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valefimbres's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
tarshka's review
3.0
Aka A Surfeit of Lampreys. It was one of the most recent Ngiao Marsh books I read but I've still forgotten most of what happened.
claire_barker's review
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
4.0
jessica_sim's review
2.0
I feel obliged to like the Alleyn mysteries by Ngaio Marsh, all my fellow Golden Age Detective fiction fans seem to, but I don't. I tried again with this one, again I failed to engage with it. It all goes way too slow for me, so much unnecessary information, unnecessary conversations, unnecessary scenes and the very unnecessary reporter being dragged onto the scene quite unnecessarily. It could have done without at least the 33% in the middle, what a drag.
holtfan's review
2.0
The pacing of Death of a Peer left me extremely frustrated. It took forever for the Peer to get murdered! He finally does get murdered and then it takes even longer for the plot to go anywhere. Arguably it never does.
I picked up this book primed to fall in love with the dashing Roderick Alleyn. He seemed a brilliant but much less awkward version of Sir Peter Wimsey...or Sherlock Holmes...or any other detective you may wish to pick. The problem is, he is also rather dull. The majority of this book is endless interviews going over the same things: where the characters were at the moment of the murder. I get that this is a chance to give The Astute Reader a chance to find the clue and solve the mystery themselves...but I was looking for brilliant deduction! Instead I got...run of the mill police work? The grand reveal, while dramatic, was also fairly predictable. Characters act exactly as you would expect them to.
I might have enjoyed the book more if I had liked the romance, but from the start I opposed it. I dislike Henry.
I will definitely need to find more Ngaio Marsh novels, however! The writing was lovely.
I picked up this book primed to fall in love with the dashing Roderick Alleyn. He seemed a brilliant but much less awkward version of Sir Peter Wimsey...or Sherlock Holmes...or any other detective you may wish to pick. The problem is, he is also rather dull. The majority of this book is endless interviews going over the same things: where the characters were at the moment of the murder. I get that this is a chance to give The Astute Reader a chance to find the clue and solve the mystery themselves...but I was looking for brilliant deduction! Instead I got...run of the mill police work? The grand reveal, while dramatic, was also fairly predictable. Characters act exactly as you would expect them to.
I might have enjoyed the book more if I had liked the romance, but from the start I opposed it. I dislike Henry.
Spoiler
I wanted him to be the murderer. Also I didn't realize Alleyn was apparently married? I totally shipped him with RobinI will definitely need to find more Ngaio Marsh novels, however! The writing was lovely.
nathuffman97's review
4.0
Marsh does it again! There's nothing like the kind of charming titled airheads you can find in a golden age mystery book. I find with Marsh's books there's often a kind of brutality though that's surprising in an older mystery; a surprising amount of violence. The deaths are often pretty terrible and painful sounding. I think it really makes her mysteries feel a little more timeless and there's a real spookiness to them that gets to you. Very enjoyable.
robinwalter's review
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
smcleish's review
2.0
Originally published on my blog here in June 1998.
This is one of my least favourite Ngaio Marsh novels. The crime is puzzling enough and the solution typically ingenious, and Roderick Alleyn is his usual urbane self; the problem is that I find it impossible to have any sympathy for the family at the centre of the story, the Lampreys.
The Lampreys are an upper class family always suffering from financial crises, yet unable to work or to save because of their frivolous background. Marsh keeps on emphasising the point that all who meet them cannot help but love them, because of their charm; this didn't come across to me at all. Returning to England following some years in New Zealand, they invite the head of the family to their London flat, where they hope to charm him into giving them some money. Following a grotesque set of charades and planned supposedly charming and spontaneous appeals from the various members of the family, he has a furious row with Lord Henry and leaves, only to be brutally murdered in the lift on the way down.
Under suspicion, the Lampreys show themselves at their worst, speaking French to discuss the crime in front of the PC they patronisingly assume won't be able to understand; the identical twin sons refusing to admit to which of them went down in the lift with the victim; lying about the refusal to give the money to them and so on.
The inability of the Lampreys to do anything of any use to anyone, their total parasitism on the "lower classes", and the way in which everyone looks on their egotism as charming because they are from the aristocracy - these all amount to good arguments for a socialistic view of the class system. I'm fairly sure Marsh didn't mean it that way, and it probably felt different at the time (though if I were reading this during the war and had experienced the hardship of the Depression I don't think I'd have felt very charitable towards them). It's difficult to read it without projecting 1990s attitudes, but I do hope we have moved on.
This is one of my least favourite Ngaio Marsh novels. The crime is puzzling enough and the solution typically ingenious, and Roderick Alleyn is his usual urbane self; the problem is that I find it impossible to have any sympathy for the family at the centre of the story, the Lampreys.
The Lampreys are an upper class family always suffering from financial crises, yet unable to work or to save because of their frivolous background. Marsh keeps on emphasising the point that all who meet them cannot help but love them, because of their charm; this didn't come across to me at all. Returning to England following some years in New Zealand, they invite the head of the family to their London flat, where they hope to charm him into giving them some money. Following a grotesque set of charades and planned supposedly charming and spontaneous appeals from the various members of the family, he has a furious row with Lord Henry and leaves, only to be brutally murdered in the lift on the way down.
Under suspicion, the Lampreys show themselves at their worst, speaking French to discuss the crime in front of the PC they patronisingly assume won't be able to understand; the identical twin sons refusing to admit to which of them went down in the lift with the victim; lying about the refusal to give the money to them and so on.
The inability of the Lampreys to do anything of any use to anyone, their total parasitism on the "lower classes", and the way in which everyone looks on their egotism as charming because they are from the aristocracy - these all amount to good arguments for a socialistic view of the class system. I'm fairly sure Marsh didn't mean it that way, and it probably felt different at the time (though if I were reading this during the war and had experienced the hardship of the Depression I don't think I'd have felt very charitable towards them). It's difficult to read it without projecting 1990s attitudes, but I do hope we have moved on.
kpeninger's review
5.0
This was "You Can't Take It With You - BUT WITH MURDER" and I loved every bit of it.
singinglight's review
4.0
This could well be one of my absolute favorite Ngaio Marsh books. I love the Lampreys and I love Roberta Grey, and I love Inspector Alleyn. (Nov. 2007)
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