Ngaio Marsh. Swing, Brother, Swing (1949) & Opening Night (1951)

 

    Ngaio Marsh. Swing, Brother, Swing (1949) A murder takes place in plain view of a roomful of restaurant guests, including Alleyn. The puzzle is one of Ngaio’s lesser efforts, too tricky by half, and with insufficient clues, but the story-telling and the characterisations are as usual very well done. **½ (2007)

     Ngaio Marsh. Opening Night (1951) One of Marsh’s best: it’s about theatre and Theatre, told mostly through the viewpoint of Martyn Tarne, a New Zealander whose cash was stolen shortly after her arrival in England and who fetches up at the Vulcan Theatre, run by a distant relative of hers. The theatrical plot is complex, the characters are believable, the on- and back-stage atmosphere is beautifully rendered, and the murder, when it comes, is seamlessly integrated into the story of how Martyn comes to go on as understudy and succeeds in her role and ambition. Alleyn does a neat job of ‘tecking, but we’re used to that. Wonderful book, worth reading as a story about theatre (with a bit of crime included.) **** (2007)

Sue Grafton. G is for Gumshoe (1990)

     Sue Grafton. G is for Gumshoe (1990) A con wants Kinsey dead and hires a hit man. A daughter wants her aged and ailing mother found. Kinsey moves into her new home (courtesy of Henry). She hires a bodyguard (Dietz) after being run off the road. The plot is not as complicated as that sounds, but it does give Grafton a chance to write a more personal story for Kinsey. The climax is of course another near-death experience, with a few dead bodies scattered about. Grafton’s stories are very American: Gunfire and rage resolves all problems. Curious notion. Not up to earlier books. ** (2007)

The Lady Vanishes (2013)

      The Lady Vanishes (2013. D: Diarmuid Lawrence. Charles Aitken, Paolo Antonio, Osaba Mokany) A remake of the Hitchcock classic. Not bad. Since most of the story takes place on a train, the train sets and sequences are crucial to the effect. They’re quite well done here, especially the actuality of crowded corridors and the differences between the classes. The other crucial element is the character of the girl whom no one will believe. Mokany as Iris Carr does a creditable job. The other actors generate just the right amount if smugness, self-centred obliviousness, and menace masked by careful good manners. That the logjam of deception loosens when an adulteress decides to revenge herself on her callous lover adds a nice little irony. **½

The Pale Horse (2010) Movie review

      The Pale Horse (2010. D: Andy Hay. Julia MacKenzie, Jonathan Cake, Neil Pearson.] Father Gorman mails a letter to Miss Marple just before his murderer attacks him. The letter contains a list of names. Investigation by the police, Mark Easterbrook, and Miss Marple reveals they’ve all died recently, apparently of natural causes. Miss Marple discovers a devious scheme to murder people for profit. The Pale Horse is an inn where witchy rituals take place; these supposedly cause the deaths. But in fact thallium is the poison the murderer uses.
       Julia Mackenzie is not as good a Miss Marple as Joan Hickson. But she’s better than Geraldine McEwan, who I think was miscast as Miss Marple. It’s quite clear from Christie’s texts that Miss Marple has no illusions, that she’s capable of acting flustered and fluffy-minded when it suits her, that she has clear and strict moral code, that she’s very observant, that she understand not only human nature but a good deal of what used to be called general knowledge, especially of poisons.  Mackenzie does these traits are very well here. But people who know Hickson’s version will feel that something is missing. Hickson gives the impression that Miss Marple knows the dark side better than most; and she shows us the inner core of a steely determination to dispense justice.
        The dramatisation, filming, supporting cast, narrative pace and so on are all good. A good hour and a half’s entertainment. **½

A. C. Kalmbach. Model Railroad Track and Layout (1953, 5th edition)

     A. C. Kalmbach. Model Railroad Track and Layout (1953, 5th edition). Kalmbach covers all the bases, focussing mostly on design of the layout, with the latter chapters of the book dealing with track, and bench work. Like Armstrong in the 50s and later, Kalmbach emphasises prototype operation. Some of the material is reprinted from Model Railroader. Still a good text, although not as well organised as it could be, and of course the line art and halftones suffer from the shortcomings of mid-20th century printing technology. Out of print, but worth buying if you find a copy. **½ (2007)

K. K. Beck. Death in a Deckchair (1984)

K. K. Beck. Death in a Deckchair (1984) A nice bit of fluff, in which narrator Iris Cooper helps unmask a killer on a luxury liner. A Balkan prince, political skullduggery, romance, and miscellaneous touches of period (1927) make for an undemanding and pleasant read. Plot is a bit muddled, but the clues are all there. Characters two dimensional, but clearly drawn, sketches. Beck tried her hand at other novels, and wrote at least one other Iris Cooper confection, but I’ve seen none of them. *½ (2007)

Earnest F. Carter. Electric Control of Clockwork Railways (1951)

     Earnest F. Carter. Electric Control of Clockwork Railways (1951) After reading this, I wonder why anyone would want to go to the trouble of electrical control of clockwork trains. Carter is a born tinkerer, and his solutions undoubtedly work, but oh what complicated devices he ends up with! A brake that works by electromagnetic attraction to the steel wheel of the (O scale) trains. A ramp with a sliding shoe that engages a pin on the loco and brings it to a slow stop. A magnetic governor to control the speed of the locomotive by creating electromagnetic drag on a spinning iron core. All very ingenious. All to make clockwork trains behave as much like electrically driven ones as possible. And, after all is said and done, no cheaper than electric trains, unless one prices one’s labour at zero or less. A negative labour price means a positive return on one's time, which may be Carter's aim, since he obviously spent many happy hours devising and building his gadgets.

IOW, the book is lovely example of what happens when someone hangs onto an obsolete technology long past its viability. The last chapter describes making a zinc-potassiumbichromate battery, a fearsome thing that requires mixing a sulfuric acid solution. A curio, and a very English book. *** (2007)