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Black As He's Painted (Roderick Alleyn, #28)

Ngaio Marsh

Start date: April 11, 2020

Finish date: May 8, 2020

Discussion: Archive: Ngaio Marsh Buddy Reads

Why we're reading this: Next in our series of Inspector Alleyn books.
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Archive: Ngaio Marsh Buddy Reads

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What Members Thought

Apr 16, 2020 Susan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Published in 1974, this is – astonishingly – the 28th mystery in the Roderick Alleyn series. Many of the views in this novel, particularly in terms of race, seem very outdated now and make uncomfortable reading.

The mystery is centred around the visit of the President of Ng’ombwana, an emerging, African nation. The President is being difficult about security and so Alleyn, who went to school with him and knows him by his nickname, ‘The Boomer,’ due to his loud voice, is sent to make him see reas ...more

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Jun 12, 2021 Lady Wesley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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

Review of the audiobook narrated by Nadia May

Continuing with my Ngaio Marsh audiobook glom -- largely courtesy of Audible Plus having so many titles in their catalog -- I reached this book, which is rather controversial for its antiquated racial and class biases. The author's attitudes, which are those to be expected from a seventy-nine-year-old lady writing in 1974, did not bother me all that much, although I would not accept them from a contemporary author.

I also cut Dame Marsh some slack for ...more

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Jan 11, 2016 Teri-K rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-golden-age

This is a very good entry in the series. We get to see Alleyn and Troy together in "normal" circumstances, and Mr Whipplestone and Lucy are delightful. I also think the mystery is well-done, with several possibilities being uncovered and some suspects I wanted to be innocent.

Unlike a few reviewers, I didn't think this showed the author as particularly bigoted, though there are some elements that don't work today. It's true that the secondary characters are stereotypes. But they almost always are ...more

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

Shelves: mystery, silver-age-mystery, british-mystery, mount-tbr-2024

The story opens with Mr. Samuel Whipplestone, recently retired from the Foreign Office. He had told himself that "he was tuned in to retirement and now realized he was in no such condition." He was dissatisfied. He was at loose ends. He felt like he had nothing to look forward to. So he takes a walk in the Capricorn area of London and before he knows it he has acquired a new living space at No. 1, Capricorn Walk as well as new cat. The little cat adopts him and though he tells himself he doesn't The story opens with Mr. Samuel Whipplestone, recently retired from the Foreign Office. He had told himself that "he was tuned in to retirement and now realized he was in no such condition." He was dissatisfied. He was at loose ends. He felt like he had nothing to look forward to. So he takes a walk in the Capricorn area of London and before he knows it he has acquired a new living space at No. 1, Capricorn Walk as well as new cat. The little cat adopts him and though he tells himself he doesn't want a cat he soon has named her Lucy Locket, bought her a fancy cat bed and a new walking harness, and she's taking over the house. After he's settled in, he takes another walk and runs into an acquaintance form his working days--the Ambassador from Ng'ombwana, a fictional emergent African nation--who invites him to a reception for their president.

Meanwhile...Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn has been roped into the Ng'ombwanan President situation. Alleyn and "the Boomer" (as the President was colloquially known) were at school together. And the Special Branch would like Alleyn's help in keeping the President in check. There are all sorts of factions who would like nothing better than to see the President assassinated--and there have been several attempts on his state visits to various places. The powers that be do not want an attempt to succeed while he is on British soil. It doesn't help that the Boomer believes he is invincible and thinks he ought to be able to flit hither and yon as the fancy takes him or change plans at the last minute so the special guards assigned to him have trouble keeping up. Alleyn is supposed to rely on the "old school tie" to get his friend to behave himself.

After much back and forth, the Boomer agrees, but even though he sticks to plans (mostly) tragedy still strikes. In what looks to be another attempt--at the reception and under Alleyn's and Special Branch's noses--a killer strikes. But it isn't the Boomer he lies dead from a spear thrust...it is the Ambassador. Did the killer miss his mark or are there even deeper political machinations afoot. Alleyn and Gibson (his Special Branch counterpart) have their hands full--dancing around international protocol, working with the Boomer, and sorting out all the folks who might have it in for either the President or the Ambassador. There are people who just don't like blacks, there are people with personal hatred for one or both of the men, and there are those who are disgruntled with Ng'ombwana in general because they were tossed out of the country when the new regime took over. And Sam Whipplestone will come in handy as well--he knew Ng'omwana well at one time, he knows the language, and...he seems to have a large number of the suspects swirling around his neighborhood in Capricorn.

This story has an absolutely delightful beginning. Sam Whipplestone is a treat and I'm so glad that he (unlike another delightful side character in another novel) makes it through the whole plot unscathed. I love how his two sides blend--on the one hand, he's a slightly whimsical man who takes possession of No. 1, Capricorn Walk without a moment's thought and allows Lucy Locket to steal his heart despite his determination that he's not a cat man. On the other hand, he's a very shrewd ex-Foreign Office man who has great insight into the characters milling about the President. His observations are of great value to Alleyn. I also took great delight in Troy and her sessions of painting the Boomer's portrait. She longed to do so and was beside herself when he suggested it. Marsh captures the intensity of the artist at work so well. And the mystery is an interesting one--not terribly complex; one knows the suspects who are at the heart of things right away. But Marsh does manage to give things a bit of a twist to spice things up a bit.

Marsh attempts to address the race question--a topic that was (and still is, to be honest) very prominent at the time. Her success is uneven. I think she does pretty well with Alleyn. I think she manages to show him as unprejudiced as it was possible to be the early 70s, but there are still a few cringy things that are attributed to him. She also manages to show that race relations are more complex than just hating the "other." That various factors can work into a person's reasoning--from hating all of a particular race based on one particular horrifying incident to blaming them for job loss or loss of prestige to just plain greed and the need to be superior to some group of people. There definitely are going to be viewpoints represented here that modern readers will have issue with--but modern readers should keep in mind when this was written.

A good, solid mystery from the latter portion of Marsh's writing career. ★★★ and 1/2 [rounded up here]

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. ...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Carol Evans rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

The plot is well-done, with the over-arching mystery appropriately tangled and clues doled out that I mostly missed. There's also a quick mystery, too, that helps wrap the whole thing up. As always, it's interesting to see the different viewpoints and cultural norms of the time.

For me though, Marsh 's strength here is the characters. Inspector Alleyn is as intelligent and polite as always. He is a gentleman, a member of the upper class, as this episode reminds us. I like that his wife, Troy, who ...more

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Jun 10, 2025 ShanDizzy rated it liked it · review of another edition

"Among whom might be found the old cloak and dagger merchant. And apart from all these more or less motivated persons," Alleyn said, " there are the ones policemen like least - the fanatics. The haters of black pigmentation, the lonely woman who dreams about a black rapist, the man who builds Antichrist in a black image, or who reads a threat to his livelihood in every black neighbor, or for whom the commonplace phrases - black outlook., black record, as black as it's painted, black villainy, an ...more

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Jan 22, 2023 Katie rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, mystery, classic-mystery

I’m usually very fast reader, but this one took me a little while. I love Ngaio Marsh, and I love classic mysteries in general, but there was just something about this one that put me off a bit. It wasn’t just the outdated notions about race; there’s a little off, putting about the plot structure too.

But the character of Mr. Whipplestone was fantastic, and the mystery was ultimately enjoyable. I also love the relationship between Alleyn and his wife, and the character of Boomer was very moving a ...more

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