Tag: Inspector Alleyn

Death at the Bar

Death at the Bar

by Ngaio Marsh (Collins, 1940); audiobook read by Nadia May (Blackstone Audio, 1976)

Novel cover: Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh

Marsh withholds her protagonist from the early pages in favour of a lengthy set-up, which is reiterated at the inquest and then rehashed a second time when Alleyn, whose personality remains by far the novel’s chief appeal, is finally permitted to investigate.

Final Curtain

Final Curtain

by Ngaio Marsh (Collins, 1947); audiobook read by James Saxon (BBC, 1995)

Marsh_Final Curtain

Setting the scene is one thing, but Marsh goes so far as to leave Inspector Alleyn entirely absent for almost half the book. This, combined with a ho-hum denouement and repellent characters (laboriously portrayed), renders Final Curtain something of a damp squib.

 

 

The Nursing Home Murder

The Nursing Home Murder

by Ngaio Marsh (Geoffrey Bles, 1935); audiobook read by James Saxon (AudioGO, 2010)

Marsh_Nursing Home Murder

The nursing home (to the modern reader, operating theatre) murder is quite diverting once it gathers steam. Unfortunately, the first fifth of the book is groundwork. Inspector Alleyn—himself unimpeachable—is a late arrival and has to recover ground already laboriously trodden.

 

 

Enter a Murderer

Enter a Murderer

by Ngaio Marsh (Geoffrey Bles, 1935); audiobook read by James Saxon (BBC, 1995)

Marsh_Enter a Murderer

Inspector Alleyn presents as an intriguing juxtaposition of acerbic professional and chummy old boy. His offsider, the journalist Nigel Bathgate, is an adequate Watson, but the mystery—an actor’s on-stage murder—loses something in being told from a blend of third-person viewpoints.