Three more Ngaio Marsh rereads: Death in Ecstasy, Vintage Murder, Death in a White Tie

This copy of Death in Ecstasy was printed in 1943, and contains a note requesting the reader to forward it to the armed forces for the entertainment of the troops

Ngaio Marsh. Death in Ecstasy (1936), Vintage Murder (1936), Death in A White Tie (1938). More re-reads. Marsh has become a steady seller, hence the three novels published in 1936.

Between Vintage Murder and Death in a White Tie, Alleyn has met Agatha Troy and solved a rather grisly murder perpetrated at her studio summer school (Artists in Crime). She has a walk-on part in Death in a White Tie, which ends with her accepting Alleyn’s proposal. There’s a good deal of sentimental back story about their courtship and Alleyn’s mama wishing Troy were her daughter-in-law, etc. Fox has stiffened into a cardboard cut-out; in later books, Marsh shows us a good deal more of Alleyn’s team, but they never become fully realised characters. The murder of Lord ‘Bunchy’ Robert Gospell following a debutante ball is nicely set up and solved, and Marsh shows once again that she has a sharp eye for human folly. She’s really a satirist; her depiction of the Alleyn-Troy romance is rather awkward. In later books, she shows them as a married couple comfortable with each other and supporting each other’s careers.

I enjoyed these re-reads. I don’t try to puzzle out the solution, I prefer to watch the ‘tecs doing their stuff. If I get a sense of whodunit (or have a vague memory from a previous read), I still want to see how Alleyn and Fox come to their conclusions. You may want to shut the book where Alleyn and Fox discuss the case, and work out the solution yourself. I don’t.

I especially liked Marsh’s evocation of a touring theatre company’s life on the road (railroad) in Vintage Murder.

Recommended to all fans of the classic English murder mystery. ***

Three by Ngaio Marsh: A May Dead, Enter a Murderer, The Nursing Home Murders

Ngaio Marsh. A Man Lay Dead (1935) Ngaio Marsh. Enter A Murderer (1935) Ngaio Marsh. The Nursing Home Murders (1936) Three re-reads. Entertaining, and revealing: Marsh’s narrative skills improve over these first three Alleyn novels. The novels are also excellent data for understanding the social  milieu of the 1930s: prejudices that to us seem glaringly obvious are taken for granted and even approved as common sense. There’s increasing awareness of caste and class differences, but they don’t yet grate on people’s nerves. Freudian psychology has its day, and figures in the characters’ psychology. It may even supply motives, or make them intelligible. “Modern” means current and cutting edge fashion, as it always does. Many of the objects used to signal culture and hence character are now coveted antiques.

I enjoyed these rereads. **½ and ***

The age of these books has made them accurate historical novels.