Reviews

Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh

Only show reviews with written explanations

elothwen's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.0

applegnreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

It's funny, I remembered a review my sister had made of this one (but not which book it belonged to) and when I read this, I wondered if it was the book, and it was. Alleyn is a bit different in this one.

book_concierge's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn accepts his journalist friend’s, Nigel Bathgate, invitation for a night of theatre to see a hit mystery play. But the actors and audience are all surprised when the play’s villain is shot not with blanks but with a live cartridge which someone has slipped into the prop gun. Alleyn has, of course, witnessed the event, and he’s immediately on hand to begin the investigation and ensure no one leaves the theater without being questioned, but there are no easy answers. The fact that the deceased was a nasty piece of work, involved in blackmail and drugs, and that he was one of two men who both professed to love the same woman just further complicates the scenario. It seems that everyone from the sleepy doorman to the theater owner/producer is a suspect.

Marsh is one of the queens of mystery writing, alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. She crafts a complicated story with many plot twists and red herrings to keep the reader interested and engaged. There is little descriptive prose; most of the action is done in the form of dialogue. So it’s really what the characters say or don’t say, and by inference how they behave, that form the important “clues.”

I found it hard to get into this particular mystery. I didn’t really care about any of the characters, including Inspector Alleyn and Nigel Bathgate. I think my problem was the heavy use of dialogue. Normally I would like this kind of writing; perhaps I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind. In any case, my reaction was decidedly “blah.”

spetty88's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

lelia_t's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I’m rereading Marsh’s mysteries in no particular order and as I read this one I wondered how I ever kept going with the series the first time through. In this second Alleyn mystery, Marsh hadn’t quite found her footing yet. Alleyn is imperious and unlikeable. His camaraderie with Fox hasn’t yet been established. Nigel Bathgate is given far too much to do. And there’s an inadequate attempt at steamy romance that was difficult to buy into. Nevertheless, there’s a glimmer of good stuff here and the last several chapters are as gripping as they should be, making the book worth a read and even a reread.