From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Vintage Murder (Roderick Alleyn, #5)

Ngaio Marsh

Start date: May 1, 2018

Finish date: May 31, 2018

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: The fifth book in our Ngaio Marsh challenge
[close] The fifth book in our Ngaio Marsh challenge

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Group Challenges

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
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* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - SPOILER Thread
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What Members Thought

Apr 25, 2018 Susan rated it liked it · review of another edition

This year I have embarked on a Ngaio Marsh challenge and, so far, am finding her books a little mixed. So far I have really enjoyed some and others, like this one, have left me a little under-whelmed.

Roderick Alleyn is on holiday, with the suggestion that he is ‘recovering,’ from an illness, or injury. However, he is not destined to get much relaxation after falling in with the Carolyn Dacres English Comedy Company, who are on tour in New Zealand. One of the players is Susan Max, a character ac This year I have embarked on a Ngaio Marsh challenge and, so far, am finding her books a little mixed. So far I have really enjoyed some and others, like this one, have left me a little under-whelmed.

Roderick Alleyn is on holiday, with the suggestion that he is ‘recovering,’ from an illness, or injury. However, he is not destined to get much relaxation after falling in with the Carolyn Dacres English Comedy Company, who are on tour in New Zealand. One of the players is Susan Max, a character actress who appeared in an earlier novel, which gives some suggestion as to why he is travelling with them.

After arriving by ship, the company are travelling by train to their first stop, when Alfred Meyer, Proprietor and Managing Director of the company, says that someone tried to push him off the train. His wife, and leading lady, Carolyn Dacres, is upset, but as she is having a long time flirtation with leading man, Hailey Hambledon, perhaps she is not as upset as she says. Then, a silly young girl, Valerie Gaynes, who has been taken on by the company as a favour to her rich father, has a lot of money stolen. It is not the best start and then, when the company arrive, their initial on stage success is dampened by murder.

All throughout her life, author Ngaio Marsh was heavily involved in the theatre and so this is obviously a world she knows well – as well as being set in her native New Zealand – so possibly I anticipated more from this. There are a number of suspects and motives; from love, jealousy, greed and secrets. Alleyn is present at the murder and, when the local detectives discover who he is, he is immediately involved in the investigation. Personally, though, the mystery seemed a fairly unsatisfactory cataloguing of endless motives. Which got somewhat bogged down in loose ends, alibi’s and timings and did not have a particularly satisfying ending. Still, I have really enjoyed some of the series, so look forward to reading on and exploring more of her work.

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Oct 08, 2014 Lemar rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery

How had I missed Ngaio Marsh for so long? It must have been the silent 'g' that hinted at a dry British superiority that in fact could not be further from the truth. This is a hip, funny, clever mystery that takes place in a theater, a setting Marsh knew and brings fully to life. Vintage Murder unfolds in New Zealand. Wikipedia informed me that Marsh was born there so I was intrigued to read the only one of her mysteries set there.

Vintage Murder was written in 1937 and in many instances shows h ...more

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Jun 16, 2018 ShanDizzy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Reading about the theater setting was enlightening and interesting. The characters came alive as well. I very much like Inspector Alleyn's personality.

"...there are people to whom one need not show off. It's a great comfort sometimes. I've got one of that kind."

"Your wife! But I didn't know----"

Alleyn sat back on his heels and laughed. No, no. I'm talking about a certain Detective-Inspector Fox. He's a large and slow and innocently straight-forward. He works with me at the Yard. I never have to ...more

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Apr 22, 2018 Jill rated it really liked it

Shelves: ngaio-marsh

This book was Alleyn on his own,with none of the usual helpers, and was very good. On leave from Scotland Yard and spending his time in New Zealand , he is drawn into investigating a murder among a traveling theatre company.

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