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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘The brilliant Ngaio Marsh ranks with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers’
Times Literary Supplement
‘The theatre detail is engrossing.’
Margaret Lewis
‘A far more ambitious novel than anything Marsh had attempted before.’
American Journal of Popular Culture
‘Her work is as nearly flawless as makes no odds. Character, plot, wit, good writing, and sound technique.’
Sunday Times
‘The finest writer in the English languange of the pure, classical puzzle whodunnit. Among the crime queens, Ngaio Marsh stands out as an Empress.’
The Sun
Product Description
A touring theatre company in New Zealand forms the basis of one of Marsh’s most ambitious and innovative novels.
New Zealand theatrical manager Alfred Meyer wanted to celebrate his wife’s birthday in style. The piece de résistance would be the jeroboam of champagne which would descend gently into a nest of fern and coloured lights on the table, set up on stage after the performance.
But something went horribly wrong. Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn witnessed it himself. Was Meyer’s death the product of Maori superstitions? Or something much more down to earth?
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Customer Reviews
Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn witnesses the death of Alfred Meyer, a theatrical manager, and has to work out which of the theatre company's members is responsible and whether Maori superstitions are in some way responsible.
The travelling theatre background is an excellent and ambitiously created example of Marsh's theatrical-related books with convincing characters and New Zealand backdrop. A noteworthy feature in this book is a floor plan of the theatre that, unusually, really is useful to solve the murder.
Do note that the solution to the author's earlier story entitled 'Enter a Murderer' is disclosed in this book.
This is definitely one of my favourite Marsh stories and I would recommend crime fiction readers to this one.
character,she gives him life.
A good read you don't really want to put down
Ms. Dacres is the sparkling leading lady; her middle-aged, humdrum husband, Alfred Meyer, runs the business end of the company. Hailey Hambledon, Carolyn's handsome leading man, wants her to arrange a divorce with Meyer and marry him. Carolyn refuses, claiming religious scruples; it's hard to say if Carolyn loves Hailey, or is merely being diplomatic. Some of the character actors have been gambling heavily. Valerie Ganes, a mediocre actress (a dilettante with a rich father) suffered the loss of a large amount of cash, but isn't keen on even a quasi-official investigation. Meyer's business partner, Mason, seems habitually worried about money.
Meyer *seems* oblivious to all this, and after a successful run in Middleton (fictional city), arranges an elaborate birthday party for Carolyn, with an eye toward publicity, and including a flashy gimmick of lowering a huge champagne bottle from the rafters. But someone apparently decides to launch a venture by aiming the bottle at Meyer's head.
At this point in his career, Alleyn had only had one murder case entangled with the world of the theatre - _Enter a Murderer_, which occurred 2 years before this story opens - so the matter of the earlier case (and the name of the murderer) are mentioned several times. In fact, a character actress in the company was a minor character in the earlier book. While one can enjoy and follow the plot of _Vintage Murder_ without having read the earlier story, it has added depth after reading the earlier book - and if they're read out of order, the solution of the earlier book is given in the 1st chapter of this book.
While this is only the second 'theatrical' case Alleyn investigated, several more were to come, and other changes took place shortly after the events in this book. Taking ship for the return journey to England as _Artists in Crime_, the next book, opened, Alleyn was to meet Agatha Troy for the first time. :)
Alleyn travels by train in the company of Carolyn Dacres, celebrated actress, and her theatrical company, and when a possible assault and a curious robbery plague the company en route they turn to him help. Unfortunately, however, these incidents prove so much prelude, and a party following the company's opening night in Middleton proves deadly indeed.
Marsh is particularly well known for creating remarkably credible characters, and certainly such creations as Carolyn Dacres, St. John Ackroyd, Francis Liverslidge, Dr. Te Pokiha, and Bob Parsons prove her talents; on this occasion, however, she does not quite manage to extend those talents to the entire cast, and in certain instances I found it a bit difficult to tell one individual from the other, something very unusual for a Marsh novel. In any case, her sense of location is as powerful in VINTAGE MURDER as it is in the very best of her works, and her means of murder is classic Marsh, something that would be totally unbelievable in any context except the one she creates.
Final thoughts on the book: while not quite in the same class as OVERTURE TO DEATH, NIGHT AT THE VULCAN, BLACK AS HE'S PAINTED, and DEAD WATER, VINTAGE MURDER is nonetheless a truly enjoyable work, sure to please both old fans and newcomers alike.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
The bad, or at least not-so-good?
The center of this mystery drains your energy, possibly in part because of the almost Tolstoyesque proliferation of characters - almost, because nobody in this novel has a half-dozen nicknames you have to keep straight. There is also a heavy and almost repetitive ladling of timetables and alibis that a more stringent editor might have pared down.
Too, you might get a bit tired of the way the New Zealand police force sucks up to Alleyn, especially since he seems never to be wholly on top of his form. (As another reviewer says, except in one letter from Alleyn, there's no Fox to act as an intelligent sounding board. When at his boss's side, Fox serves to reveal Alleyn's sharpness, and without Fox, much of that sharpness can't surface.)
The good side?
There are moments that bring the story to life. Amazon and the publisher have enabled the "search in this book" feature above: search on `fascination train' without the single quotes and read the page. Late-night, cross-country passenger train rides are rare in my country, the US, but I've been on a couple, and Marsh clearly has captured the essence.
Plus, the backstage world is well depicted - you get to see a little about how the technical side of theater lives and breathes. The novel revolves around a fabricated tech "accident" and there's a bit of foreshadowing that brings depth to a later statement, "when men are working aloft. I remember the stage-manager told me the [stage] hands always have their tools tied to their wrists." The reality of backstage is that when everything is perfect, nobody really notices - and when something goes awry, the stagehands could not feel worse.
There is also a crystal moment between Alleyn and Carolyn Dacres, a picnic excursion that the smitten Alleyn orchestrates to soften the usual grilling session. Here, Marsh expresses both the essential goodness (and grief) of the actress and the essential attraction of the New Zealand back country.
There are also memorably complex characters. Is it coincidence that surname of the Oxford-educated Maori physician, Dr. Rangi Te Pokiha, is about as close as you can get to "paheka," the Maori name for European settlers on the ranges of their land? And don't miss St. John Ackroyd, the acrid comedian.
And the last lines of the book, quoting a letter from Miss Dacres to Alleyn sent to him after all has been said and done, presents a touchingly human denouement.
I guess this is a roundabout way of saying, all Marsh is good; some are better than this; but this has fine moments.
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