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Clutch of Constables (Roderick Alleyn #25)
Alleyn's wife Troy knows international crook the Jampot best, she shared close quarters with him on a cruise. She knew something was wrong even before Alleyn was called in to solve two murders on board the tiny pleasure steamer.
MP3 Book, 0 pages
Published
December 1st 2010
by AudioGO
(first published 1968)
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Troy – Roderick Alleyn’s artist wife - decides on the spur of the moment to go on a cruise in Constable country. She wants peace and quiet but virtually as soon as she gets on board the MV Zodiac she realises something is wrong and has grave suspicions about what her fellow passengers are really up to. On the first morning she discovers that the person whose place she took has actually been murdered. Troy’s husband is away from home and she starts to get so concerned about what is going on that...more
Originally published on my blog here in May 1999.
Instead of the cruise liner so beloved by crime writers, Clutch of Constables takes place on a small riverboat cruise, on a river described rather vaguely as 'in the north country' and in 'the fens'. Troy Alleyn, exhausted at the end of a successful one man show, takes a cancelled berth on this trip, while her husband is in the States at a criminological conference.
When her letter telling him this reaches him - the post to San Francisco must have...more
Instead of the cruise liner so beloved by crime writers, Clutch of Constables takes place on a small riverboat cruise, on a river described rather vaguely as 'in the north country' and in 'the fens'. Troy Alleyn, exhausted at the end of a successful one man show, takes a cancelled berth on this trip, while her husband is in the States at a criminological conference.
When her letter telling him this reaches him - the post to San Francisco must have...more
Jun 03, 2010
Richard Thompson
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery,
read-alouds
An Inspector Alleyn mystery. Marsh was one of the “discoveries” that we made reading TALKING ABOUT DETECTIVE FICTION by P.D. James. Maggee read the first few chapters on her own (and told me the plot) and then I read the remainder of the book aloud to her. An interesting structure: Alleyn’s wife, Troy, decides on a whim to take a river tour while he is away attending a series of meetings in America and finds herself in the midst of an unfolding mystery. We get part of the story after the fact in...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Artist Agatha Troy, wife of Inspector Alleyn, takes an English river cruise after the pressures of an exhibition. This is the countryside Constable painted, and a pair of fellow passengers, trolling a junk shop, finds a dirty undiscovered Constable rolled away in a cupboard. The situation is a mite suspicious to Troy, and turns out to be more so as her fellow passengers begin to look more and more strange. Fans of Alleyn who missed him in the first half of the book, when Troy's letters were purs...more
Apr 21, 2012
Catherine Robertson
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
crime-time
I had read only one Ngaio Marsh book and didn't love it. But then I read a great biography of her by Joanne Drayton, and decided to give Dame N another go. This is a perfect whodunnit - enticing cast of characters (you spend the whole time going: 'No, too obvious, so it must be...no, too obvious'), and although some of the suspects are borderline stereotype, Troy Alleyn, the detective's wife, who is trapped on a boat with the lot of them, is refreshingly smart, brave and real. Alleyn himself is...more
Like the other Marsh mysteries I have read so far this one was very well-written, and the plot was very complex but almost believable. But I've only read six of her books so far, and already I've encountered at least two frustrated (in the Freudian sense) and unbalanced spinsters, and this one was portrayed as uncharitably as the last one was. In addition, Marsh added an Afro-British character. At first I felt the portrayal of this character was quite positive and balanced compared to the other...more
Rory Alleyn, giving a lecture, recounts a particularly interesting case involving his wife, art fraud, and a criminal team upon a boat.
Alleyn's wife Troy, having just had an exhibit installed, is about to return to London when she sees a last minute cancellation on a 5 day boat trip around "Constable Country". Knowing that her husband is in America on a lecture tour, and that she would be returning to an empty flat after an exhausting time preparing for the show, she takes the trip on the spur o...more
Alleyn's wife Troy, having just had an exhibit installed, is about to return to London when she sees a last minute cancellation on a 5 day boat trip around "Constable Country". Knowing that her husband is in America on a lecture tour, and that she would be returning to an empty flat after an exhausting time preparing for the show, she takes the trip on the spur o...more
Ghastly cover art. But please don't judge this book by it's cover - this is a well-written mystery and I really enjoyed it. I loved that Troy had a major role in this one and her viewpoint as a woman and policeman's wife was invaluable. I was unable to guess who "Jampot" was which definitely built up the suspense for me. Also I liked the map in the front of the book which helped me place my bearings in the setting - another picturesque Marsh-built background I'd love to visit (if it existed).
I read this book, and all of the Ngaio Marsh Inspector Alleyn books many years ago. Seeing that they are beginning to appear now as audiobooks, I bought this one to listen to. Although I remembered a little about the story, it was almost as if it were new to me, and I devoured it pretty quickly. I would compare this particular plot, because of the complexity and unexpected resolution, to Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express".
This book was first published in 1968, well into her series which b...more
This book was first published in 1968, well into her series which b...more
Thoroughly enjoyable. Some of the bits were obvious, but that did nothing to ruin my enjoyment of the story. Someone unfamiliar with mysteries (or less in the habit of reading them), may not find the plot points quite so obvious. I love the pun in the title and the difficulty of sorting out the different bits of information into relevant and irrelevant. All in all a lovely mystery.
Before you read this, read:
Murder on the Orient Express
Why did I start with Christie's most famous book (arguably)? Because I suspect this Alleyn mystery is Marsh's homage to that remarkable book. All disguised, but, I think I'm right. Great fun.
Murder on the Orient Express
Why did I start with Christie's most famous book (arguably)? Because I suspect this Alleyn mystery is Marsh's homage to that remarkable book. All disguised, but, I think I'm right. Great fun.
I wasn't expecting much from this as I hated the only other Ngaio Marsh book I've read (Death at the Dolphin), and chose to read it only so that I could get rid of it and clear a space on my shelves. That backfired though, because I found it pretty compelling. It was good enough that I think I'll have to borrow my sister's Ngaio Marsh collection.
is this my favorite Marsh? no, i guess it's not totally better than the ones with more of the Troy/Roderick interchanges.
somehow Marsh still fooled me with all the info and red herrings. i still couldn't see who was the bad guy even with only 2 choices left.
well-told, great setting, fabulous mystery!
somehow Marsh still fooled me with all the info and red herrings. i still couldn't see who was the bad guy even with only 2 choices left.
well-told, great setting, fabulous mystery!
In this one Superintendent Roderick Alleyn's wife, the well-known artist Agatha Troy, is at the center of the action. She is on a five-day river cruise in England. She begins to suspect that one of her fellow passengers is a vicious murderer. Plenty of suspense and a bit of a surprising conclusion.
Jan 11, 2012
Kathy Dolan
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
audio-book,
crime
A thoroughly enjoyable police procedural of the old fashioned sort. It would have got 5 stars but for two things, one possibly unfair to the author; the treatment of the race issue jars by today's acceptable language and way of thinking (but how should the author be ahead of their time?), nevertheless it just made me wince a little and took the edge off my enjoyment of the story; secondly, the author sometimes keeps things from the reader but says the police know something we don't - unfair I al...more
What joy that these novels are being re-issued. If you like an old fashioned detective/murder mystery, Ngaio Marsh's novels have enormous charm and a lovely sly humour - as evidenced by the title of this example. Move over Agatha Christie!
A Troy book, which is an advantage, but I wasn't enamoured of the 'giving a lecture' structure - perhaps I have some difficulty believing Alleyn would discuss his wife in such detail.
Again a book dealing with a spinster-of-a-problematic-age, this one using the not uncommon plot device of a person who has heard or witnessed something, and desperately tries to pass the information on, but is delayed from doing so long enough for her to be killed. While I can understand Troy finding our problematic...more
Again a book dealing with a spinster-of-a-problematic-age, this one using the not uncommon plot device of a person who has heard or witnessed something, and desperately tries to pass the information on, but is delayed from doing so long enough for her to be killed. While I can understand Troy finding our problematic...more
Got so involved with this that read it in one sitting. Perhaps not the most credible plotline ever, but still very entertaining. Will be trying further Marsh titles on the strength of this one.
Listened to the full-length, unabridged audiobook.
I like this story. It focussed on Troy for a change and so had a different feel to many of the other books.
I like this story. It focussed on Troy for a change and so had a different feel to many of the other books.
I guess Marsh is trying to be more realistic than Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or many of the other classic mystery writers (especially the cozy type). Here, we see Alleyn with his wife and son, all grown up. And that just doesn't seem right. Especially for this type of mystery (the ace detective with the loyal sidekick) that is so comforting in its formula, the James Bond model of never aging works best. Even the producers of the awesome Poirot television series realized this, which...more
Marsh takes a bold stance against racism in this mystery published in 1969. We see most of the story from Alleyn's wife, which is interesting.
Since two people whose book opinions I very much trust (Rhoda and Risa!) like this author, I'm very much looking forward to reading her!
Very interesting change of point of view. This story is told from Inspector Alleyn's and from his wife's by both letters and ongoing events. Done very well.
One of my favourites. I enjoy the plot when Troy is actively involved. Clever plot and well up to Marsh's usual standard.
Like Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh is part of the Golden Age of the English mystery. Her policeman, Inspector Alleyn, is handsome, charming, and talented. Mysteries are very well constructed and fun to guess at. Again, English, stylish, dated, but my cup of tea.
The setting, a river cruise; a the great ensemble of characters and the art angle made this so much fun to read.
I love Marsh's stories, and this is one of her better ones. Finally, we get Agatha Troy back as a main character, and her experiences among the ill-fated guests on board the river boat are a perfect example of the classic British murder mystery, where all the suspects are lined up and corralled together, and we as the reader try to guess who the culprit is. It was almost a disappointment when Alleyn shows up on the scene, as invariably in the later books, as soon as Alleyn appears, Troy recedes....more
This was a re-read, but I like to read her books in a rotation so I don't remember who-dunnit.
Best of the three Marsh whodunnit novels I've read so far. Very diverting indeed!
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Dame Ngaio Marsh, born Edith Ngaio Marsh, was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900, but she was born in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand.
Of all the "Great Ladies" of the English mystery's golden age, including Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh...more
More about Ngaio Marsh...
Of all the "Great Ladies" of the English mystery's golden age, including Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh...more
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