Customer Reviews

Artists in Crime

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This novel, which relates the first meeting between Scotland Yard Inspector Roderick Alleyn and the artist Agatha Troy, is both a good mystery and a good picture of what kind of book was popular in the 1930s. After Alleyn and Troy meet on a ship sailing back to England from the South Pacific (and they do not meet well, although he is interested in her), Alleyn is called to investigate a murder at Troy's home conveniently down the road from his mother's. An artist's model has been murdered, and there is literally a cast of suspects who had the motivation to `do her in', including Troy herself. The plot is pretty procedural, although the identity of the murderer is kept hidden for quite awhile. The great thing is the language and style of the novel: slang terms, endearments, and descriptions of people are wonderfully appropriate to the time in which the novel first appeared. The relationship between Alleyn and his mother could not be written `straight' today: the `darlings' and `mammas' would be a joke in the 21st century, especially since Alleyn is not a young man at this point. Troy and Alleyn's misunderstandings, and the rather melodramatic `Epilogue in a Garden' is fun to read and would have played well to the original readers; it's full of dramatic tension and yet a little silly at the same time. Better than most modern mysteries.

As a long-standing Marsh fan, I don't rate this one as a favorite, but for those interested in the series, this is the book where Alleyn meets Agatha Troy for the first time. (In general, if you want to find the best Marshs, look at the copyright date -- the later the better. This is an early one, 1938; her last was published in 1982.) This is a solidly written, solidly plotted, murder mystery of the Golden Age and won't disappoint, but her best work was yet to come.

I generally don't read much narrative prose, but I do enjoy a good murder mystery, especially of the old "who dunnit" genre. This is certainly one of those. Marsh is a superb teller of tales, creating colorful characters with a greater sense of depth and motivation than does Christie, with whom she was contemporary. She shares with Christie that unfailable ability to devise an unusual end for the victim and a strict adherence to the "rules" of genre--they don't cheat by some manipulation of their plot to make it virtually impossible to find the solution--something about which the writers of the Ellery Queen series, for instance, were not always scrupulous. I find myself satisfied at the end that I was truely fooled, not simply bamboozled, when I read Marsh, and this book was no exception. I also find that I learn something from Marsh: information about social attitudes--some of those expressed in the 30's sounded very familiar--about the theater, about the world in general. This one was especially satisfying in that I had a small bit of arcane knowledge at my disposal that helped me solve the mystery. Instead of feeling the solution was too easy, I could congratulate myself on being aware of oddities and of having a broad background of experiences and knowledge. For the reader who enjoys a "vacation" and a "trip abroad" and into the past, this is certainly the book for you. I enjoyed my trip; "book" yours!

A well written murder mystery. If you love Martha Grimes, you will love Ngaio Marsh. The author throws the reader into the art culture of the 1930's England and adds a murder to capture interest into the book. With careful reading and logic, you care solve the mystery too. If you get confused during the story, Ngaio Marsh places several summaries of the clues within the story. The murder mystery is a delight to read from begining to end.

First Sentence: Alleyn leant over the deck-rail, looking at the wet brown wharf and the upturned faces of the people.

Inspector Roderick Alleyn, while traveling aboard ship from Australia meets well-known artist Agatha Troy. Back in England and visiting his mother, he is called back to duty early to investigate the murder of an artist. It's an investigation about which he has mixed feelings as the murder happened at the art school of Ms. Troy, a short distance from his mother's home.

I enjoy reading books set in the Golden Age between the Wars. To me, it's always interesting to see the difference in relationships, society, and vocabulary. Rather than viewing a book as being "dated," I view it as a look at a not-so-distant past time. I also enjoyed this particular book as it is the beginning of the relationship between Alleyn and Troy, but enjoyed the relationships of all the characters and loved Alleyn's mother. The mystery is classic; a large cast of suspects, many with quite good motives for having committed the murder and then watching the police sort out the clues. Although the clues are there for the reader to solve the crime, I missed one for the solution to the twist. The characters are well developed and much of the action is dialogue driven, which I enjoyed. I find Ngaio Marsh always a pleasure to read.

I guess that on my quest to read as many Marsh novels as possible, my expectations have grown. While it was fun watching Alleyn falling head over heels in love, neither the plot nor the characters particularly grabbed me. I think the artists all came off a bit as stereotypes, at times downright annoying. Not a bad read, but far from Marsh's best.

My Wife & I have always loved Ngaio Marsh's stories. This one introduces two of her longest running characters to each other. Arrived promptly in excellent condition.

Having never read any of Ngaio Marsh's books before I thought I'd try the chronological approach. Apparently this wasn't such a good idea as according to other reviewers her better work was later. The book was well plotted and intelligent but ultimately I found the social scenery a bit dated and finally got on my nerves. It did keep me interested and I was surprised at the end. All in all not great but worth pursuing further

I bought two Alleyn books, for the very first time, because they were being compared favorably to Christie. Scales of justice and this book. I was very dissapointed. These books are very difficult to read because of a) use of old and pretenious language; who of you know what a tarradiddle is or doggo? Who is comfortable when a man of forty and his mother call each other darlings and the son grips the arm of his co-worker and calls him a courtier because he praises the mother for being a good host? The talk between the co-worker and Alleyn is almost as uncomfortable as the talk between Alleyn and his mother, why does he call a man whose name is Fox, Foxkin or Brer Foxkin? I looked this up in the dictionary and all I could find is that Foxkin might relate to lamkin (yugh) It is like calling a lover or a little boy a pet name. Finally there are sentences which are all but unforgiveable, such as: "when he looked at her tear stained little face he could hardly refrain from kissing her" or some such crap. No Ngaio is not an exciting read, language is stilted, affected and incomprehensible to anyone outside of Britain I would imagine. b) The second and more important reason for not reading Marsh is that the characters are so boring, stand-offish and childish that you hurry through the end, not to know "who done it" but to get away from their presence. And c) finally it becomes painfully obvious that Marsh would rather spoil the end than have the criminal be one of the gents. A "do not buy", unless you are British and remember when you had a governess. Marsh's time has come and gone, gone a long time ago. Christie is a thousand times better author, there is no comparison.