Ngaio Marsh. Hand in Glove (1962) The glove of the title is a clue to the identity of the murderer, who kills from misplaced love and an appalling lack of insight into both herself and her adopted ward. Along the way we meet a clutch of more or less unsavoury types, except of course the young lovers, who represent moral purity, even as Alleyn and his crew represent the avenging Furies who unmask evil. The red herring this time is snobbery, which has moved a central character to revise his past so that he can claim descent from a very old family.**½
Ngaio Marsh. Clutch of Constables (1968) Troy, fatigued from the opening of her one-man show, decides to join a river cruise when a vacancy opens up because of a cancellation. The cancellation occurs because of a murder; the murderer is seriously wanted by the police; the cruise is a test of a new scam (the “discovery” of a [faked] Constable), and triggers another murder. Troy writes to Roderick, and her letters, Alleyn’s lecture on this very case (to a class at a police academy), and Marsh’s narrative interweave to produce a nicely varied point of view. Technically, Marsh’s most ambitious novel. Thematically, fairly straightforward, with a nicely done fusion of plot, character, and the themes of racism and mixed moral feelings and attitudes.
One of Marsh’s best. ***½
2007: I went on a bit of Ngaio Marsh binge. ;-)
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