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What mysteries are you reading at the moment? Old thread, 2019-2020
By Judy · 1516 posts · 212 views
By Judy · 1516 posts · 212 views
last updated Oct 02, 2020 11:38PM
The White Swan - General Chat Thread
By Susan · 1428 posts · 190 views
By Susan · 1428 posts · 190 views
last updated Feb 06, 2021 07:39AM
What Members Thought

My first Ngaio Marsh novel and the last one she wrote. I liked the murder taking place during a Macbeth play with on stage. I felt there was a little too much detail about the play. Gastion was a great character and there were a few red herrings on who was the murderer. Overall I would definitely ready another Marsh novel.

The Dolphin Theatre is the setting for this hugely atmospheric crime story. Peregrine Jay is putting on a new production of Macbeth. The play is famously plagued by strange occurrences and Jay is determined to eradicate the irrational from the rehearsal and the performance, though some of his cast members prefer not to ignore the play's strange history. Once rehearsals get underway it is clear there are tensions between the cast members and in spite of Jay's best efforts strange things do start
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Feb 19, 2017
Gillian Kevern
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery,
detective,
vintage,
queens-of-crime,
pure-fun,
nz-author,
police-procedural,
1980s
This is my favourite Ngaio Marsh, and part of the reason is that it doesn't follow the usual pattern of detective novels. Almost two-thirds of the novel is the story of a play. Ngaio Marsh is as well known in NZ for her patronage of drama as she is her detective fiction, and she was an enthusiastic actor, set designer and director in her youth. Her love for theatre and knowledge of the dramatic world really fed into the book. I got really invested in the behind-the-scenes information, the castin
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This was not a great book to end on, and really wasn't for me. I think most people will know the story of Macbeth, but this plodded through it for the first half to describe the the rehearsals for a production of the play. There were not that many characters, so it was easy to identify them, some of which we had met in an earlier book. As for plot it was easy to see what was going to happen and who was the murderer, and Marsh's way to disguise it was very weak. I so wish she had stopped at the p
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Too heavy on 'how to stage Macbeth' and too light on the mystery, but I listened on audio and the performer, James Saxon, did such a great job with booming male actors mixed with small boys that it was a pleasure. Rather sad that it was my last visit with Alleyn and Fox.
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Nov 03, 2014
Cindy
marked it as to-read

Nov 17, 2015
Gary Vassallo
marked it as ebook-library

Jul 08, 2017
Rachel Burke
marked it as want-to-buy


Oct 19, 2018
Helen
marked it as to-read

Oct 30, 2018
Gemima
marked it as to-read

Jul 09, 2019
Vanessa
marked it as murder-mayhem

Jan 01, 2020
Bernadette
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May 13, 2020
Sabrina
marked it as to-read

Apr 02, 2021
ChrisGA
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May 10, 2021
Darcy
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Oct 13, 2021
Elsbeth Kwant
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Oct 25, 2021
Lady Wesley
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