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A Grave Mistake (Roderick Alleyn, #30)

Ngaio Marsh

Start date: June 13, 2020

Finish date: July 11, 2020

Discussion: Archive: Ngaio Marsh Buddy Reads

Why we're reading this: Continuing our Inspector Alleyn buddy reads.
[close] Continuing our Inspector Alleyn buddy reads.

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Archive: Ngaio Marsh Buddy Reads

A Man Lay Dead
By Susan · 77 posts · 91 views

last updated Apr 11, 2021 04:44AM

A Grave Mistake - SPOILER Thread
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last updated Nov 17, 2020 12:10PM

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What Members Thought

Aug 30, 2022 John rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ngaio-marsh

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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

I am saddened as I reach the final books of this series, as Ngaio Marsh had a second wind as she reached her final Roderick Alleyn books. Published in 1978, this mystery has a great cast of characters, a good plot and some great humour between Alleyn and Sergeant ‘Foxkins.’

In the lovely village of Upper Quinton, wealthy Sybil Foster lives in a beautiful house, coveted by millionaire, Nicholas Markos. Sybil confides in her friend, Verity, that Markos junior, the young Gideon Markos, has paying mo I am saddened as I reach the final books of this series, as Ngaio Marsh had a second wind as she reached her final Roderick Alleyn books. Published in 1978, this mystery has a great cast of characters, a good plot and some great humour between Alleyn and Sergeant ‘Foxkins.’

In the lovely village of Upper Quinton, wealthy Sybil Foster lives in a beautiful house, coveted by millionaire, Nicholas Markos. Sybil confides in her friend, Verity, that Markos junior, the young Gideon Markos, has paying more attention to her daughter, Prunella, than she is happy with. Sybil is something of a complainer and a hypochondriac; she tends to fuss and to want sympathy. She is pleased when she manages to find a new gardener, the aptly names Bruce Gardener, who has returned to live with his widowed sister. However, when she discovers that her step son, the snooping and sponging, Claude Carter, is coming for a visit, she is again thrown into despair.

At a dinner party with Nicholas Markos, Verity comes face to face with Dr Basil Sham, who she had known well many years ago and had hoped not to see again. This novel is full of wonderfully suspicious characters – of which Sham is certainly one. Discovering that the charming and sympathetic Sham is working at Greengages, a health spa, Sybil Foster departs for a cure and is quickly – as is the way with such crime novels – killed off.

The reader is left with a whole host of suspects with wonderful motives, which include an unpopular will, a missing stamp and hidden secrets for Alleyn and Fox to unearth. This definitely was written in the 1970’s, though. At one point, Sham and a nurse have a raging row in front of Alleyn, both the worse for drink. Yet Alleyn, who is a senior member of the police force, wryly watches them both drive off slowly in their cars… This is a good addition to the series and Marsh showed no sign of reaching the end of her writing powers, as she neared the end of a series which started so many years before, in the early 1930’s.

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Jul 19, 2020 Leslie rated it really liked it

Shelves: mysteries

Read in the hardcover omnibus "Ngaio Marsh: 5 Complete Novels" ...more

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Nov 01, 2020 Sandy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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

I may have given this an extra star as it is my last visit with Inspector Alleyn and Ngaio Marsh, but it was a favorite with interesting characters, many distasteful, others I would be happy to spend time with. Good interactions between Alleyn and Fox and while Troy was absent, her paintings weren't. ...more

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Jun 11, 2020 Jill rated it really liked it

Shelves: ngaio-marsh

Two friends require a gardener, one with a huge estate and very wealthy, the other with a decent size garden, who is connected to the theater. A new man in the village is readily availible for the job and taken on. The very wealthy woman takes an immediate liking to him and they became very close. This lady, who has a daughter and a stepson from a previous marriage, is of the fussy hypochondriac type, and goes to a rest home for her nerves, where she dies. Allyn is then brought into the story to ...more

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