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Died in the Wool (Roderick Alleyn, #13)

Ngaio Marsh

Start date: January 1, 2019

Finish date: January 31, 2019

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: We're carrying on with Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn series for our 2019 group challenge.…more
[close] We're carrying on with Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn series for our 2019 group challenge.

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

Dec 19, 2018 Susan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Like the previous Roderick Alleyn mystery, “Colour Scheme,” this novel is set in her native New Zealand. Published in 1945, this is also set during wartime, with Alleyn doing extremely secret, counter espionage work in the country. It is never really explained why he should be called to do war work so far from home, but still, this is an interesting mix of crime and spy story.

Unusually, the crime in this novel – the murder of Flossie Rubrick – took place in 1942, while Alleyn does not visit her ...more

23 likes · Like · see review

Jan 26, 2021 Jazzy Lemon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: new-zealand-authors, classics, english-authors

Don't sit down to tea before starting this book! Actually this is my first experience with Ngaio Marsh and a very pleasant one indeed. ...more

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Jan 08, 2019 Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bought-2016, mystery, vintage-mystery, british-mystery, marsh-challenge, mount-tbr-2019

Died in the Wool (1945) by Ngaio Marsh finds Inspector Alleyn still in New Zealand hunting spies in World War II. Alleyn had already been hard at work in the counter-espionage business in Marsh's previous novel, Colour Scheme. This time he's asked to investigate the death of a member of New Zealand's Parliament--Florence "Flossie" Rubrick. The Rubricks own a large country property which includes sheep herds and wool processing quarters. She had gone missing one evening after announcing she was h Died in the Wool (1945) by Ngaio Marsh finds Inspector Alleyn still in New Zealand hunting spies in World War II. Alleyn had already been hard at work in the counter-espionage business in Marsh's previous novel, Colour Scheme. This time he's asked to investigate the death of a member of New Zealand's Parliament--Florence "Flossie" Rubrick. The Rubricks own a large country property which includes sheep herds and wool processing quarters. She had gone missing one evening after announcing she was headed to the wool shed to practice an up-coming speech. It isn't until sometime later that her body is found packed into a bundle of wool that has been sold.

Her nephew, Douglas Grace, fears that a spy is at work on the farm. He and Fabian Losse (nephew to Flossie's husband Arthur) have been working on a top-secret, hush-hush gadget that will greatly aid the war efforts and Grace is certain that Flossie must have discovered proof of the spy's identity and been killed because of it. Losse doesn't believe in the spy theory, but he does want the murder solved and after the local police flounder for over a year he writes to the "big wigs" and asks for Alleyn to drop in...dangling the possibility of a spy in front him as justification.

Since the case is so cold (no clues lying helpfully about to be picked up), Alleyn spends most of his time listening to every member of the household's account of the night in question and their impressions of Flossie. Arthur is no longer around--he died shortly after Flossie disappeared--but the two nephews, Flossie's ward Ursula Harme, and Terence Lynne, Flossie's secretary all give Alleyn their version of events. It isn't long before Alleyn realizes that there are several currents of motive running beneath the surface. There's a local boy who was Flossie's favorite until they had a grand row. And there's the growing affection between Terry (Terence) and her employer's husband. Not to mention the sudden fall from favor that Douglas experience with his aunt. A late-night hunt in the wool shed (yes--even all this time later) is called for and Alleyn becomes the target for the murderer himself before the curtain falls on this one.

What is particularly nice about this one is the way Alleyn's interviews so clearly underline that no one is the same person to each person they interact with. Every member of the household produces a different Flossie for the Inspector to understand. Marsh uses the psychology of each person's version to help Alleyn to understand what Flossie did in the days leading up to her murder that made her death imperative for the killer. Some may find this a bit slow going--there's a lot of talk and little action until the last third or so of the book--but in this instance I think it works. A good closed group mystery with excellent setting and background. ★★★ and 1/2.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks. ...more

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Sep 11, 2017 John Frankham rated it liked it

Shelves: crime-detective

Not one of my favourite Inspector Alleyn whodunnits. A nice New Zealand high country setting, and an inventive murder, but Alleyn, arriving long after the event, and concerned with war-time treason as well as murder, has to recover past events by a round-table recounting of the past by the inhabitants of the farm estate. Rather static. No Troy, no Inspector Fox.

GR blurb:

One summer evening in 1942, Flossie Rubrick, goes to her husband's wool shed to rehearse a patriotic speech - and disappears. T ...more

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Apr 30, 2018 Leslie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, mysteries

While I liked the New Zealand setting, this entry in the Inspector Alleyn series was not one of Marsh's better efforts. ...more

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Jan 01, 2019 Jill rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: jill-s-fifth-year-challenge-plan, ngaio-marsh

I don't think the last two books have been up to the standard of those preceding them. This was another set in New Zealand, but we didn't even get much of the surrounding area apart from the fact that the setting was pretty remote. Alleyn was again under the guise of someone looking for spies as opposed to a detective, although his purpose throughout the book was to find a murderer as much as someone passing information to the enemy. This first half of the book was telling us what a family thou ...more

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Sep 14, 2018 ShanDizzy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I really liked this Inspector Alleyn story, even sans his usual crew. He was not in his usual police role since he was tasked with ferreting out a 'spanner in the works' in the guise of a war enemy/traitor giving away secrets to the Nazis. However, in the process, he solved a 15 month old muder. It was a riveting tale, complete with additional insight into Alleyn's character. And he really likes his wife, which appealed to me. ...more

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May 06, 2016 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore added it

I did manage to pick up some clues in this one and guess part of the plot, but as far as the murder itself was concerned, I was on the wrong track entirely. The victim Flossie Rubrick had a few shades of Mrs Boynton (Appointment with Death) but unlike the latter (who remains hateful throughout), towards the end, one comes away with a much better opinion of Flossie.

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Jan 03, 2019 Sandy rated it liked it

Shelves: zngaio-challenge-2019, rread-2019, mystery-classic, mystery-detective-grp, z2019-world-actual

So much better than the prior in the series. Alleyn is still in New Zealand and this time investigates an unsolved murder on a sheep ranch. Excellent setting, pleasant family, and an interesting plot. The characters' different opinions of the murdered woman were presented reasonably naturally and I felt I knew her, and her deceased husband, quite well. A satisfying read. ...more

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