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Roderick Alleyn #23
Dead Water
A spring may have healing properties--but the controversy over it may have harmful results--in a witty mystery by a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master.
The elderly Emily Pride is perfectly pleased to have inherited an island, even if her starchy pragmatism is ever-so-faintly appalled by the island's "Pixie Falls" spring and its reported miraculous healing properties. Really, the locals' attempts to capitalize on the "miracles" are entirely too tacky--Ye Olde Gift Shoppe, the neon signs . . .not on Miss Emily's watch, thank you. Of course, the locals are not exactly thrilled to give up their trade. Pixie Falls may be merely be known for healing warts, it's true, but you take your shillings where you can find them. Could their frustration have bubbled up into murderous rage? Inspector Alleyn will have to sort it out. And this time, it's personal.
"It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." --New York Magazine
"A peerless practitioner of the slightly surreal, English-village comedy-mystery." --Kirkus Reviews
"The nonpareil among criminal investigators." --The New York Times
The elderly Emily Pride is perfectly pleased to have inherited an island, even if her starchy pragmatism is ever-so-faintly appalled by the island's "Pixie Falls" spring and its reported miraculous healing properties. Really, the locals' attempts to capitalize on the "miracles" are entirely too tacky--Ye Olde Gift Shoppe, the neon signs . . .not on Miss Emily's watch, thank you. Of course, the locals are not exactly thrilled to give up their trade. Pixie Falls may be merely be known for healing warts, it's true, but you take your shillings where you can find them. Could their frustration have bubbled up into murderous rage? Inspector Alleyn will have to sort it out. And this time, it's personal.
"It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." --New York Magazine
"A peerless practitioner of the slightly surreal, English-village comedy-mystery." --Kirkus Reviews
"The nonpareil among criminal investigators." --The New York Times
252 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1963
308 people are currently reading
826 people want to read
About the author
Ngaio Marsh
198 books823 followersDame 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 alone survived to publish in the 1980s. Over a fifty-year span, from 1932 to 1982, Marsh wrote thirty-two classic English detective novels, which gained international acclaim. She did not always see herself as a writer, but first planned a career as a painter.
Marsh's first novel, A MAN LAY DEAD (1934), which she wrote in London in 1931-32, introduced the detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn: a combination of Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey and a realistically depicted police official at work. Throughout the 1930s Marsh painted occasionally, wrote plays for local repertory societies in New Zealand, and published detective novels. In 1937 Marsh went to England for a period. Before going back to her home country, she spent six months travelling about Europe.
All her novels feature British CID detective Roderick Alleyn. Several novels feature Marsh's other loves, the theatre and painting. A number are set around theatrical productions (Enter a Murderer, Vintage Murder, Overture to Death, Opening Night, Death at the Dolphin, and Light Thickens), and two others are about actors off stage (Final Curtain and False Scent). Her short story "'I Can Find My Way Out" is also set around a theatrical production and is the earlier "Jupiter case" referred to in Opening Night. Alleyn marries a painter, Agatha Troy, whom he meets during an investigation (Artists in Crime), and who features in several later novels.
Series:
* Roderick Alleyn
Of all the "Great Ladies" of the English mystery's golden age, including Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh alone survived to publish in the 1980s. Over a fifty-year span, from 1932 to 1982, Marsh wrote thirty-two classic English detective novels, which gained international acclaim. She did not always see herself as a writer, but first planned a career as a painter.
Marsh's first novel, A MAN LAY DEAD (1934), which she wrote in London in 1931-32, introduced the detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn: a combination of Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey and a realistically depicted police official at work. Throughout the 1930s Marsh painted occasionally, wrote plays for local repertory societies in New Zealand, and published detective novels. In 1937 Marsh went to England for a period. Before going back to her home country, she spent six months travelling about Europe.
All her novels feature British CID detective Roderick Alleyn. Several novels feature Marsh's other loves, the theatre and painting. A number are set around theatrical productions (Enter a Murderer, Vintage Murder, Overture to Death, Opening Night, Death at the Dolphin, and Light Thickens), and two others are about actors off stage (Final Curtain and False Scent). Her short story "'I Can Find My Way Out" is also set around a theatrical production and is the earlier "Jupiter case" referred to in Opening Night. Alleyn marries a painter, Agatha Troy, whom he meets during an investigation (Artists in Crime), and who features in several later novels.
Series:
* Roderick Alleyn
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 153 reviews
June 3, 2022
Good mystery. 83 year old Emily Pride owns an island where apparently miracles occur at a spring. However, she wants to close it down which the locals are upset about as it has become a gold mine. The crazy Miss Cost, drunken Major with a gorgeous wife, Dr Maine and the not so nice father of Wally. The murder surprised me but there are enough clues to figure out the murderer. My second Ngaio Marsh novel and I am hooked. I am also looking forward to watching the movie.
The movie was ok. Not sure why the doctor shot the Inspector then himself. A good lawyer might have got him 10 years although they did have the death penalty when she wrote the book.
The movie was ok. Not sure why the doctor shot the Inspector then himself. A good lawyer might have got him 10 years although they did have the death penalty when she wrote the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2019
This is the twenty third book in the Roderick Alleyn series, which was first published in 1963. The mystery is set in Portcarrow, where a sudden miracle, in a local spring, sees a young boy cured of his warts. This leads to a great deal of tourist money pouring into the local community. Major Barrymore has more guests as the ‘Boy and Lobster,’ the Reverend Carstairs finds his Church Fund suddenly has a surge of donations, Miss Cost opens her ‘Gift Shoppe,’ and even Dr Maine finds himself extending his practice.
However, even some of those benefiting from the interest in the area, are a little uncomfortable about the change in the area. Then, when Miss Emily Pride, Alleyn’s old French mistress, inherits the island, from her sister, she decides to put an end to the incredulity and cult, that she believes has flourished. When she arrives on the island, the locals do their best to dissuade her from taking action and things lead to murder…
This is a reasonably good addition to the series. Fox and his constant attempts to speak French, combined with Miss Pride’s fluency, are fun. The storyline runs true and this is a fun mystery, with a good setting.
Rated 3.5
However, even some of those benefiting from the interest in the area, are a little uncomfortable about the change in the area. Then, when Miss Emily Pride, Alleyn’s old French mistress, inherits the island, from her sister, she decides to put an end to the incredulity and cult, that she believes has flourished. When she arrives on the island, the locals do their best to dissuade her from taking action and things lead to murder…
This is a reasonably good addition to the series. Fox and his constant attempts to speak French, combined with Miss Pride’s fluency, are fun. The storyline runs true and this is a fun mystery, with a good setting.
Rated 3.5
June 15, 2019
This book was very good company on a rainy day. I was lucky enough to find another pristine paperback at the library published by Felony & Mayhem in 2015 on 100% recycled paper, always a good thing. Originally published 1963.
The book opens perfectly for someone like me with a tug on the heartstrings. Marsh was not one to write sentimental themes, but she introduces one of the characters who plays a role in this mystery like this:
"A boy stumbled up the hillside, half-blinded by tears. He fell and, for a time, choked and sobbed as he lay in the sun but presently blundered on. A lark sang overhead. Farther up the hill he could hear the multiple chatter of running water. The children down by the jetty still chanted after him: "Warty- hog, warty-hog, Put your puddies in the bog, Warty Walter, Warty Walter, Wash your warties in the water."
He makes it up the incline to the spring and plunges his hands in the cold waterfall when a woman asks him what is wrong. She tells him to "believe and they will be clean." Sure enough, young Walter is healed of those warts. This is the beginning of a community revolution in a remote island
Another character I liked very much is a strong older woman, Emily Pride, who inherits the island from her sister. She happens to be a friend of Inspector Alleyn, having been his French tutor when he joined the service. Naturally, when things go south...Alleyn is called from another interrupted holiday with his family.
The book opens perfectly for someone like me with a tug on the heartstrings. Marsh was not one to write sentimental themes, but she introduces one of the characters who plays a role in this mystery like this:
"A boy stumbled up the hillside, half-blinded by tears. He fell and, for a time, choked and sobbed as he lay in the sun but presently blundered on. A lark sang overhead. Farther up the hill he could hear the multiple chatter of running water. The children down by the jetty still chanted after him: "Warty- hog, warty-hog, Put your puddies in the bog, Warty Walter, Warty Walter, Wash your warties in the water."
He makes it up the incline to the spring and plunges his hands in the cold waterfall when a woman asks him what is wrong. She tells him to "believe and they will be clean." Sure enough, young Walter is healed of those warts. This is the beginning of a community revolution in a remote island
Another character I liked very much is a strong older woman, Emily Pride, who inherits the island from her sister. She happens to be a friend of Inspector Alleyn, having been his French tutor when he joined the service. Naturally, when things go south...Alleyn is called from another interrupted holiday with his family.
November 11, 2019
Dead Water (1963) by Ngaio Marsh takes us back to the village setting--this time a small fishing community at Portcarrow. It begins with a scene two years in the past when a young boy by the name of Wally Trehern experiences what seems to be a miraculous cure. Plagued by warts all over his hands, he has suffered the jeers and taunts of his schoolmates for years. On this occasion he runs away from them to a local spring where he encounters a lady in green who tells him to wash his hands in the spring water...and if he believes his warts will be cured. The next day his warts have fallen off as if by magic and soon the legend of the green lady and the newly christened "Pixie Falls" is spread.
Mrs. Fanny Winterbottom , the current owner of the land where the spring is found has no problem with pilgrims coming to the site and the village making what profit they can from the magical waters. An entry fee is established, a gift shop is set up, and the local pub/inn begins turning a profit for the first time in recent memory. And then...two years later, Mrs. Winterbottom dies and her sister Miss Emily Pride, a French language expert, comes into possession. Miss Pride doesn't hold with commercializing people's belief in mystical cures. She sends messages to the village that all commercial enterprises connected to the spring must stop--she won't prevent folks from coming to the spring if they want to, but there will be no more advertisement and no more profiting from it. She also announces her intention to visit the area to see what exactly needs to be done to return the spring and surrounding land to its former condition.
Well...naturally this doesn't go down so well with those who have made a business of the thing and Miss Pride receives threats made of cut-up newsprint. So, she calls upon the help of one of her former pupils--Superintendent Roderick Alleyn. He advises her to give up the plan to visit Portcarrow and to conduct her business through an attorney. But Miss Pride is a determined woman and believes in facing up to one's obligations. She goes anyway...and is the victim of an assault (from rock-throwing) and more threats. Alleyn arrives in the village for the first (and, if Miss Pride has her way, only) Pixie Falls Festival and is just in time to discover the body of a middle-aged woman, knocked out and drowned at the spring. Surprisingly enough, it's not Miss Pride who has been murdered, but Elspeth Cost--a middle-aged woman who has been the driving force in the mystification and veneration of the spring. Was she, as it appears, mistaken for Miss Pride and then killed anyway to prevent her from identifying the attacker? Or were there reasons for someone to kill Miss Cost? Alleyn will have to sort that out in order to identify the killer.
This wound up being a middle-of-the road Marsh book for me. I had better memories of it (from my first reading 30ish years ago) than were realized in this go-round. The best of the book was Miss Emily Pride--even though she is well-named and pride almost goes before a fall. She is a determined and independent lady and it was nice to see Marsh portray a spinster in a more favorable light. I did appreciate her principled view of the supposed miracle cures. She didn't imply that they were fake, but she absolutely refused to be a party to anyone taking financial advantage of the situation. I was also amused by her relationship with Alleyn--it was fun to see him so disconcerted by his former French tutor.
The book turns Alleyn into an action figure of sorts at the dramatic end--with the murderer bolting and Alleyn giving chase through a coastal storm and finding himself in danger of life. Not the usual drawing room summing up. With a fairly good plot (I didn't guess the murderer this time) and the exciting finish, this comes in at a solid ★★★.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting review content. Thanks.
Mrs. Fanny Winterbottom , the current owner of the land where the spring is found has no problem with pilgrims coming to the site and the village making what profit they can from the magical waters. An entry fee is established, a gift shop is set up, and the local pub/inn begins turning a profit for the first time in recent memory. And then...two years later, Mrs. Winterbottom dies and her sister Miss Emily Pride, a French language expert, comes into possession. Miss Pride doesn't hold with commercializing people's belief in mystical cures. She sends messages to the village that all commercial enterprises connected to the spring must stop--she won't prevent folks from coming to the spring if they want to, but there will be no more advertisement and no more profiting from it. She also announces her intention to visit the area to see what exactly needs to be done to return the spring and surrounding land to its former condition.
Well...naturally this doesn't go down so well with those who have made a business of the thing and Miss Pride receives threats made of cut-up newsprint. So, she calls upon the help of one of her former pupils--Superintendent Roderick Alleyn. He advises her to give up the plan to visit Portcarrow and to conduct her business through an attorney. But Miss Pride is a determined woman and believes in facing up to one's obligations. She goes anyway...and is the victim of an assault (from rock-throwing) and more threats. Alleyn arrives in the village for the first (and, if Miss Pride has her way, only) Pixie Falls Festival and is just in time to discover the body of a middle-aged woman, knocked out and drowned at the spring. Surprisingly enough, it's not Miss Pride who has been murdered, but Elspeth Cost--a middle-aged woman who has been the driving force in the mystification and veneration of the spring. Was she, as it appears, mistaken for Miss Pride and then killed anyway to prevent her from identifying the attacker? Or were there reasons for someone to kill Miss Cost? Alleyn will have to sort that out in order to identify the killer.
This wound up being a middle-of-the road Marsh book for me. I had better memories of it (from my first reading 30ish years ago) than were realized in this go-round. The best of the book was Miss Emily Pride--even though she is well-named and pride almost goes before a fall. She is a determined and independent lady and it was nice to see Marsh portray a spinster in a more favorable light. I did appreciate her principled view of the supposed miracle cures. She didn't imply that they were fake, but she absolutely refused to be a party to anyone taking financial advantage of the situation. I was also amused by her relationship with Alleyn--it was fun to see him so disconcerted by his former French tutor.
The book turns Alleyn into an action figure of sorts at the dramatic end--with the murderer bolting and Alleyn giving chase through a coastal storm and finding himself in danger of life. Not the usual drawing room summing up. With a fairly good plot (I didn't guess the murderer this time) and the exciting finish, this comes in at a solid ★★★.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting review content. Thanks.
December 8, 2010
Now, I do love Marsh, and I love her Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn, and I love the tangled webs of her mysteries. But I'm afraid this is not my favorite.
In this one Marsh reveals her fundamental, telling ignorance of human character, with her portraits of both the epileptic boy with warts---since when is epilepsy a developmental disability? I have a cousin with epilepsy who's hot as a firecracker, which she inherited through our mathematical savant grandmother, from a perfectly normal if snippy great-grandmother. . .plus, you know, there's always Dostoievski---and then, appallingly, the 45-year-old single woman who is apparently by definition, "one of those." It was quite an education to me, I must say, to learn that being both single and female at "that age" is a form of malignant mental illness. I suppose if you can't avoid being female at "that age," the least you can do is get yourself a man so you don't inflict yourself upon society. And we wonder why the patriarchy stigmatizes unmarried women as man-eaters and gold-diggers. Thanks, Marsh.
Also, the premise itself wouldn't wash in any culture not already brainwashed into assuming aristocracy is the natural order of life. An elderly woman inherits, through no virtue or labor of her own, an entire island of which the working-class inhabitants engage in a form of entrepreneurial labor that, to her aristocratic nose, simply reeks of bad taste. So she sets out to put an end to such shenanigans "on my property," without the slightest foreknowledge of who these people are, how they live their lives, or what kind of economic straits they might be in. They make their living in a way that offends her sensibilities---that's all she needs to know. And she's off to wield her inherited right to stop them.
Is it any wonder they object rather energetically?
Oh, yes, and the early-twentieth century British thing about describing themselves flatteringly in relation to the rest of the world? "That good old British spirit of tolerance and understanding"? Honestly, it's like it never even occurred to them not everyone saw them as the heights of human evolution they believed themselves to be. I have never, ever heard anybody describe the British as being known for their "tolerance and understanding." Truly. They probably have just about as much of it as any of the rest of us. Which is not a whole heck of a lot when you're talking about colonialism.
I did narrow the perpetrator down to two people before I'd even read the first page, just by applying mystery-writer logic to the list of characters in the front (Ellery Queen used to do this, too, to confuse the reader, but if you know the process of elimination it turns out in most cases to be quite a give-away). So I was not surprised to see it come to those two in conjunction.
Still, I can't justify downgrading a beautifully-written book in this era of appallingly lazy fiction. Marsh's fiction skills were always rock solid.
In this one Marsh reveals her fundamental, telling ignorance of human character, with her portraits of both the epileptic boy with warts---since when is epilepsy a developmental disability? I have a cousin with epilepsy who's hot as a firecracker, which she inherited through our mathematical savant grandmother, from a perfectly normal if snippy great-grandmother. . .plus, you know, there's always Dostoievski---and then, appallingly, the 45-year-old single woman who is apparently by definition, "one of those." It was quite an education to me, I must say, to learn that being both single and female at "that age" is a form of malignant mental illness. I suppose if you can't avoid being female at "that age," the least you can do is get yourself a man so you don't inflict yourself upon society. And we wonder why the patriarchy stigmatizes unmarried women as man-eaters and gold-diggers. Thanks, Marsh.
Also, the premise itself wouldn't wash in any culture not already brainwashed into assuming aristocracy is the natural order of life. An elderly woman inherits, through no virtue or labor of her own, an entire island of which the working-class inhabitants engage in a form of entrepreneurial labor that, to her aristocratic nose, simply reeks of bad taste. So she sets out to put an end to such shenanigans "on my property," without the slightest foreknowledge of who these people are, how they live their lives, or what kind of economic straits they might be in. They make their living in a way that offends her sensibilities---that's all she needs to know. And she's off to wield her inherited right to stop them.
Is it any wonder they object rather energetically?
Oh, yes, and the early-twentieth century British thing about describing themselves flatteringly in relation to the rest of the world? "That good old British spirit of tolerance and understanding"? Honestly, it's like it never even occurred to them not everyone saw them as the heights of human evolution they believed themselves to be. I have never, ever heard anybody describe the British as being known for their "tolerance and understanding." Truly. They probably have just about as much of it as any of the rest of us. Which is not a whole heck of a lot when you're talking about colonialism.
I did narrow the perpetrator down to two people before I'd even read the first page, just by applying mystery-writer logic to the list of characters in the front (Ellery Queen used to do this, too, to confuse the reader, but if you know the process of elimination it turns out in most cases to be quite a give-away). So I was not surprised to see it come to those two in conjunction.
Still, I can't justify downgrading a beautifully-written book in this era of appallingly lazy fiction. Marsh's fiction skills were always rock solid.
June 4, 2022
This is a wonderful detective story set in the Cornish village of Porthcarrow with a host of characters who are clearly defined to the reader.
Wally Trehern is a local boy who has warts on his hands, but soon after he's washed his hands in the local spring / miniature waterfall and seen the Green Lady those warts disappear. The word of his cure gets around and soon there's a number of afflicted people coming to the village to be cured by the local waters. The pub is expanded to cope with the increased trade and a local shop is opened.
This increased commercialism is anathema to the new landowner, a certain Miss Emily Pride, who vows to come to Porthcarrow to shut down this tacky trade once-and-for-all. She receives threats though this doesn't stop her coming. The day after she arrives a murder is committed but it's not Miss Pride who dies, but the shop owner Miss Elspeth Cost who is hit with a rock and drowns.
Is it mistaken identity? Was Miss Cost killed instead of Miss Pride?
Recommended.
Wally Trehern is a local boy who has warts on his hands, but soon after he's washed his hands in the local spring / miniature waterfall and seen the Green Lady those warts disappear. The word of his cure gets around and soon there's a number of afflicted people coming to the village to be cured by the local waters. The pub is expanded to cope with the increased trade and a local shop is opened.
This increased commercialism is anathema to the new landowner, a certain Miss Emily Pride, who vows to come to Porthcarrow to shut down this tacky trade once-and-for-all. She receives threats though this doesn't stop her coming. The day after she arrives a murder is committed but it's not Miss Pride who dies, but the shop owner Miss Elspeth Cost who is hit with a rock and drowns.
Is it mistaken identity? Was Miss Cost killed instead of Miss Pride?
Recommended.
July 13, 2021
Originally published on my blog here in March 1999.
Another village crime novel by Ngaio Marsh, this one set on a small island connected to the Cornish mainland by a causeway. On the island, there is a spring, and there, a small boy, washing his hands in the water, experienced an immediate healing of the warts that covered his hands. Over the two years following this event, reported in the national press, a steady stream of people has come to the pool, seeking cures for themselves and enriching the inhabitants of the island.
After two years, a new owner, Miss Price, who disapproves of the tasteless and exploitative way in which her tenants are promoting the pool, inherits the island. She announces her intention of stopping their lucrative trade. When she starts receiving anonymous threats, the police become involved, but then she visits the island; attempts are made to harm her, and then a woman is murdered, in circumstances where she could have been mistaken for Miss Price.
As in Death of a Fool, Marsh adopts a twee attitude to the English village, one riddled with snobbery. (I grew up myself in a small village, and either things had changed dramatically over thirty years, or Marsh had only seen the English village from New Zealand.) Dead Water is full of unpleasant, in-bred yokels on the one hand, and nice upper class people on the other (with the exception of an alcoholic). Her attitude seems more and more old-fashioned by the minute, and it's a pity because she did write some of the best classic detective novels.
Another village crime novel by Ngaio Marsh, this one set on a small island connected to the Cornish mainland by a causeway. On the island, there is a spring, and there, a small boy, washing his hands in the water, experienced an immediate healing of the warts that covered his hands. Over the two years following this event, reported in the national press, a steady stream of people has come to the pool, seeking cures for themselves and enriching the inhabitants of the island.
After two years, a new owner, Miss Price, who disapproves of the tasteless and exploitative way in which her tenants are promoting the pool, inherits the island. She announces her intention of stopping their lucrative trade. When she starts receiving anonymous threats, the police become involved, but then she visits the island; attempts are made to harm her, and then a woman is murdered, in circumstances where she could have been mistaken for Miss Price.
As in Death of a Fool, Marsh adopts a twee attitude to the English village, one riddled with snobbery. (I grew up myself in a small village, and either things had changed dramatically over thirty years, or Marsh had only seen the English village from New Zealand.) Dead Water is full of unpleasant, in-bred yokels on the one hand, and nice upper class people on the other (with the exception of an alcoholic). Her attitude seems more and more old-fashioned by the minute, and it's a pity because she did write some of the best classic detective novels.
August 7, 2013
A great mystery, yet again I failed to spot the murderer, even though the clues were there in the text and I even spotted some of them but somehow I completely failed to make them add up. I love Ngaio Marsh's books, the familiar land marks are always there: a pair of lovers, a charming young girl, an eccentric spinster and of course Alleyn and Fox. Superb!
January 22, 2021
Twenty-third in the Inspector Roderick Alleyn cozy detective mystery series set in its contemporary period, the early 1960s, and revolving around the classy Alleyn and his painter wife, Troy. The setting in Dead Water is the island part of Portcarrow in Cornwall.
My Take
There's debate amongst the citizens of Portcarrow as to whether the miracle is true or not with the majority looking at this phenomenon as the answer to their economic woes. I understand the villagers hopping on that band wagon, and I also understand Miss Pride's abhorrence for the tacky commercialism of it.
There is a bit of hypocrisy in those who cry against it. They're certainly not above making a bit of the ready. What's sad is Wally being turned into such a parrot, as though that's all he's worth.
Marsh uses a global subjective third person point-of-view from the perspective of a number of characters in the story. Although this isn't how we learn all these secrets!
Poor Miss Cost and her sex obsession. She certainly made a number of people uncomfortable. That said, there are a couple of romances in Dead Water, one with that sense of innocence to it and the other...very much not.
After all the current period mysteries I've been reading, it's a hit upside the head to read Alleyn's approach to detecting. He seems to let a lot of people get away with their belligerence, and yet he does get there in spite of them, lol.
All that investigating unveils characters within the village as well as Alleyn's concern for his old French coach. Some of the reveals are a breath of fresh air, but many are not, hiding so many "sins".
It's rather sad about Miss Pride. I do understand her dislike of what's happening, but she also needs to understand people wanting to survive.
Dead Water keeps things moving, primarily through Alleyn's detective work, and while it's not one of Marsh's warmer stories, it is still a great read, and if you enjoy Agatha Christie, you'll like Ngaio Marsh as well.
The Story
Miss Pride has too much pride to allow Portcarrow to continue this charade of miracle cures and intends to stop it, much to the horror of the villagers.
It becomes a war of sorts as unknown instigators warn Miss Pride away, leading to murder.
...It were the Green Lady what set it off.
The Characters
The aristocratic Superintendent Roderick Alleyn is with Scotland Yard. His wife, Agatha Troy, is a well-known painter. They have a son.
Detective-Inspector "Br'er Fox" Fox, Detective-Sergeants Bailey and Thompson are part of Alleyn's team. Sir James Curtis is the Home Office pathologist.
Portcarrow, Cornwall, is...
...a fishing village with the island part of it owned by Mrs Fanny Winterbottom, the widow of a hairpin king, George Winterbottom. Her heir is her sister, Emily Pride, a highly acclaimed coach of French who had taught Alleyn back in the day.
Divisional HQ is...
...the local police for Portcarrow. Superintendent Alfred Coombe is in charge; he's also the people's warden at the local church. Police Sergeant George Pender has been asked to keep an eye on Miss Pride. Police Constables Pomeroy and Bill Carey are keeping watch.
The Boy-and-Lobster is...
...the local Jacobean pub run by the alcoholic Major Keith Barrimore. His wife, Margaret, is absolutely gorgeous. Patrick Ferrier is a student at Oxford and the major's stepson. Jenny Williams, a New Zealander, is the temporary school-mistress, who will move on to a teaching job in Paris.
Miss Elspeth Cost runs a souvenir shop and the local exchange. Cissy Pollock is rather dim and helps out Miss Cost at her store. The widowed Dr Bob Maine runs the Portcarrow Convalescent Home and acts as the police surgeon. The Rev. Adrian Carstairs is the local rector; his wife, Dulcie, has a very nice manner. Ives Nankivell is the town butcher as well as the mayor. Mrs Bessy Trethaway is having twins. Mr Thomas is not doing well. Kenneth Joyce is a journalist for K.J.'s column with the London Sun.
Wally Trehern is not all there, has petit mal, and is picked on for his warty hands. His parents are deadbeats. The father, James, operates the local ferry.
The Cover and Title
The cover is in shades of turquoise, starting with the sky and then the angled rivulets lining the sides. A wind-blown banner in a pale turquoise spans the center with the author's name in an Art Deco gradation of teals. Above the banner is the title with a sans-serif gradation in pale, pale blue to the deeper turquoise. Below the banner is a sky blue sky framed along the sides by green brush then black rocks with a white waterfall pooling at the bottom into a green surface ruffled with white. A blueish banner with that almost white turquoise text arches between the rivulets with the series information.
The title refers to how it ends, a Dead Water.
My Take
There's debate amongst the citizens of Portcarrow as to whether the miracle is true or not with the majority looking at this phenomenon as the answer to their economic woes. I understand the villagers hopping on that band wagon, and I also understand Miss Pride's abhorrence for the tacky commercialism of it.
There is a bit of hypocrisy in those who cry against it. They're certainly not above making a bit of the ready. What's sad is Wally being turned into such a parrot, as though that's all he's worth.
Marsh uses a global subjective third person point-of-view from the perspective of a number of characters in the story. Although this isn't how we learn all these secrets!
Poor Miss Cost and her sex obsession. She certainly made a number of people uncomfortable. That said, there are a couple of romances in Dead Water, one with that sense of innocence to it and the other...very much not.
After all the current period mysteries I've been reading, it's a hit upside the head to read Alleyn's approach to detecting. He seems to let a lot of people get away with their belligerence, and yet he does get there in spite of them, lol.
All that investigating unveils characters within the village as well as Alleyn's concern for his old French coach. Some of the reveals are a breath of fresh air, but many are not, hiding so many "sins".
It's rather sad about Miss Pride. I do understand her dislike of what's happening, but she also needs to understand people wanting to survive.
Dead Water keeps things moving, primarily through Alleyn's detective work, and while it's not one of Marsh's warmer stories, it is still a great read, and if you enjoy Agatha Christie, you'll like Ngaio Marsh as well.
The Story
Miss Pride has too much pride to allow Portcarrow to continue this charade of miracle cures and intends to stop it, much to the horror of the villagers.
It becomes a war of sorts as unknown instigators warn Miss Pride away, leading to murder.
...It were the Green Lady what set it off.
The Characters
The aristocratic Superintendent Roderick Alleyn is with Scotland Yard. His wife, Agatha Troy, is a well-known painter. They have a son.
Detective-Inspector "Br'er Fox" Fox, Detective-Sergeants Bailey and Thompson are part of Alleyn's team. Sir James Curtis is the Home Office pathologist.
Portcarrow, Cornwall, is...
...a fishing village with the island part of it owned by Mrs Fanny Winterbottom, the widow of a hairpin king, George Winterbottom. Her heir is her sister, Emily Pride, a highly acclaimed coach of French who had taught Alleyn back in the day.
Divisional HQ is...
...the local police for Portcarrow. Superintendent Alfred Coombe is in charge; he's also the people's warden at the local church. Police Sergeant George Pender has been asked to keep an eye on Miss Pride. Police Constables Pomeroy and Bill Carey are keeping watch.
The Boy-and-Lobster is...
...the local Jacobean pub run by the alcoholic Major Keith Barrimore. His wife, Margaret, is absolutely gorgeous. Patrick Ferrier is a student at Oxford and the major's stepson. Jenny Williams, a New Zealander, is the temporary school-mistress, who will move on to a teaching job in Paris.
Miss Elspeth Cost runs a souvenir shop and the local exchange. Cissy Pollock is rather dim and helps out Miss Cost at her store. The widowed Dr Bob Maine runs the Portcarrow Convalescent Home and acts as the police surgeon. The Rev. Adrian Carstairs is the local rector; his wife, Dulcie, has a very nice manner. Ives Nankivell is the town butcher as well as the mayor. Mrs Bessy Trethaway is having twins. Mr Thomas is not doing well. Kenneth Joyce is a journalist for K.J.'s column with the London Sun.
Wally Trehern is not all there, has petit mal, and is picked on for his warty hands. His parents are deadbeats. The father, James, operates the local ferry.
The Cover and Title
The cover is in shades of turquoise, starting with the sky and then the angled rivulets lining the sides. A wind-blown banner in a pale turquoise spans the center with the author's name in an Art Deco gradation of teals. Above the banner is the title with a sans-serif gradation in pale, pale blue to the deeper turquoise. Below the banner is a sky blue sky framed along the sides by green brush then black rocks with a white waterfall pooling at the bottom into a green surface ruffled with white. A blueish banner with that almost white turquoise text arches between the rivulets with the series information.
The title refers to how it ends, a Dead Water.
May 3, 2022
Murder, Alleyn said abruptly, is always abominable. It's hideous and outlandish. Even when the impulse is understandable and the motive operpowering, it is still a terrible unique offense.
May 19, 2018
Как хорошо, когда получаешь от книги то, чего ожидаешь (без всяких неприятных сюрпризов)! Как хорошо, когда автор не пытается прыгнуть выше своей головы, а делает именно то, что у него хорошо получается. Очень добротный детектив с незамысловатым сюжетом. Но это отнюдь не минус. Потому что запутать сюжет могут многие писатели, а вот красиво его распутать-единицы. Когда читаю Ngaio Marsh, всегда получаю удовольствие от прочитанного и никогда не жалею о потраченном времени. Конечно же, у неё есть произведения и получше, и похуже. И это не самое выдающееся. Но при оценке детективов главным критерием для меня является увлекательность читаемого. А эту книгу я прочитал, практически, за один присест (с перерывом на сон). Так что только 5 баллов!!!!!!
October 2, 2019
"That's Wally's cottage. We're about to climb Wally's Way - and that is Wally's mama, another alcoholic, by the by, leering over the back fence. His father is ferryman at high tide and general showman in between. The whole boiling of them - the Barrimores, the Parson, the Doctor, the Major, the Treherns, Miss Cost herself, with pretty well everybody else in the community - stood to lose by Miss Pride's operations. Apart from arousing the cornered fury of a hunted male, it's difficult to discover a motive for Miss Cost's murder."
...motive is one of the secondary elements in police investigation. The old tag jog-trotted through his mind: Quis? Quid? Ubi? Quibus? Auxilis? Cur? Quomodo? Quando? Which might be rendered: "Who did the deed? What was it? Where was it done? With what? Why was it done? And how done? When was it done?" The lot.
...motive is one of the secondary elements in police investigation. The old tag jog-trotted through his mind: Quis? Quid? Ubi? Quibus? Auxilis? Cur? Quomodo? Quando? Which might be rendered: "Who did the deed? What was it? Where was it done? With what? Why was it done? And how done? When was it done?" The lot.
October 29, 2014
I didn't really enjoy this book. It fails on so many levels. A very stereotypical cast of characters - sexually frustrated spinsters, the retired army Major, a doctor, a clergyman and assorted poorly educated villagers.The detective is a romantic old-school English gentleman who never really comes to life in this story. Given her interest in the theatre I felt it would have worked better if Dame Marsh had written it as a play. The dialogue is hackneyed and the whole thing feels dated. Not one of the better Alleyn mysteries.
February 5, 2018
Enjoyed this very much. Loved the fact that Alleyn's former teacher was one of the characters even if she was very stubborn and set in her attitudes. It showed him in another type of relationship than we sometimes see. Enjoyed also the interaction of Fox with Miss Pride, as she is a French teacher and he is perennially trying to learn that language. Liked more of the ancillary characters, too, than I sometimes do in Marsh's tales.
September 17, 2018
It's been a long time since I read any of Ngaio Marsh's books and I had forgotten how good she was. Although I don't think that this is one of her best it still warrants four stars. As always her characters are really well drawn and the plot is good. The autocratic Miss Price and her dialogue with Alleyn in this story is just marvellous. I am now going to re-read another one.
February 14, 2015
Another great mystery that kept me guessing.
April 3, 2018
Wally Trehern, a mentally “simple” boy in Portcarrow, has been undergoing severe teasing from the other children because his hands are covered with awful, ugly warts in 1963’s Dead Water by Ngaio Marsh. Running to the local spring in tears, he puts his hands in the water, but he still has the same warts. Then, his eyes full of tears, Wally looks up and sees only what he calls The Green Lady. She tells him to plunge his hands back in the water, and the next day Wally shows his hands to his teacher, Jenny Williams, astonishing her by having completely clean hands. His only explanation is that The Green Lady and the springs healed him.
Read the rest of this review and other fun, geeky articles at Fangirl Nation
Read the rest of this review and other fun, geeky articles at Fangirl Nation
December 16, 2021
Roderick Alleyn is personally involved in this case and long without his usual business attributes. On a sort of island, he and the suspects are cut off the main land.
The plot is complex, as we are used from Marsh, the story itself agreeable and pleasant to read. The characters almost all have some issues which make them suspects but not enough to make them repulsive to the reader.
The cover summarizes the situation nicely. A green figurine, an umbrella, a necllace and a rock with blood on it. Of course there is some romance in the air.
An old maid is both victim but also suspect as instigator of her own death.
Psychologically thoroughly thought out, miss Marsh presents us with a whodunit mystery where Alleyn spends most of his time talking to people to come up with a perfect timeline so he can pinpoint the murderer and expose his alibi as false.
Great reading as always in the books from Ngaio Marsh.
The plot is complex, as we are used from Marsh, the story itself agreeable and pleasant to read. The characters almost all have some issues which make them suspects but not enough to make them repulsive to the reader.
The cover summarizes the situation nicely. A green figurine, an umbrella, a necllace and a rock with blood on it. Of course there is some romance in the air.
An old maid is both victim but also suspect as instigator of her own death.
Psychologically thoroughly thought out, miss Marsh presents us with a whodunit mystery where Alleyn spends most of his time talking to people to come up with a perfect timeline so he can pinpoint the murderer and expose his alibi as false.
Great reading as always in the books from Ngaio Marsh.
March 28, 2022
What can I say? It’s Alleyn! My cozy comfort food in books. It starts out with a little boy’s warts being cured by putting his hands in a spring and seeing a mysterious green lady. The place becomes commercialized and the new owner of the property wants to restore the spring back to its natural state. So of course there’s a murder. Does the spring really have healing powers? Who is the green lady? Oh, and Fox gets to experience a real French lesson!
November 27, 2021
A well written whodunnit, typical Marsh - lots of scene setting in the first half and then lots of action and deduction in the second half. It works well though, with a nice little plot and a great setting - an island with a spring said to have magical healing powers. Great characters - with an old friend of Alleyn’s in the centre of the action and a lot of island intrigue.
March 25, 2017
good plot but unfortunately not well written
April 23, 2024
Really found it boring and hard to follow and not engaging.
January 7, 2021
Media hype turns sleepy little Portcarrow Island into a mecca for the sick hoping for miracles. When Emily Pride inherits the island, she determines to end the commercialism and vain hopes. The long-time residents have far too much invested. When Miss Pride decides to go to Portcarrow to oversee the work personally, death threats escalate. Superintendent Inspector Alleyn is forced to protect her personally, and ends up sorting through an interesting cast of characters for a convoluted solution.
Read 3 times
Read 3 times
March 4, 2017
Another enjoyable Ngaio Marsh! All the classic elements of a whodunnit in an interesting setting, complicated by the presence of Detective Inspector Alleyn's French teacher.
February 9, 2016
I'm a huge Ngaio Marsh fan and this is one of my favorites, mostly for the character of Miss Emily Pride, former French tutor of Chief Inspector Alleyn and a most formidable woman. When her life is threatened after the citizens of an island she owns object to her shutting down a spring they claim can achieve miracles, Alleyn must act to ensure the safety of his favorite "old girl."
It's a wonderful "cozy" read for a rainy weekend, filled with interesting characters and with a compelling plot with just the right amount of red herrings and suspects to keep things moving.
It's a wonderful "cozy" read for a rainy weekend, filled with interesting characters and with a compelling plot with just the right amount of red herrings and suspects to keep things moving.
August 29, 2020
The curing of warts - what an odd thing to base a mystery and/or a faith healing on. And how strange for a murder to revolve around how it might have been done.
8/28/20 Wally and his warts have stuck in my mind for years. It's an interesting mystery, who is the Green Lady, who killed the woman in the pond, and why? A bit of a look into Alleyn's past with the diplomatic service in the form of Miss Emily. And Fox's obsession with French finally gets a bit of a reward.
8/28/20 Wally and his warts have stuck in my mind for years. It's an interesting mystery, who is the Green Lady, who killed the woman in the pond, and why? A bit of a look into Alleyn's past with the diplomatic service in the form of Miss Emily. And Fox's obsession with French finally gets a bit of a reward.
August 16, 2020
Upon reflection, I'm not much of a fan of coastal village settings. There can be too much discussion of tides and storms and fishing and other such dull subjects. I guessed the murderer pretty early on as well. I still love the Inspector Alleyn mysteries but this is not one of my favorites.
March 6, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
September 21, 2012One v elderly unmarried woman who has reached state of being admirable tough old biddy; one middle-aged psycho spinster. Not bad, otherwise
June 3, 2024
This is the 23rd in Ngaio Marsh's series featuring Detective Roderick Alleyn and is set in a small fishing community at Portcarrow. It opens with a flashback two years into the past. Wally Trehern runs away from school boy taunts frantically. He stumbles and tumbles along the well trod path to the local waterfall. Wally has been taunted because of the proliferous warts on his hands. As he pauses for a breath at the foot of the waterfall he's stunned by a visitation from a lovely lady in green. She's ethereal and kind and advises Wally to wash his hands in the falls and if he believes deeply enough, his warts will disappear.
Wally has a disability of some sort and he has developmental issues as a result. He lives on the outskirts of town with an alcoholic mother and a commanding father who's in his fishing boat making a living most of the time. When Wally makes his daily jaunt to the ‘Boy and Lobster,’ the local pub and small hotel, and shares a convoluted story of his minor miracle, the locals are mildly interested. The incognito journalist looking for a sensational scoop is riveted. He makes the most of the meager tale with before and after photos and christens the local natural spot "Pixie Falls." Once the story hits the papers the pilgrims in search of miracle cures descend on the little town, to the boon and delight of some and the anguish of others. Major Barrymore is flooded with guests at the ‘Boy and Lobster’ where's he's the overbearing proprietor, the Reverend Carstairs gets much needed donations at the church, the neurotic Miss Cost opens her ‘Gift Shoppe,’ with paltry souvenirs, and skeptical widower Dr Maine inadvertently winds up with more patients in his retirement community as those who believe in the curative powers of the falls take up local residence.
Two years and much change later, Miss Emily Pride inherits the island from her sister. She's Alleyn's old French instructor and seeks his counsel. She can't abide the deception - when a dear friend with a dire diagnosis puts all her faith in the falls rather than restorative medicine it has fatal consequences. Miss Pride is still reeling from the loss and refuses to be part of any such scheme, even inadvertently and no matter how many townspeople benefit from the tourism. She writes very succinct letters laying out her plans to close the falls and refusing to renew leases to any tenant holders intending to profit from the falls as a miracle cure. This naturally makes her some enemies early on, and before she's even departed for the island she receives threatening letters in the mail.
Alleyn urges her not to go, but Miss Pride is as stubborn as she is old and refuses to be cowered. Several menacing encounters and "accidents" later luck runs out and a corpse is discovered... Alleyn cuts his vacation short to investigate.
I was hoping for more magical side notes here and interesting folklore / history. Or at the least Marsh's usual cast of complex characters. In this case, many of the townspeople are so small minded or downright unlikeable or violent. There are a couple more sympathetic characters, Miss Pride among them and one of my favorites. There's the young ingenue Jenny returned from two years in Paris teaching French as a governess who naturally strikes up a friendship with Miss Pride. There's the dashing young man Patrick, stepson to Major Barrymore though wary of him with good reason. There's Patrick's mother Mrs. Barrymore, a glamorous woman withering away in the small town and far too refined for her brute of a husband. These more likeable folks don't get as much page time as the dolts. Major Barrymore is a blundering bully, though it is extremely satisfying to see Miss Pride handily put him in his place on more than one occasion. The way Marsh writes the dialogue for Wally and his father is challenging to parse back into understandable English! Miss Cost is a truly spiteful woman, and the mayor of the town, Mr. Nankivell (what a name) does double duty as the local butcher and his ego is larger than his sense.
What was most vexing was the grand finale and the identity of the killer. There were two far much more likely suspects given their temperaments and motives, and instead Marsh went with a more subtle motive that just wasn't as believable given the rest of the makeup of her killer's character. And furthermore it just wasn't nearly as satisfying! Instead of picking one of the two most perfect culprits, Marsh pins it all on one of the few characters I actually liked and respected - unforgiveable!
At least I was able to find this at one of the local used book stores, another pristine paperback from Felony & Mayhem in 2015 with the stylized art deco covers I covet to add to my growing collection. Not one of her strongest mysteries but still a classic example of the Golden Age mystery genre, even though this was written much later in 1963.
Wally has a disability of some sort and he has developmental issues as a result. He lives on the outskirts of town with an alcoholic mother and a commanding father who's in his fishing boat making a living most of the time. When Wally makes his daily jaunt to the ‘Boy and Lobster,’ the local pub and small hotel, and shares a convoluted story of his minor miracle, the locals are mildly interested. The incognito journalist looking for a sensational scoop is riveted. He makes the most of the meager tale with before and after photos and christens the local natural spot "Pixie Falls." Once the story hits the papers the pilgrims in search of miracle cures descend on the little town, to the boon and delight of some and the anguish of others. Major Barrymore is flooded with guests at the ‘Boy and Lobster’ where's he's the overbearing proprietor, the Reverend Carstairs gets much needed donations at the church, the neurotic Miss Cost opens her ‘Gift Shoppe,’ with paltry souvenirs, and skeptical widower Dr Maine inadvertently winds up with more patients in his retirement community as those who believe in the curative powers of the falls take up local residence.
Two years and much change later, Miss Emily Pride inherits the island from her sister. She's Alleyn's old French instructor and seeks his counsel. She can't abide the deception - when a dear friend with a dire diagnosis puts all her faith in the falls rather than restorative medicine it has fatal consequences. Miss Pride is still reeling from the loss and refuses to be part of any such scheme, even inadvertently and no matter how many townspeople benefit from the tourism. She writes very succinct letters laying out her plans to close the falls and refusing to renew leases to any tenant holders intending to profit from the falls as a miracle cure. This naturally makes her some enemies early on, and before she's even departed for the island she receives threatening letters in the mail.
Alleyn urges her not to go, but Miss Pride is as stubborn as she is old and refuses to be cowered. Several menacing encounters and "accidents" later luck runs out and a corpse is discovered... Alleyn cuts his vacation short to investigate.
I was hoping for more magical side notes here and interesting folklore / history. Or at the least Marsh's usual cast of complex characters. In this case, many of the townspeople are so small minded or downright unlikeable or violent. There are a couple more sympathetic characters, Miss Pride among them and one of my favorites. There's the young ingenue Jenny returned from two years in Paris teaching French as a governess who naturally strikes up a friendship with Miss Pride. There's the dashing young man Patrick, stepson to Major Barrymore though wary of him with good reason. There's Patrick's mother Mrs. Barrymore, a glamorous woman withering away in the small town and far too refined for her brute of a husband. These more likeable folks don't get as much page time as the dolts. Major Barrymore is a blundering bully, though it is extremely satisfying to see Miss Pride handily put him in his place on more than one occasion. The way Marsh writes the dialogue for Wally and his father is challenging to parse back into understandable English! Miss Cost is a truly spiteful woman, and the mayor of the town, Mr. Nankivell (what a name) does double duty as the local butcher and his ego is larger than his sense.
What was most vexing was the grand finale and the identity of the killer. There were two far much more likely suspects given their temperaments and motives, and instead Marsh went with a more subtle motive that just wasn't as believable given the rest of the makeup of her killer's character. And furthermore it just wasn't nearly as satisfying! Instead of picking one of the two most perfect culprits, Marsh pins it all on one of the few characters I actually liked and respected - unforgiveable!
At least I was able to find this at one of the local used book stores, another pristine paperback from Felony & Mayhem in 2015 with the stylized art deco covers I covet to add to my growing collection. Not one of her strongest mysteries but still a classic example of the Golden Age mystery genre, even though this was written much later in 1963.
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