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A review by carolsnotebook
Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh
3.0
I do love a good vintage mystery and in Enter a Murderer, Marsh takes us behind the scenes in a theater, which she does so well. In addition to a mystery writer, she was a theater director and knew the habits of everyone from actresses to stage managers to dressers.
Our Inspector Alleyn is attending a performance of a play with his friend from the first in the series, Nigel Bathgate. During the play, one of the characters kills another, but this time the gun goes off for real, leaving an actor dead. The play does go on, as they say, but after the curtain closes, Alleyn, is immediately called up and begins his investigation.
Once again, Bathgate is Alleyn's Watson. Fox has a bigger part here, I'm glad to see. I'm hoping by the next one he's the permanent sidekick. I like Bathgate, I just like Fox more. Here, Bathgate is kind of stuck between a rock and hard place. He wants to be important, to help Alleyn, but he's also an old friend of one of the cast members, the one who shot the gun and who is definitely a suspect.
Alleyn is a little more consistent and I like his sense of humor. There was one scene that was ridiculous, but I can overlook it.
Marsh always does a good job with her secondary characters. Here we have actors and actresses for the most part, which makes it harder on Alleyn. The suspects can act innocent or shocked or whatever much better than the average person. At the same time, he gets annoyed at their melodrama, and you wonder if Marsh sometimes felt that way about her own actors.
I wasn't exactly surprised by who the killer was, there were several clues to get us there, but i did appreciate it, if that makes sense. I though this one was better than the first, A Man Lay Dead, but Marsh hasn't quite hit her groove yet.
Our Inspector Alleyn is attending a performance of a play with his friend from the first in the series, Nigel Bathgate. During the play, one of the characters kills another, but this time the gun goes off for real, leaving an actor dead. The play does go on, as they say, but after the curtain closes, Alleyn, is immediately called up and begins his investigation.
Once again, Bathgate is Alleyn's Watson. Fox has a bigger part here, I'm glad to see. I'm hoping by the next one he's the permanent sidekick. I like Bathgate, I just like Fox more. Here, Bathgate is kind of stuck between a rock and hard place. He wants to be important, to help Alleyn, but he's also an old friend of one of the cast members, the one who shot the gun and who is definitely a suspect.
Alleyn is a little more consistent and I like his sense of humor. There was one scene that was ridiculous, but I can overlook it.
Marsh always does a good job with her secondary characters. Here we have actors and actresses for the most part, which makes it harder on Alleyn. The suspects can act innocent or shocked or whatever much better than the average person. At the same time, he gets annoyed at their melodrama, and you wonder if Marsh sometimes felt that way about her own actors.
I wasn't exactly surprised by who the killer was, there were several clues to get us there, but i did appreciate it, if that makes sense. I though this one was better than the first, A Man Lay Dead, but Marsh hasn't quite hit her groove yet.