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Review
‘In her ironic and witty hands the mystery novel can be civilized literature.’
NEW YORK TIMES
‘Ngaio Marsh is one of the detective novelists whose books I regularly re-read, always the test of a good detective story.’
P.D. JAMES
‘In the front rank of crime-story writers.’
THE TIMES
‘The finest writer in the English language of the pure, classical puzzle whodunnit. Among the crime queens, Ngaio Marsh stands out as an Empress.’
THE SUN
Product Description
Ngaio Marsh returns to her New Zealand roots to transplant the classic country house murder mystery to an upland sheep station on South Island – and produces one of her most exotic and intriguing novels.
One summer evening in 1942 Flossie Rubrick, MP, one of the most formidable women in New Zealand, goes to her husband’s wool shed to rehearse a patriotic speech – and disappears.
Three weeks later she turns up at an auction – packed inside one of her own bales of wool and very, very dead…
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So why a grudging three stars? Well, the solution to the puzzle is rather plodding; a systematic analysis of details rather than a brilliant insight. Also there is a general dullness about the characters and their setting. I suppose that's not surprising, given they are on a remote farm in winter, suffering the deprivations of war and trying to come to terms with an unsolved murder. But it would have benefited from the occasional comic relief or lightness of touch that Dorothy L Sayers or Conan Doyle could have brought to it.
All in all, recommended for the unusual structure and setting (albeit the 'local colour' is mostly grey) and for the quality of the writing, which is very good, but don't expect a classic puzzle. The author even makes one error in the solution (don't worry, this is not a spoiler) when Alleyn says "Only (the guilty person) could have put...". Actually, one other person could have; namely the one who found said item. I will however concede that the build up to the climax is genuinely suspenseful.
One evening during the summer of 1942 Flossie disappears after she goes to her husband's shed to rehearse a patriotic speech. Three weeks later she turns up dead at an auction, inside one of her husband's bales of wool.
Roderick Alleyn, working for military intelligence during World War II, visits New Zealand in the Autumn of 1943 to investigate possible Nazi spying and has to find out retrospectively what happened to Flossie and which of her extended family is both murderer and maybe enemy agent.
The plot structure is unusual with the investigation occuring 15 months after the murder and enables Marsh to develop the character of the victim, Flossie Rubrick, in unusual detail.
The New Zealand location, probably near Mount Cook, is well depicted in a story which is similar to the previous novel in the series, Colour Scheme, with Alleyn's counterespionage work providing a change from his normal police duties.
The unusual plot structure, setting and storytelling in this book make for a noteworthy example of Marsh's writing and I think this is well worth reading.
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