A review by scorpionturtle
Artists in Crime by Ngaio Marsh

4.0

I've read 5 Roderick Alleyn mysteries including the first one and ones from 60's. Artist in Crime benefits from established characters like Sergeant Fox and Nigel Bathgate and interesting new characters that would re-occur such as Agatha Troy and Alleyn's mother. The negatives of the book are the ones I have with all of Marsh's books, there is a lot of conversations and little action. This one picked up in the final third but before that it is very formulaic isolated murder at an estate. It also suffers from her ideas about class and the gentry but benefits from her knowledge of the art and theater world. Marsh wasn't British and wasn't of the gentry and the difference when she writes about the theater and art worlds that she was very much a part is notable. I appreciated the world building and the character development but still found the pacing to be so slow and it to be more "tell than show".

I figured out one murderer half way through. SPOILER: although I thought the second murderer was responsible for both murders and I think the reason they gave makes less sense than mine. I thought she had planned both murders and that she wasn't just covering up blackmail but that she was pregnant with Garcia's kid. The whole comments about how she wasn't the type to get seduced by a guy, her not wanting to drink and her suddenly wanting to get married all pointed to how to deal with an unplanned pregnancy in the time of illegal and hard to find abortions. Garcia turning out to actually be the person that planned Sonia's murder was disappointing as it seemed like he was just a massive red herring and made him little more than a stock figure.