you have me rolling my eyes a bit as I close the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Classism