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Swing, Brother, Swing (Roderick Alleyn #15)

Ngaio Marsh

Start date: March 1, 2019

Finish date: March 31, 2019

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: The next in our Inspector Alleyn challenge - also known as A Wreath for Rivera.
[close] The next in our Inspector Alleyn challenge - also known as A Wreath for Rivera.

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Group Challenges

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

Mar 04, 2019 Susan in NC rated it liked it

This one was just okay- I read it with the Reading the Detectives group, and I got the feeling nobody was thrilled with it.

Another dysfunctional family is at the center of the action - an eccentric peer, Lord Pastern, his estranged wife, her stepdaughter, and a couple cousins. I don’t mind the dysfunctional family - the last book we read had that in spades, but at least there was humor and some sympathetic characters. I couldn’t find one likable character here - well, maybe Carlisle, the cousin ...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

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

A Wreath for Rivera (1st pub as Swing Brother Swing; 1949) by Ngaio Marsh finds Lord Pastern & Bagott, the very model of eccentric British aristocracy taking up jazz drumming (or becoming a tympanist, according to Marsh). His eccentric nature has reminded Curtis at the Passing Tramp of real-life eccentric Lord Berners and he (Curtis) makes a good case for Marsh using Lord Berners as a model*. Lord Pastern--to use the abbreviated form--has in the past been involved with Indian yogis, VooDoo, and A Wreath for Rivera (1st pub as Swing Brother Swing; 1949) by Ngaio Marsh finds Lord Pastern & Bagott, the very model of eccentric British aristocracy taking up jazz drumming (or becoming a tympanist, according to Marsh). His eccentric nature has reminded Curtis at the Passing Tramp of real-life eccentric Lord Berners and he (Curtis) makes a good case for Marsh using Lord Berners as a model*. Lord Pastern--to use the abbreviated form--has in the past been involved with Indian yogis, VooDoo, and nudism to name a few of his eclectic pursuits. He has forced his wife to share her home with members of an esoteric Central European sect. She has, by turns, indulged him (initially), threatened to divorce him, generally lived separately, and more recently reunited with him. She found that once the Central Europeans vacated Duke's Gate (where she had lived apart from Lord Pastern) that she could not endure the quiet. So, when her husband decided to bang away at drums, she welcomed the noise and him to Duke's Gate.

His latest passion is to perform with an actual jazz band and he convinces Breezy Bellairs to let him join Breezy Bellairs' Boys for a feature number at the Metronome club. He's even written a little song and devised a pretty little skit to go along with the number. He'll bang away at the drums and then Carlos Rivera, Breezy's star piano-accordionist, will come out and get shot (with blanks). It will be a real show stopper. Of course, Rivera is a quite unsuitable young man who has gotten entangled with Lord Pastern's step-daughter Félicité (Fée)and Lady Pastern wants the relationship quashed at all costs. When somebody loads the gun with something more deadly than blanks, she gets her wish. In spades.

Naturally, it winds up that all sorts of people might have wanted Rivera out of the way. He was putting pressure on Breezy. Other members of the band were a bit fed up with him. He flirted incessantly with Lord Pastern's niece Carlisle much to Félicité's annoyance (intended) as well as to Ned (Edward) Manx's--who has just discovered that he loves Lisle. But who hated or feared him enough to kill?

Luckily, Inspector Roderick Alleyn is in the audience when Lord Pastern's "Hot Guy" number produces one very cold corpse. He and Fox will have to wade through musicians' jealousies, a traces of drug-dealing, a hint of blackmail, and a side-issue of the real identity of a famous agony columnist before they collar the murderer.

I think what I enjoyed most about this was the eccentricity. It may seem a bit over-the-top viewing it from today--but Lord Pastern's mad fads, Lady Pastern's holding on to her aristocratic roots in the post-war era, the silliness of the "Hot Guy" number (as proposed--not how it transpired) all create a certain atmosphere that could only take place in this book. I was glad that despite the fact that I know I must have read this back in the mists of time (when I was making my through every Marsh book my hometown library had on offer), I remembered nothing of the plot. So--although I spotted one portion of the solution (view spoiler) I couldn't quite see how it had been managed.

One out-of-the-way thing that struck me--particularly because I've been listening to Sayers' Whose Body on audio while roaming about in the car--is that calling one's friends and colleagues by odd little endearments must have been quite a thing in Golden Age/classic mysteries. At one point, when Fox says this case may be like the "Purloined Letter," Alleyn responds with: "Fox, my cabbage, my rare edition, my objet d'art, my own special bit of bijouterie, be damned if I don't think you've caught an idea." Lord Peter throws such things about when addressing Parker and Bunter at various points. Now, if I can remember, I'm going to have to pay attention when I read others and see if this is a pattern beyond Alleyn and Wimsey....

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

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May 02, 2018 Becky rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018goodrule-old, 2018reviews

First sentence: From Lady Pastern and Bagott to her niece by marriage, Miss Carlisle Wayne...

Premise/plot: Carlisle Wayne has been invited to visit by her aunt and uncle, Lord and Lady Pastern and Bagott. Her eccentric uncle will be performing in a band, a jazz band, and it will be an experience. Whether it will be fun or a disaster remains to be seen. Also coming to witness the spectacle is Edward Manx, a family cousin. Lord and Lady Pastern would love for their daughter, Felicite, to marry Edw ...more

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May 10, 2019 Zander rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: ngaio-marsh

Once again Marsh seems to just have put this out for a paycheck. It had some great build up, a side story that could have been interesting but the lack of any characters you really cared about and an ending that made little sense and was lackluster made me question why I even bother to finish reading it. I've been trying to the Marsh reading challenge but I just don't know if I can handle more of her very repetitive plots, characters and odd romances. Might just re-read some Allingham and Christ ...more

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Mar 08, 2019 Carol Evans rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, read-in-2019

Swing, Brother, Swing is fairly typical for Marsh. We have a dysfunctional family, headed by Lord Pastern and Baggott, whose newest obsession is playing the timpani for a swing band. Pastern’s step-daughter, Fee, is not quite but almost engaged to Carlos, who plays the accordion. Carlos is sleazy and overly jealous, and Fee is not quite sure what to do about the situation. She’s even written to an advice columnist about it. Turns out, she doesn’t have to worry. He gets killed during the band’s a ...more

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Sep 01, 2018 Louise Culmer rated it liked it

A member of a dance band is murdered during a performance. luckily chief Inspector Alleyn is in the audience so can get cracking investigating right away. a fairly entertaining mystery, though there are some rather overdone characters, and the identity of the murderer is a bit obvious - I had hoped it would turn out to be someone else. But there is some very entertaining dialogue between Alleyn and Fox, which makes up for deficiencies in the story.

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Apr 10, 2019 Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery, audionovel, virtual-mount-tbr-2019

When I finished reading the hard copy, I noticed that the library had a book on CD read by James Saxon. I thought it would be interesting to see how he did reading the Marsh novel. Saxon does an excellent job with all the voices and it made running around in the car and fun experience.

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Jun 23, 2016 Ruth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Fun. Just fun. The returning characters are ones you become comfortably fond of, and the transient characters become people you know.

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Aug 15, 2021 Peggy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Great plotting on this one. I was totally befuddled as to whodunit. And I’ve read it before, albeit years and years ago.

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May 07, 2019 Paperbackreader rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: all-collections, read-but-unowned, classic, mystery, detective, inspector-roderick-alleyn, fay-pub-lib, audiobook

As a murder mystery, it was okay. The way the crime was committed and who the perpetrator turned out to be were quite ingenious. However, most of the characters were not properly sketched. As a result, they were kind of one-dimensional. The eccentric man was eccentric, the "normal" men were starchily so , the "normal" women were watery, and the rest were shrill, melodramatic, and unreasonable. Overall, an okay read. ...more

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Dec 14, 2015 Teri-K rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-golden-age, mystery

Another good mystery by a very reliable, quality writer. I rated this lower than usual because I felt some of the characters were over the top, and it relied heavily on lovers not talking to each other. Still Marsh is a wonderful writer. I believe she wrote 37 books in this series and all but a handful are wonderful.

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