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

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 168 topics — 7,798 comments total

Group Challenges

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
By Susan · 17 posts · 20 views

last updated Sep 25, 2025 01:00PM

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - SPOILER Thread
By Susan · 13 posts · 22 views

last updated Sep 16, 2025 12:58PM

showing 4 of 4 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jul 26, 2018 Adrian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: zz-paper-books, det-ngaio-marsh, detectives-challenge-nm-2018

Review to follow, but suffice to say it only just scraped 4 stars

And here is the review that followed. As numerous people have said before me, and I'm sure will continue to do so, "if only we had halves " . This would then be a solid 3.5 stars. As it is, it isn't 3, so it has to be 4 .

(As a complete aside before I continue, why is GR so awful on kindles when they are both Amazon ?? )

Ok, back to the book, there was nothing intrinsically wrong with it, it just never seemed to get going, and if I' ...more

44 likes · Like · see review

Apr 23, 2020 John rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ngaio-marsh

Another enjoyable read.

Inspector Roderick Alleyn is on on holiday New Zealand. During a trip in the middle of the North Island he shares a train carriage with a traveling acting company from England. He makes friends with them and is invited to the first show in Middleton and a birthday party for the leading lady after the show.

Carolyn Dacres's husband Alfie was almost pushed off the train. Also a cast member had 100 pounds stolen on the train. Then Carolyn’s birthday surprise of a jeroboam of ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

May 16, 2018 Sahifa rated it really liked it

Shelves: ngaio-marsh-challenge

Vintage Murder is May-read towards Ngaio Marsh reading challenge.The book is set in Newzealand and gives us some glimpses of its distinct culture and an introduction to its indigenous "Maori"tribe. I was super excited to begin the book because I had never read a book set in this pacific island before.
Unfortunately ,my quest for the Newzealand's culture and ethnicity was not satiated completely. The characters were English , the setting was English and the story was very much "English".
Now coming ...more

Like · see review

May 15, 2018 Shera added it

Shelves: could-not-finish

Unable to load

Like · see review

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.

Like · see review