From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

When in Rome (Roderick Alleyn, #26)

Ngaio Marsh

Start date: February 14, 2020

Finish date: March 10, 2020

Discussion: Archive: Ngaio Marsh Buddy Reads

Why we're reading this: We are continuing the Alleyn series as buddy reads after our two-year challenge.
[close] We are continuing the Alleyn series as buddy reads after our two-year challenge.

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Archive: Ngaio Marsh Buddy Reads

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What Members Thought

Feb 18, 2020 Susan rated it liked it · review of another edition

This, 26th Roderick Alleyn mystery, was published in 1970. It involves Alleyn going undercover in Rome, taking part in an assorted tour group, run by Sebastian Mailer.

Mr Mailer is an extremely unpleasant man, as are, to be honest, the majority of the tourists. However, as in many such crime books, there is a lot more going on beneath the surface than first appears. This novel deals with drugs, blackmail and various secrets which all of those involved are hiding.

Overall, this has an interesting s ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Feb 18, 2020 ShanDizzy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Set in the 1960s in Rome where Alleyn is on the trail of a notorious drug runner and one of his minions is killed while conducting a tour or Roman ruins.

{of Alleyn after finding Mailer's body down the ancient well in the excavated ruins} What, he sourly asked himself, was the position of a British investigator in Rome when a British subject of criminal propensities had almost certainly been murdered, possibly by another Briton, not impossibly by a Dutchman, not quite inconceivably by an Italian, ...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Damaskcat rated it it was amazing

Superintendent Alleyn is in Rome doing some undercover sleuthing in connection with a drugs ring. He joins an organised tour run by the singularly unpleasant Sebastian Mailer.

When Mailer disappears during a tour of a Roman Basilica his tour party don't seem too bothered about it and some even seem relieved. In between liaising with the Italian police Alleyn does some digging of his own and finds himself the recipient of confidences from the rest of the party.

I enjoyed this very well plotted myst ...more

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Oct 09, 2022 Cricket Muse added it

A tangled plot and a motley array of characters creates a tedious foray for Alleyn while in Rome to assist the police with drug smugglers. Alleyn does not shine much in this story as it meanders about with its mix of characters experiences Rome.
Certainly not the most favorable of Marsh’s Alleyn stories with its outdated seventies drug lingo and tired stereotypes. The simile of a character being “fresh as a daisy” curled my toes along with Alleyn valiantly trying to score a drug buy as an underco ...more

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Sep 01, 2021 Peggy rated it really liked it

She stepped it up a bit with this one and gave a unique ending.

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Oct 05, 2014 Carol Evans rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

When in Rome was first published in 1970 and you can tell in some of the dialogue and phrases, like groovy. It’s also very drug heavy and there’s a “party” that fits into the fictional version of the era. Aside from that, it’s a typical Marsh mystery. Some interesting characters, Inspector Alleyn being his usual handsome, intelligent self.

You can read my whole review, with a minor spoiler, at Carol's Notebook. ...more

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