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Clutch of Constables
by
Ngaio Marsh
detective mystery, vintage mystery that was published by Felony & Mayhem Press on May 1, 2015 and has 240 pages.
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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, Spinsters in Jeopardy, Scales of Justice, The Death of a Fool, Singing in the Shroud, False Scent, Hand in Glove, When in Rome, Tied Up In Tinsel
Twenty-fifth in the Inspector Roderick Alleyn vintage mystery series revolving around a Scotland Yard detective and his team in the mid-1960s. The focus switches back and forth between a lecture and a riverboat tour. it was originally published in 1968.
My Take
Marsh’s start was unusual, as she switches back and forth between Alleyn giving a lecture at a police college about a notorious criminal including all the reasons he’s so successful and the activities in which he engages and the riverboat tour Troy is experiencing — and the particular case he’s discussing.
It’s a criminal operation that Alleyn lays out, including the double-identity lay.
The river cruise was to have been a peaceful, relaxing trip, but the news of a passenger-to-be’s demise has Troy het up and suffering headaches, and she contacts Br’er Fox, who promptly insists she keep in touch with the police at every stage — without her fellow passengers knowing. Uh-huh.
Oh, man, Rickerby-Carrick gives me a headache! She has to provide every itty-bitty detail about her life. And cannot keep her mouth shut for anything — especially about her precious treasure. Idiot!
“Her sledgehammer tact crashes over Dr N like a shower of brick-bats, so anxious is she to be unracial.”
Stan Pollock, the Hewsons, and Lazenby are so racist and provide uncomfortable conflict amongst the passengers. As for Dr N’s reason for coming on this trip . . . it’s so sad, as he and his wife were to have come together.
Sadly, Troy also reflects on the hostility suffered by the police, whom she also reflects are a wide-ranging group of people with their own passions and beliefs.
Certain of the passengers are annoyed that they could walk — certainly drive faster — than waiting for the riverboat to get from point A to B. I like Tory’s response that she’s “settled into the River-time-space dimension” *grin*. Although the peace of it is ruined at every stop with the machinations Troy must go through to keep her police visits a secret.
Omigod, twenty-five stories into the series and we finally learn Br’er Fox’s actual name!
Hmm, propelling pencil . . . Part of what I enjoy about vintage mysteries is the different inventions (or at least the names) of what I know. And having started the series in the 1930s, I’m still rather stuck there in my head. It was reading a reference to James Bond that perked me up!
It’s an interesting argument about well-done fakes being as good as the original painting. Only, the fakes aren’t the result of original work. A good bit of cheer is the Zodiac that Troy re-works with help from Pollock. It does generate quite a bit of interest on everyone’s part.
Lol, poor Alleyn doesn’t want Troy involved in the case, and yet Fox — he’s so cute with his French — puts a practical argument to him. Alleyn’s really got no choice.
Marsh uses a third person dual protagonist point-of-view from Troy’s and Alleyn’s perspectives. It’s very practical since this two-sided story flips between them. The prose is straight-forward with the flavor of the time period and the varying intelligences of the characters.
It’s action that is primarily character-driven, and I was surprised at the ending. Oh, I knew there were some “undercovers”, but how the passengers tied in was most interesting.
The Story
It’s a last-minute cancellation and Troy wants some peace and quiet. That five-day trip down the river sounds perfect.
The Characters
Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn, from the upper class, is with Scotland Yard and has written a book famous throughout the world of cop shops. He’s married to Agatha Troy, a.k.a. Troy Alleyn, a famous painter, and they have a son, Ricky, who’s old enough to be taking a course at Grenoble and has a girlfriend! Time sure flies!
Scotland Yard
Alleyn’s team includes Inspector Edward “Teddy” Walter Fox, a.k.a. Br’er Fox and Detective-Sergeants Bailey and Thompson who are the fingerprint and photograph experts. Carmichael is the smart cop at the lecture.
K.G.Z. Andropulos had been a picture-dealer, who had cancelled his berth on the Zodiac. Mr and Mrs John Smith had been at Jno Baggs’ place a month ago. Pluggy and Glenys are a pair of ton-ups with a motorbike and are friends with Tom. Dinky Dickson is a con man. Deafy Ed Moran is a big-time fixer, heroin dealer, and deals in fake pictures with his sister, Sis. Albert Bernard Smith lives in Soho whose solicitor is C.D.E. Struthers.
The Pleasure Craft and Riverage Company operates . . .
. . . tours and the M.V. Zodiac is one of theirs, a riverboat that takes tourists down the river and back. Jim Tretheway is the skipper and Tom, his son, and his wife are the crew.
The passengers include the nice, friendly (and obnoxious) Miss Hazel Rickerby-Carrick, a.k.a. Hay (to her friends), is a spinster with some truly annoying habits; S.H. Caley Bard collects butterflies and does tutorial cramming work and recognizes Troy but keeps her secret even as he romances her; Stan Pollock had been in commercial art; the widowed Dr Francis Natouche (a colored man, gasp!!), who practices in Liverpool and is also a fan of Troy’s — and keeps her secret, likes to make maps; Earl J and Miss Sally-Lou Hewson are Americans; and, the Rev. J. de B. Lazenby is a clergyman from Australia.
Tollardwark is . . .
. . . on the first stop on the river trip where Jno. Bagg is a licensed antiquities dealer. Do not tick off his mother, Mrs Bagg‘s! Superintendent Bert Tillottson, a friend of Teddy’s, is with the Police Station. PC Serge.
Longminster is . . .
. . . another stop where Superintendent Bonney is most sympathetic.
Ramsdyke Lock is . . .
. . . another stop were PC Cape is on duty.
Mavis is Rickerby-Carrick’s bosom friend in Birmingham. It seems that Hay’s grandfather had been a surgeon in Russia. The Bishop of Norminster had been hosting Lazenby. Erni is a contemporary artist. Sir Leslie Fergus, a bio-chemist, is a friend of Dr Natouche’s; his wife is Lady Fergus.
Foljambe, a.k.a. the Jampot (in England) and Le Folichon (in Paris), is a brilliant and ruthless criminal who can mimic anyone.
A Blue International Circular indicates an unidentified criminal.
The Cover and Title
The general color of the cover is a grayed-pink. The title is a gradient of white to gray against the three-sided gradient lightening up to a more cheery pink in the bottom center of the top half. Across the middle is a pink stretched-out banner with the author’s name in a deep burgundy deco font with a white glow around it. The bottom half is framed by four lines of white scalloped lines with an interior gradient of gray to pink raying up from the center bottom to the sides. There is a pink banner arching between the rays with the series info in white. The graphic in the center is of a white tureen decorated with a pair of strawberries on the bowl and green leaves decorating the lid.
The title refers to Troy’s perception of the scenery along the river, a perfect Clutch of Constables .
