From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Clutch of Constables (Roderick Alleyn, #25)

Ngaio Marsh

Start date: January 17, 2020

Finish date: February 10, 2020

Discussion: Archive: Ngaio Marsh Buddy Reads

Why we're reading this: After 2 years of Ngaio Marsh challenges, some of us want to read the rest of the series as buddy reads.
[close] After 2 years of Ngaio Marsh challenges, some of us want to read the rest of the series as buddy reads.

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Archive: Ngaio Marsh Buddy Reads

A Man Lay Dead
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What Members Thought

Aug 16, 2018 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore added it

Shelves: series, mystery, ngaio-marsh, roderick-alleyn, murder

This is book 25 of the Inspector Alleyn mysteries and a revisit for me. This is told somewhat differently than the other Roderick Alleyn books I’ve read so far, starting with Alleyn recounting a case in which his wife Troy became unwittingly involved. The setting is a river cruise that Troy decides to take at the spur of the moment wanting to get away from things for a bit since she has just had her one-man show, and her husband and son are both away. Aboard the board, she feels things are amiss This is book 25 of the Inspector Alleyn mysteries and a revisit for me. This is told somewhat differently than the other Roderick Alleyn books I’ve read so far, starting with Alleyn recounting a case in which his wife Troy became unwittingly involved. The setting is a river cruise that Troy decides to take at the spur of the moment wanting to get away from things for a bit since she has just had her one-man show, and her husband and son are both away. Aboard the board, she feels things are amiss but when she reports what bothered her to local police stations at each stop, it feels as though they are trivial things. But when a fellow passenger suddenly leaves the boat, and before long turns up dead, a full fledged murder investigation begins. And the lady in question had been trying to communicate something to Troy. Alleyn we know from the start is on the trail of an art thief and criminal, Foljambe, and he is one of the fellow-passengers on the boat, but which one?

As I said, this was one I’d read before but I didn’t really remember much about it, in fact it didn’t even come back to me as I read, so the surprise elements remained surprises. I enjoyed the setting; though it was a cruise, it very much reminded me of Three Men on a Boat, without of course the humorous elements of that book. I also liked the idea of the Constable (painter John Constable) landscapes and the involvement of his style of painting in the whole matter. But the book itself overall was just an ok read for me. The mystery element did have a believable enough solution but didn’t feel like something out of the ordinary. Marsh did get me to suspect various characters though, casting obvious suspicion on some and hinting at other directions. Troy’s attitude with the victim and with some of the others on the boat was human certainly, but I felt one would have expected a somewhat different reaction from one who has possibly been involved in mysteries before (I haven’t read the whole of the series nor enough of it in order to be completely right on this point, but still). The book touches on the issue of racism but more in the context of showing different attitudes at that point in time (perhaps also trying to highlight the ‘right’ attitude), comparable in some ways to what we see even now. The characters had their individual traits and suspicious aspects too, but again nothing that really stood out to me especially. Nice enough read but nothing great. Three and a half stars.
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Jan 15, 2020 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the 25th Roderick Alleyn mystery, first published in 1968. I have been reading through the entire Alleyn series, and I think that Marsh had a sort of second wind in the Sixties.

This book sees Agatha Troy, Alleyn’s wife, on her own, with both Alleyn and their son away. Having just been working on her latest show (Troy, for those who are not aware of the series, is an artist) she comes across a five day cruise on the River Trent and decides, impulsively, to go. There are, of course, a mixe ...more

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Feb 14, 2020 ShanDizzy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Interestingly, the structure of the story is told through a series of lectures that inspector Alleyn is giving in the United States at a police training seminar. Troy wrote some of letters to him while she was on a 5-day cruise in 'Constable' country in the east of England. Alleyn quotes from them during his lecture.

Excerpt from a letter - Ramsdyke. An incident. We were all on deck and the lock people and our Tom were doing their things with paddles and gates and all, and I noticed on the far b ...more

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Oct 08, 2019 Leslie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries

Maybe even 4.5*

One aspect of this entry in the Alleyn series that I particularly enjoyed was the involvement of Troy. Her presence was especially fun as the case involved the discovery of a possible unknown painting by Constable.

Another unusual aspect was the way the story was told in alternating points of view: Troy as she experienced the events and Alleyn at some future time recounting the case to a class at the police college.

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Jan 12, 2020 Jill rated it really liked it

Shelves: ngaio-marsh, jill-s-sixth-year-challenge

At first this being all about Troy, I didn't think I was going to like it much. The format was different, insofar as the action was about Troy for most of it, but Alleyn was describing what took place to a group of what seemed to be inexperienced police officers. There was some humour here by way of one of the officers continually answering any questions put to them, like an excited school boy. I was definitely enticed by a few red-herrings and was suspecting one person after another, but then I ...more

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Oct 24, 2015 Ellen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-sleuth, marsh, mystery-roderick-alleyn

Clutch of Constables by Ngaio Marsh.

Troy Alleyn, wife of Superintendent Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard, has been fortunate enough to book passage at the last minute on the Zodiac due to a cancellation. The cruise is a five days journey from Norminster to Longminster by way of the three canals.

The passengers included on this short journey were a rather talkative middle aged woman, a brother and sister from the States, a butterfly collector, an Ethiopian doctor from Liverpool, a clergyman from A ...more

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Sep 28, 2022 Cricket Muse rated it really liked it

Troy’s character is featured this time and she is delightful. The other characters not so much, and the racism proved difficult to read, even under the pretense of enlightenment. Once again, reading an Inspector Alleyn mystery was made much more enjoyable having previously watched the television series.

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Jan 20, 2016 Nh added it

Audible read

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Jan 13, 2020 Sandy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-classic, mystery-detective-grp, rread-2020

An excellent book told from interesting perspectives: first, Alleyn teaches a class using this case as an example; second, Troy is the one involved and is writing letters to her husband.

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