Reviews

I have a love hate relationship with Ngaio Marsh. I find her writing is often a mixture of snobbery (it's not her characters – Marsh herself comes across as believing the aristocracy should have special privileges. Mixed up in a murder mystery – faugh, how common) & there is often a touch of 'cultural cringe' (believing NZ culture is inferior to other cultures, usually the UK or the States)

This particular book also tested my desire to read uncensored work!

Page 17 Miss Katti Bostock, the well-known painter of....Negro musicians

Acceptable for the times.

Page 23 Alleyn writing to his mother “No darling I didn't not lose my heart in the Antipodes. Would you have been delighted to welcome a strapping black Fijian lady?”

Hmmm...

Page 29 & this is in the narrative. ...Troy's Australian protege, was a short & extremely swarthy youth, who looked like a dago in an American talking picture.

Wow.

But yes, I do still want to read uncensored or you wonder what else has been changed. For example, also on page 29 is digesion. Digestion? & I spotted some other typos as well. My copy is 1962 – I wonder how far back they go?

& this is the start of the Alleyn/Troy romance which I found painful to read – in all the Marsh books I read not just this one. Marsh never married & I think she just wasn't comfortable writing about love - & it shows.

& maybe British police had a lot more latitude but;

Spoiler

Some of the access journalist (& Alleyn's Watson) Bathgate got seemed unethical.

Police carrying hip flasks on duty. Possible I suppose.

The method of murder in one death just seems so unlikely

So why do I still read Marsh, even if my teeth are sometimes grinding in frustration?

Marsh can write descriptive passages beautifully.

Her narrative, when it's not being stalled by Alleyn or his upper class suspects objecting to the beastly business of murder, moves quite briskly.

I like Alleyn's Mum!

& Marsh isn't so nastily contemptuous of female servants as some of the Golden Age writers are.

& this book in a slice of life from the 1930s & Marsh's own background as an artist & in theatre means she knew these worlds.

So, not a whole hearted recommendation, but not a complete waste of time either.

judyward's review against another edition

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3.0

An artist's model is killed in full view of all of the students by a method that had been previously discussed in the class. This book was first published in 1938 and it sets the stage for the meeting and infatuation between Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard and Agatha Troy, a respected artist. An enjoyable addition to the series.

zara89's review

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dark 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

the_maggieg's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

shlee64's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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