A Clutch of Constables (Roderick Alleyn #25), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2015 (originally published in 1968).

Summary: Troy takes a spur-of-the-moment river cruise only to learn that her berth had belonged to a man murdered by an international criminal, who happens to be on the cruise with her!

Ngaio Marsh used an unusual narrative device to unfold this mystery. Alleyn is giving a lecture on this case to a group of police in training in the United States. It concerns an international criminal, the Jampot, as he is known, a shadowy figure behind a number illicit international businesses, and his apprehension occurs at the end of a riverboat cruise on which Troy was a last-minute ticketed passenger.

Alleyn has just finished a one-person show while her husband is in the U.S. She is in the country where John Constable did a number of his paintings, she notices a river cruise boat, the M.V. Zodiac, that has a last-minute opening and decides to take it to enjoy the country where one of her favorite artists, John Constable, painted. Or so she thought. Not long after she settles in, she learns that her cabin had been booked by a man just found murdered, and that the murder bore the signs of having been done by the Jampot. It is not thought likely that there was any other connection with the cruise, but Troy is encouraged to visit the local police in the various towns, using the cover of a missing fur coat from her exhibition.

She begins to wonder when a casual exclamation, “Oh, look –The place is swarming with Constables! Everywhere you look. A perfect clutch of them!” elicits an unusual reaction among the passengers. She was referring to scenes painted by Constable. It’s obvious they thought she meant something else. Then there is the pair of motorcyclists who remain in the vicinity. Is the Jampot among the passengers afterall? It is an interesting mixture of people. There is Dr. Natouche, the reserved Ethiopian doctor and amateur mapmaker, the American brother and sister eager to find treasures at a bargain, the Hewsons, the one-eyed Reverend Lazenby, an Australian minister who doesn’t seem like a man of the cloth, the racist Mr. Pollock, and the lepidopterist, Kaley Bard, who tries persistently to hit on Troy.

There is one other passenger, the eccentric, heavy snoring Hazel Rickaby-Carrick, who attaches herself to Troy. Pleading a headache one night when Hazel seemed to desperately want to tell her something, she sleeps in her cabin. The passengers learn from a telegram that she was called away and has left. And she has. Only it is Troy, who on their return journey spots her in a weir, floating, and very dead. It turns out that she has been strangled in the same fashion as the accomplice of the Jampot.

At this point Alleyn makes an early return, and he and his team take up the investigation, while Troy is dispatched to a hotel, getting her off the scene. Given that this was suggested by a couple of the passengers, I feared someone would slip away and attempt to kill her. Indeed, despite a police guard, someone does slip away in the fog, and someone is murdered before the denouement, when the murderer is revealed amid a “clutch” of suspects.

The device of Chief Inspector Alleyn narrating the story after the fact worked for me–it set the story apart from others in the series, while not being obtrusive. Troy’s removal to the hotel did not–it removed her from the narrative after a touching reunion with Rory. Others have noted the element of racism in the story. I think this makes it true to life, while I think Marsh gives us subtle clues of her own disapproval without editorializing.  I loved the setting–it made a river cruise more inviting, with the chance to explore old English towns with shops and pubs–provide no murder was included. Then again, it is a great setting for a murder mystery weekend!