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Hand in Glove (Roderick Alleyn, #22)

Ngaio Marsh

Start date: October 1, 2019

Finish date: October 31, 2019

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: Next in our Inspector Alleyn challenge.
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Group Challenges

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
By Susan · 14 posts · 16 views

last updated Sep 02, 2025 12:08AM

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

Sep 19, 2019 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the 22nd in the Roderick Alleyn series, published in 1962. Having been working my way through this series, I have had mixed reactions to some of the books. As such, it was good to find one that I got utterly engrossed in and read in a day – it has been a while since that has happened and reminds me why I so love reading.

We begin with a young lady, called Nicola (friend of Alleyn and Agatha Troy) who is going to do some typing for a fussy old man, called Percival Pyke Period, who shares h This is the 22nd in the Roderick Alleyn series, published in 1962. Having been working my way through this series, I have had mixed reactions to some of the books. As such, it was good to find one that I got utterly engrossed in and read in a day – it has been a while since that has happened and reminds me why I so love reading.

We begin with a young lady, called Nicola (friend of Alleyn and Agatha Troy) who is going to do some typing for a fussy old man, called Percival Pyke Period, who shares his house with a retired lawyer, called Harry Cartell. On the train journey, Nicola meets Cartell’s step-son, Andrew Bantling, a young man who wants to give up the Guards to buy an art gallery and, of course, falls heavily for Nicola.

This is set in a small village, with a group of people who are all related. We have Andrew’s mother, Lady Bantling, and her third husband, Bimbo (there are some gloriously Thirties names in this mystery). Also, Cartell’s sister, Connie, and her ward, ‘Moppet’ and her boyfriend, the rather frowned upon, Leonard Leese. Leonard is ‘known to the police,’ as the expression says. With his colourful clothes, constant whistling and slang terms, he causes consternation in the village and trouble between Mr Period and Mr Cartell; especially when a cigarette case goes missing.

Although set in the early Sixties (not quite swinging just yet, although the Beatles first single would be released later in the year), this reads as though it is set in the Fifties. Jeans appear, as does a Jazz record and one suspect is ‘watching the telly,’ but we still have a healthy dose of snobbery, the sense of belonging to the right people, with the correct behaviour, and a good array of servants – perhaps a little more modern, but still deferential and caring, with the automatic, ‘thank YOU, Sir,’ dropping from Mr Period’s manservant. A fun, interesting read, with a dose of comedy and a sense that Ngaio Marsh was not ready to give up, as she reached a new decade.
...more

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

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

April Fool's Day seems to Lady Bantling to be the perfect time to throw a scavenger hunt dinner party. Known for her outrageous parties, she goes all out, sending her guests on a village-wide hunt for rhyming clues that will lead them to the grand prize--a magnum of champagne. But the festivities come to a disagreeable end when Mr. Harold Cartell is found dead face down in a drainage ditch the next morning. A drainage ditch that was the site for one of the clues. Superintendent Alleyn and compan April Fool's Day seems to Lady Bantling to be the perfect time to throw a scavenger hunt dinner party. Known for her outrageous parties, she goes all out, sending her guests on a village-wide hunt for rhyming clues that will lead them to the grand prize--a magnum of champagne. But the festivities come to a disagreeable end when Mr. Harold Cartell is found dead face down in a drainage ditch the next morning. A drainage ditch that was the site for one of the clues. Superintendent Alleyn and company are called in right away so the trail is fresh and the evidence (such as it is) as undisturbed as possible.

The question Alleyn will have to answer is whose hands were in the gloves that set a fatal booby for the disagreeable elderly lawyer Mr. Cartell? Leading up to the fateful night, there are all sorts of relationship troubles. The sweet but snobbish bachelor Mr. Pyke Period has been forced by post-war circumstances to share his lodgings with the prickly Mr. Cartell. It causes all sorts of domestic upheavals from unexpected (dare I say unwanted) extra guests at meal times to the outrageous antics of Cartell's disagreeable dog Pixie to Cartell's indelicate references to Period's claims of ancestry. But has Mr. Period's life been disrupted enough to cause him feel murderous towards his housemate?

Then there's Cartell's relationship to his sister Connie--a childless woman who has taken an unaccountable fancy to a "poor orphan girl" (of 20 or so, mind you) and is willing to turn a blind eye to anything Moppet (what a nickname) and her disreputable boyfriend might get up to. When it becomes apparent that Leonard (said boyfriend) is a thief and a man out to con a local garage man out of a fancy car, Cartell lowers the boom. Connie must disentangle Moppet from her boyfriend or Moppet and Leonard will face the police. Would Connie kill her brother over a girl who's no relation? Would Moppet and/or Leonard kill to prevent a more minor run-in with the police?

We mustn't forget Lady Desiree Bantling and her delightful (key sarcasm font) third husband Bimbo (who is not Lord Bantling). Bimbo was mixed up in some unsavory doings at a club in London. Would he kill over that ancient history? Or are there more recent doings to cover up? Nor should we overlook Lady Bantling's son, Andrew. Cartell and Period are the trustees of Lord Bantling's will and Andrew has had a fairly heated argument with the lawyer over his future plans. Andrew paints (rather well according to Troy Alleyn who should know) and wants an advance on his trust funds to start his own gallery. Cartell refuses to consider such "nonsense" and insists that the young man stay in the Guards and stick to a proper job. Would Andrew kill for his dreams or would his mother kill to help her son?

Warning: A few spoilery bits in my observations below....

(view spoiler) ★★★ and 3/4.

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

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Mar 27, 2017 Teri-K rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-mystery, mystery, mystery-golden-age

To my mind Ngaio Marsh is the author whose books are closest to Agatha Christie's. In some ways they're better, as she develops her MC's life along in the series, and her people don't feel as stereotyped. This is one of my personal favorites. The characters are interesting and varied, all a little flawed but mostly ordinary folks you might know. The plot moves well and the ending might surprise the reader. If not, it was still a fun read.

You don't have to read the books in order, but I like to ...more

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Dec 30, 2021 Lady Wesley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: listened, mystery-golden-age-or-similar

Review of the audiobook narrated by Jeremy Sinden

This is a charming, perplexing mystery in a small village with lots of interesting suspects. Written in the 1960s, it is one of Marsh’s better late-career books.

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Sep 26, 2019 ShanDizzy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Utterly deplorable characters but a decent mystery

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Jul 27, 2021 Peggy rated it it was ok

Sadly, rereading series mysteries in somewhat quick succession, at some point reveals the author’s repeated plot elements, character types and language quirks. I need to go back to the earliest Ngaio Marsh books and let her initial style wash over me before continuing this reread. I happen to love most of her predictable bits, which I regretfully can’t say about PD James, but I found myself sighing a few times during this particular book. It didn’t help that the plot was very thin and the whole ...more

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Dec 01, 2017 dmayr rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-liked, crime-detective-series, murder-in-the-village, crime-in-vintage

One of Marsh's more interesting mysteries. I think I've read this before although I really can't remember the plot, so I went for the obvious suspect with the obvious motive. I was mistaken though, so it's delightful to still be surprised. ...more

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