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Vintage Murder
by
Ngaio Marsh
detective mystery, historical mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Felony & Mayhem Press on December 15, 2012 and has 278 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon, Audibles.
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Dead Water, Killer Dolphin, A Man Lay Dead, Enter a Murderer, The Nursing Home Murder, Death in Ecstasy, Artists in Crime, Death in a White Tie, Overture to Death, Death at the Bar, Surfeit of Lampreys, Death and the Dancing Footman, Died in the Wool, Swing, Brother, Swing, Night at the Vulcan, Colour Scheme, Spinsters in Jeopardy, Scales of Justice, The Death of a Fool, Singing in the Shroud, False Scent, Clutch of Constables, Hand in Glove, When in Rome, Tied Up In Tinsel
Fifth in the Inspector Roderick Alleyn vintage detective mystery series and revolving around a Scotland Yard copper. The story takes place in New Zealand while Alleyn is recovering.
My Take
As in previous stories, Marsh relies heavily on chat to investigate crime. And I gotta confess, I got rather bored in this one.
I am confused as to how the Carolyn Dacres English Comedy Company is part of Incorporated Playhouses, Ltd. Then again, maybe it’s not???
You can tell that health insurance in the 1930s is much better than ours today! Alleyn got an entire year to recover from his wounds. And his job welcomed him back. Sigh . . . the goode olde days.
One thing that hasn’t changed, lol, is kids who think they know it all.
There are all sorts of pointers to murder along the way, and most can be explained away, until you get to the end. Including the back-and-forth of Carolyn Dacres who loves Hambledon but also loves Meyer, and, and, and she’s married to Meyer.
It’s a conflict for Alleyn — Marsh is using third person protagonist point-of-view from Alleyn’s perspective. He’s dying to dive in on the investigation, and yet he has no jurisdiction. Not until the local inspector finds out who he is. More conflict comes with all the lying, stories, and sabotage . . . whew.
Oooh, how handy. Te Pokiha is 90% civilized. Even if he is a Maori. Yeah, it’s so interesting to read of the prejudice in earlier times . . . and think of how little has changed. Te Pokiha finds it a sad state of affairs in how low his people had sunk health-wise as they became “civilized”. Marsh included an interesting bit on how an object becomes untouchable in Maori culture.
I do like Carolyn’s preferences for actors who can fit in where needed and not just the one-acts. I also like the sound of Alfred Meyers. He seems to be a very nice man devoted to his company and his wife. Although . . . Carolyn does seem to know quite a bit about backstage . . . hmmm . . .
I am confused at that chat Vernon has with Wade and Alleyn about Biggs, especially the bit about his hairdresser’s shop in St Helens.
There are a few references to events in Enter a Murderer, 2.
And then Alleyn’s last words, lol, that boy is crackin’ me up!
The Story
Alleyn has so much time to recover that he’s on vacation in New Zealand, sharing a train with the Carolyn Dacres English Comedy Company where he finds an old friend, Susan Max.
At least Alleyn has one reliable witness in the crowd when a surprise goes awry and turns into murder. Luckily, police forces everywhere seem to have read his book and are excited to include him in the investigation.
The Characters
Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn is with CID at Scotland Yard, having been a soldier and in the Foreign Office. Alleyn is missing Detective-Inspector Fox.
Incorporated Playhouses, a.k.a.
. . . “the Firm” was started by George Mason, the manager, and Alfred Meyer, first as Mason & Meyer’s Drama, Ltd.
The Carolyn Dacres English Comedy Company
Carolyn Dacres, a great actress who is the daughter of a country parson, is married to Alfred “Pooh” Meyer. Minna is Carolyn’s dresser. Ted Gascoigne is the stage-manager. Hailey Hambledon is in love with Carolyn. Bob Parsons is his dresser. Bob’s dad, Pip Parsons, trained his son at whistling. St John Ackroyd né Tommy Biggs is a comedian, but only on-stage, otherwise he’s a regular stinker making trouble for others. Other actors in the company include Brandon Vernon, who plays characters; Courtney Broadhead, who is losing at cards; Francis Liversidge, who is not someone you want around your daughter; Valerie Gaynes is the daughter of Pomfret Gaynes, a shipping magnate, who thinks she’s all that (instead, she’s a bit of an idiot); and, Susan Max is an old trouper whom we first met in Enter a Murderer. (Her father had been an actor-manager in Australia.) Bert is a stagehand. Fred is the head mechanist.
Geoffrey Weston, Palmer’s cousin is bear-leading seventeen-year-old Gordon Palmer (who was sacked from school) whose father is the very wealthy Sir Something Palmer, hoping Weston can teach the boy some sense.
Middleton, New Zealand, is . . .
. . . where the Theatre Royal is located and the first stop for the comedy company. “Dismal Joe” Singleton, a former actor, is the doorkeeper. Mrs Harbottle runs Good Beds. Guests at the birthday celebration include the friendly Mrs Forrest and Dr Rangi Te Pokiha, a high-caste Maori physician.
Inspector Sam Wade is gobsmacked at having Alleyn present at the incident. Superintendent Nixon is his boss. Detective-Sergeants Cass and Packer are part of the investigation and just as excited as Nixon and Wade.
Felix Gardener had been an actor and a murderer. Lord Trenchard‘s scheme was a shake-up of how policemen were trained and scheduled.
The Cover and Title
The cover is consistent with previous stories with its gradated background in cafe au lait-to-dark-coffee. The ubiquitous white scalloped lines radiate out at an angle from the bottom out to the sides encasing a dark brown between them. At the top, the title is centered in a gradated cream-to-cafe-au-lait just above the light brown banner stretching across the front in a descending angle with the author’s name in an art deco font with dark brown, a textured brown, and a cream glow around it. At the center bottom is the series info in the same gradation as the title, except from side-to-side. The graphic is well-suited to the story with a British passport on top of a pile of folded money.
I have no idea what inspired the title unless this is a typical Vintage Murder??
