Clutch Of Constables
A review of Clutch of Constables by Ngaio Marsh – 241118
It is a while since I have read a book by Ngaio Marsh, an author I have often struggled to get on with, but the twenty-fifth in her Roderick Alleyn series, originally published in 1968, is one of her better ones.
Structurally, the book is interesting with Alleyn giving a lecture, a case study of the mystery of the MV Zodiac on to which his wife, Agatha Troy, had booked on to as a last minute whim for a five day trip through Constable country. Each chapter opens with an extract of the lecture as he presages what is going to happen in that chapter, the rest of the chapter then, in the first part, recounting Troy’s experience and then the second part concentrating on the investigations of Alleyn and Br’er Fox as the try to solve the mystery of who murdered Hazel Rickerby-Carrick, a passenger on board, and reveal the identity of a master international criminal, known as “the Jampot”.
A river trip enables Marsh to assemble a motley crew of passengers, an American brother and sister who are antique hunting, an Australian clergyman, a London slum landlord who has a taste for fine art and is a calligraphist, a lepidopterist who is smitten by Troy, and a handsome man of Afro-European origin, Dr Francis Natouche, whose features and bone structure Troy in her artist’s mantle much admires.
The victim, a fellow passenger is a tiresome woman who bores and irritates everyone. She keeps a journal, is indiscreet and wears a Fabergé necklace, all factors that lead to her demise. By Marsh’s previous standards her method of death is not too outré but nonetheless her body is transported as a pillion passenger, her suitcase weighted down, and her body is thrown into a weir some miles downstream. The blow that killed her is the trademark of the Jampot. Fearing for Troy’s safety Alleyn rushes back from America to join her, whisks her off to a hotel, and joins the investigation. That is the last we hear of her until the very end.
Clearly one of the passengers is both the murderer and Jampot. Another passenger, Sally-Lou Hewson, is murdered with the same trademark blow, narrowing the field of suspects down further. In Poirot style, Alleyn calls the suspects together for the grand reveal, provoking an astonishing outburst from one of the party. However, Marsh is playing a trick on her readers as the real culprit is only revealed with the arrival of someone whose identity had been stolen.
The book owes its title to a remark Troy made as they were sailing through Constable country, a reference to a clutch of constables, one which caused some alarm amongst at least one of the passengers until she explained that she was referring to the painter and not members of the police. It is a tale of conspiracy, art forgery and shady dealings, in which most the passengers in some shape or form are involved. The air of menace provided by a couple of motorcyclists who seem to follow the progress of the vessel is well done.
A major subplot of the book is the character of Natouche whose presence and aloofness seems to discomfort some of the passengers. They break down into two camps, some who are overtly hostile and racist towards him and others who are welcoming. For the time, Marsh handles the matter sensitively and there is no doubt that she through Troy and Alleyn, while recognizing cultural differences, is very much on his side.
Pacy, with a plot that was interesting enough and some suitably intriguing suspects, it as an enjoyable read.
