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!

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.

Death of a Fool (Roderick Alleyn #19), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2014 (originally published in 1957).

Summary: A fertility dance culminating in a ritual beheading of a fool, followed by his resurrection, ends with the fool having been truly decapitated.

It’s the winter solstice in South Mardian. Time for a ritual fertility dance known as the Mardian Morris Sword Dance. The dance is held among the ruins of Mardian Castle, in front of a home still inhabited by 94 year old Dame Alice Mardian, sharp as a tack, and her great niece and spinster, Dulcie Mardian. For generations, the core of the cast has been the Andersen family, who operated the Copse Forge, a blacksmithery in the nearby town, on a road soon to be turned into a thoroughfare. Presently, there is old William Andersen and his five sons. Andersen plays “The Fool” in the dance while the five enact a sword dance that culminates in a feigned beheading of the Fool, who conceals himself in a depression behind the Dolmen stone and subsequently rises from the dead at the conclusion of the ritual.

Three others are involved. Ralph Stanes, son of the rector and Dame Alice’s great nephew plays “the Betty,” a bisexual figure in a monstrous dress known to envelope young boys or girls. Crack, the Hobby Horse is played by Simon Begg, whose big role is to chase young maidens like Camilla Campion, the love interest of Ralph Stanes, into his arms. All of this is accompanied by the fiddling of Dr. Otterly, the town’s GP, who assiduously observes the players.

There is another key character, Mrs Bünz, a German immigrant who had fled Nazi oppression, and was taken up with researching folk rituals, of which the Mardian Morris Sword Dance is an outstanding example. She spies on rehearsals, tries to wheedle information from the players, and is resolutely resisted by William Anderson, until he is murdered.

As you might guess if you are a reader of Marsh, the staged murder actually occurs. When the Fool fails to rise at the climax, an investigation finds him decapitated, lying in the depression behind the rock. The local authorities, unused to dealing with such a horror, call in Scotland Yard and Alleyn, Fox, Bailey, and Thompson arrive forthwith.

The interviews of witnesses present a number of suspects. Anderson’s sons clearly are conspiring to conceal something. Ernest, the youngest and subject to epileptic fits and considered to “not be playing with a full deck” is the lead suspect. He wielded the “Whiffler” that beheads the Fool and he had an angry set to with his father over the putting down of a dog. He’d also beheaded an aggressive goose earlier in the day at Mardian Castle. And yet William Anderson was seen to crouch behind the Dolmen stone afterwards, very much alive. Chris, another son, wants to marry a village girl, Trixie, known to be “generous” with her favors, including with Ralph Stanes, and disapproved by William. Several of the boys, encouraged by Simon Beggs, a former officer barely surviving running a service station, wants to go in with the boys to turn the forge into a service station by the new thoroughfare. Ralph wants to marry Camilla Campion, William’s granddaughter. William is opposed because of Ralph’s previous dalliance and lets him known by asking Ralph to draw up a will with a bequest to Camilla if she doesn’t marry Ralph. And what is the real deal with Mrs. Bünz?

The big problem was that The Fool was very much alive after the pretend decapitation and very dead at the end of the play, yet the accounts of all the witnesses, including those who could see behind the stone, indicate no point at which he was attacked. So how did he die and who was his murderer? In the end, Alleyn resorts to a re-enactment to see if the murderer will be revealed.

Like many of her stories, there is “theatre,” which serves as the setting of a murder, but I thought her plotting was genius and found myself uncertain up to the end. The female characters, from crusty and imperious Dame Alice to the two young women, Camilla and Trixie, clearly upstage the men, as does the eccentric Mrs. Bünz. I also found it fascinating that Dr. Otterly seems to work more closely, and even conspiratorially, with Alleyn than the members of his investigative team, who remain in the background for the most part. All in all, I thought this, not among the very best, but certainly in the top ranks of Marsh’s Alleyn books. The use of a fertility dance in an English village was an unusual and fascinating plot choice.

Photo Finish (Roderick Alleyn #31), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2016 (originally published in 1980).

Summary: A New Zealand trip for Alleyn and Troy goes sideways when Isabella Sommita, a soprano and diva is murdered after she debuts a badly written opera composed by her latest love interest.

Troy has been invited to paint the portrait of famed soprano Isabella Sommita by her Aristotle Onassis-like friend, Montague Reece. It appears to have all the trappings of a romantic getaway for her and Alleyn. She has been invited to Reece’s Waihoe Lodge on a remote lake in New Zealand. Alleyn has been invited separately to “consult” on dealing with a particularly annoying member of the paparazzi, calling himself “Strix” who has managed to insinuate himself into a variety of situations where he has taken the most unflattering pictures of The Sommita. Alleyn is reluctant to go, given the penchant they have for getting mixed up in murder cases together. The deal is sealed however by his superior, who thinks he ought to go because of a vague international drug connection that The Sommita is rumored to have some association with.

The setting and the Lodge are as stunningly beautiful as Troy and Alleyn imagine. Marsh, a native New Zealander, describes the scene so vividly I could see it in my mind’s eye, and a storm section later in the book so palpably that I felt I was hearing the wind and rain pelt the Lodge. Reece has set up a well-appointed studio for Troy to use for the portrait and they are treated as guests of honor. But she will never make more than preliminary sketches.

Isabella Sommita, like many of the stage figures in Marsh’s books is full of herself, in this case the definition of diva. She is barely tolerated by her entourage, the maid Maria, her manager Ben Ruby, and the rest of the household staff including the very proper housekeeper Mrs. Bacon and the officious secretary of Mr. Reece, Ned Hanley. She has taken under her wing (and into her bed) Rupert Bartholomew, a young composer who has written a mediocre work just for her, The Alien Corn, with The Sommita playing the title role of the biblical role, complete with a climactic song that allows her to hit her famous high notes. They will debut the piece at the Waihoe Lodge with a cast of supporting singers, a music critic and Signor Beppo Lattienzo, with whom The Sommita had trained.

It’s thought that the remote location was safe from the increasingly hostile photographic intrusions of “Strix” but an incident during rehearsals, another photograph taken, suggests “Strix” is in their midst, yet he cannot be found. As the performance approaches, Rupert Bartholomew, who will conduct, begins to realize what a mess he is. He is awakening both to the poor quality of his composition and how he is in thrall to The Sommita. He tries to back out but neither Reece nor The Sommita will hear of it.

The guests arrive as a storm is setting in. The production comes off, with The Sommita giving her all to a very poor piece. As everyone is applauded, Bartholomew summons the courage to apologize for his shoddy work. The Sommita is infuriated and storms off to her bedroom while Rupert faints. When The Sommita doesn’t appear, Reece covers for her and asks Maria to take her a warm drink. A scream follows. The Sommita is lying spread-eagle on her bed–dead. A stiletto has been driven into her heart (post-mortem as it turns out) with a photograph taken earlier in the day pinned to her.

The storm has risen and most of the guests, save the performers and a few special guests have just gotten out in time. The rest are stuck there and the lake is so turbulent that the police cannot come. So Alleyn reluctantly takes charge and does his best to secure the crime scene and to collect evidence while it is fresh with the assistance of Dr Carmichael, even though he has no authority other than Mr. Reece’s permission.

Was it “Strix”? Or Rupert, who had a key to the bedroom as her lover? Or someone else in the household? And does a book Alleyn found in the Lodge library describing a vendetta between two New York crime families in which a young woman dies under similar circumstances have anything to do with the case? By the time the authorities arrive, Alleyn has figured out who “Strix” is and is ready, with Inspector Hazelmere to resolve the case.

I have to admit that having read a number of Marsh’s works, this felt a bit formulaic to me–a stage personality, a remote house party, a performance with the death of a lead, an extreme weather event leaving Alleyn in charge. Even so, the final denouement had some twists that caught me by surprise. And I have to admit that I have always enjoyed the New Zealand settings the best. This work was the next to last published in her life, two years before she died, showing her still quite competent in re-mixing the standard devices into an engaging story.