A review by sarahmatthews
Photo Finish by Ngaio Marsh

medium-paced

Photo Finish by Ngaio Marsh

Read in Braille

Pub. 1980, 224pp

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I contacted RNIB to see which Ngaio Marsh books they had in hardcopy Braille recently and this was the only one. I’ve read one other of her books which was set in the UK so this was a little different.

This is book 31 of her Roderick Alleyn books and I really enjoyed it. The action takes place in New Zealand where world famous Italian-American opera star and all round diva, Isabella Somita is staying, recuperating after performing in Australia. While there she was plagued by a paparazzi, nicknamed Strix, who kept finding ingenious ways to get close enough to take unflattering photographs of her to sell to the press. The scandal is compared to the hounding of Jacqueline Kennedy. She feels under threat and writes to the UK chief of police to ask for help. She’s staying with her long time companion and lover Montague Reece in his new lavishly expensive property built on an island on a lake in the beautiful New Zealand countryside, and has invited along an innocent young composer, Rupert Bartholomew, of “astonishing physical beauty”, who’s besotted with her and has written a one act opera in her honour.

separately Montague Reece writes to Roderick Alleyn’s wife Troy, an artist, to invite her to visit in order to paint a portrait of La Somita. He also invites Alleyn, hoping he’ll give his professional advice on whether they can obtain police protection for Isabella. 

So inevitably the couple end up travelling to NZ and chaos ensues!

There’s some lovely description of the landscape, here’s the Alleyn’s arrival:

“The prospect was astonishing. At this hour, the lake was perfectly unruffled and held the blazing image of an outrageous sun. Fingers of land reached out baring elegant trees that reversed themselves in the water. Framed by these, and far beyond them, was the island, and on the island, Mr Reece’s lodge… There was a jetty in the foreground with a launch alongside. Grossly incongruous against the uproarious sunset, like some intrusive bug, a helicopter hovered.”

Within 3 days of their arrival the diva is found dead, with a photograph pinned to her chest by a dagger, and the island is isolated due to a ferocious storm that cuts off the phone line and any way of contacting the NZ police, or getting across the lake. Alleyn is asked to take charge and is put in a tricky position where he doesn’t have authority but must start the investigation and calm the panic.

This was a great set up and the mystery unfolded nicely. The characters are distinct even though there’s quite a few to keep track of, with some memorable creations, I had my suspicions but didn’t quite identify the murderer. I had an idea of who but not why or how. Ngaio Marsh’s characters sometimes fall into stereotype and she’s guilty of this with the treatment of Ned, Reece’s secretary, who’s gay.

I so looked forward to reading this book when I headed to bed each evening and found it to be a quick, easy read with a satisfying conclusion.