Black as He’s Painted (Roderick Alleyn #28), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2015 (originally published in 1974).

Summary: The President of Ng’ombwana is coming to England. A man with known enemies, his old school friend Alleyn attempts to persuade him to accept Special Branch protection but fails to prevent a murder at an embassy reception.

Retired Foreign Officer Sam Whipplestone thought the house on Capricorn Walk would make a pleasant place after his years of foreign service. Little did he realize that he would have one more assignment and that a tenant (Mr. Sheridan) and his house servant, Chubb would have a part. Nor did he realize that the bedraggled cat who adopted him, who he names Lucy Lockett, would uncover a key clue.

Meanwhile, Alleyn has drawn the unenviable assignment of trying to persuade “Boomer,” a former classmate now risen to the presidency of Ng’ombwana, to accept Special Branch protection while visiting London, and to refrain from unplanned excursions, adding to his risk. There had been attempts on his life and he had enemies. But he stubbornly believes in his invincibility. He reluctantly accepts some protection while relying on his ambassador in London to secure the embassy. He even arranges to have Troy paint his portrait, which she gladly accepts. He is a stunning subject.

All goes well until a gala reception at the embassy, at which Chubb hires on as wait staff. A shot is fired, lights go out, Alleyn, who is present as friend, shoves the president down. When the lights come back on they find the ambassador has been pierced through with the spear of the mlinzi, the president’s spear carrier. Chubb, nearby, had been knocked down and the mlinzi claimed to have been struck from behind, incapacitating him.

The embassy’s own investigation fails to turn up a murderer and the President is convinced that the murderer is not to be found among his people. That’s when the inhabitants of Capricorn Walk become of interest. A fish medallion brought to Sam Whipplestone by Lucy Lockett uncovers a group of conspirators on Capricorn Walk and in the Capricorn Mews, all with a grievance against the Boomer. Colonel Cockburn-Montfort had organized the Ng’ombwanan military, and then was dismissed. Chubb, a former commando, had suffered the rape and death of his daughter by a Ng’ombwanan. Sheridan, under the name of Gomez, was prosecuted by the Boomer for manslaughter and on being convicted vowed revenge. And the Sanskrits had been expelled from Ng’ombwana for corruptions of various sorts.

Alleyn must find the murderer from among these suspects before another attempt can be made. The question is whether the ambassador or the president was the target. The ambassador was standing after the fired shot, so it was possible that he was mistaken for the president in the confusion. All of this strains his friendship as he has to navigate the issues of race and respect for a nascent nation, former colony, asking the hard questions of a police officer while respecting the wishes of his friend, a former head of state.

I found this one of the more interesting of Marsh’s works. She chooses a very different setting–neither the theatre nor a country estate. Sam Whipplestone functions as a kind of “Watson,” while learning how different police work is from diplomacy. Marsh portrays the racism of the time, with characters using words not politically acceptable today. Also, a cat has a key role. And the Boomer is a complicated character, chiding Alleyn’s deference at some points, urging him to unbend, acting imperiously when national dignity is on the line, and with disregard for his own safety, accepting the risk of political office and indulging the notion of invulnerability. Even Alleyn reflects a deepening self-awareness of the path he has chosen, the calling he has answered, in contrast both with Whipplestone and the Boomer.