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Spinsters in Jeopardy
by
Ngaio Marsh
detective mystery, vintage mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Felony & Mayhem Press on November 15, 2014 and has 289 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
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, Vintage Murder, 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, 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
Seventeenth in the Inspector Roderick Alleyn vintage mystery revolving around a Scotland Yard detective. The focus is two-fold: a relative in France and an undercover operation. It was originally published in 1953.
My Take
Wow, it hadn’t seemed that long since Swing, Brother, Swing, 15, when Troy was pregnant, and all of a sudden, we have a Ricky still young enough to ride his Daddy’s shoulders!
Boredom appears to be a running theme.
Ricky is cute with his big words — he does like the word lavish, lol — and French. I do enjoy watching Alleyn and Troy interact with him. They seem like good parents.
“‘If,’ the voice pursued, ‘I said a sensible why, would you answer, Daddy?’
‘If would have to be entirely sensible.'”
The train trip (with a philosophical child in tow) is an interesting look back to the early 1950s. It also allows one to witness murder? At one point, the passengers can see into someone’s window as they sit down to breakfast. Not my idea of privacy! As for becoming ill on the train. Not then. Don’t do it.
Having Ricky along provides us with his own thoughts and fears — which means Marsh is using a third person global subjective point-of-view from a number of perspectives, including Ricky’s. The signs of his pleasures and fears bring such a homey quality to Spinsters in Jeopardy.
Troy and Alleyn are sweet together with their quotations and compliments. Raoul is a brick, so willing to help with the more dangerous aspects of this story.
Enlightening and not-so-sweet are the mild references to race and assurances that one can still be a qualified doctor in spite of their skin color. It’s sad to know that we haven’t changed all that much. Roderick has his own a-ha moment when he is surprised by how enjoyable it is to speak with Raoul.
“Italian blood there, I think. One comes across these hybrids along the coast.”
It’s rather creepy to think of all those caves under the château!
Troy and Alleyn both note the deliberate costuming and stage settings that create the religious background for Oberon and his rites. Lucky for Alleyn that he has such wide ranging knowledge, lol.
Baradi and others refer to their cult and what Oberon expects of them. It is also lucky that the Internet does not yet exist, for Alleyn’s sake. Robin’s concerns AND reluctance is annoying. He’s old enough to know better! He’s also expecting quite a bit.
There is some tension in that, as a few of the cult members know Troy is married to a cop, and Rory is worried that they’ll spill the beans. More tension arises when there’s a kidnapping!
There’s a small bit in which Marsh notes the attempts world governments have made at cleaning up the opium trade — and both states and highly placed individuals have their “embarrassing” involvements. Life really hasn’t changed much, has it?
It gets rather reefer-madness at the end with the whole story primarily character-driven with some action with a reasonable pace — I did enjoy the funny bits about Ricky and his inevitable pourquois. As for the tricksy bits by the coppers, lol, they’d not be able to get away with that today! Although I will say that Alleyn’s attitude toward Oberon and Baradi was quite satisfying, hee-hee.
The Story
With the war and all, the Alleyns haven’t had a chance to go on a vacation, and this surreptitious trip to France seems heaven-sent. Ricky and Troy will also be good cover. Even better is when a fellow passenger, Miss Truebody, requires a surgeon, and Rory can step in as an interested traveler.
The Characters
Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn is with CID at Scotland Yard. He’s married to the famous painter, Agatha Troy, and they have a young son, Ricky. Troy’s parents were Stephen and Harriet Troy. Nanny doesn’t go on this trip. Ricky’s illuminating goat is named . . . Goat.
The brave and adventurous Raoul Milano has a car that he hires out with himself as chauffeur. He was a medical orderly in the war. His parents have a small but good café, the Escargot Beinvenu, in Roqueville.
Roqueville, the Maritime Alps, France
The suspect P.E. Garbel, a chemist known as Peg, seems to be the classic bore who shows you things you don’t want to see. He’s been writing the Alleyns, his cousin Aggie specifically, for the past 18 months from Roqueville in the Maritime Alps in France. Blanche is the fat concierge at Mlle Penelope E Garbel’s apartment building at 16 Rue des Violettes. M Malaquin is the manager of the Hôtel Royal.
Dupont of the Sûreté is based at the Préfecture as acting commissary. Le Pot des Fleurs is a flower shop.
Mr Oberon, a.k.a. Ra and Albert George Clarkson, has rented the Château de la Chèvre d’Argent, an old Saracen fort, outside Roqueville to further enjoy his cult activities for the Children of the Sun in the Outer. Dr Ali Baradi, a skilled surgeon, is his partner. His disciples include Ginny Taylor, the youngest whose back history is so sad, and is Grizel’s niece; the lame Robin Herrington, the wild son of a famous brewer; Carbury Glande is a painter who knows Troy; Annabella Wells is a notorious, if brilliant actress and addict; and, the Honorable Grizel Locke, a.k.a. Sati, who is sister to Penderby Locke, who is himself Ginny’s uncle and guardian.
Mahomet is Baradi’s Egyptian servant. Teresa is a maid at the château and Raoul is in love with her. Jeanne Barre is an underhousemaid. Old Marie inhabits one of the caves and makes the illuminated goats amongst other statues. Montague Summers wrote a major work on witchcraft. Halebory will become the name of the body.
Miss Truebody is a spinster from Bermuda with no family and a bursting appendix! No one is concerned with any HIPPA issues, that’s for sure! Dr Claudel happens to have some anaesthetic handy.
The Compagnie Chimique des Alpes Maritimes is a nearby factory under suspicion. Callard is the general manager. Georges Martel is a smarmy driver. Peron et Cie is another company and on a suspect list.
St Christophe is hosting a conference for doctors.
Scotland Yard
The A.C. is the assistant commissioner. MI5, the Sûreté, and the Narcotics Bureau need someone with fluent French. Some previous cases, that of Horus and the Swami Vivi Ananda, appeared before Curtis Bennett with Edward Carson prosecuting, have a similarity to this story.
The International Police and the UN is also interested.
The Cover and Title
The cover incorporates colonial blues from deep and dark to light. The obvious gradation in previous covers is not here but still gradates from darker on the top and sides to lighter in the bottom, showcasing a more obvious gradation in the title with white to navy. The stretched-out banner is a pale blue with the author’s name in her signature art deco font using solid black and sketched black lines with a white halo. There are four single-side scalloped lines in white along with the spaces between in a gradation of dark to colonial blue on each side, raying out from the bottom to the sides. The bottom graphic in the center has a woodcut look as purple mountains with white snow. The arched banner at the bottom is in a sky blue with the series info in white.
The title is true for there are Spinsters in Jeopardy, related and unrelated.
