* * * 1/2A pretty interesting plot for this Marsh novel -- death from a poisoned goblet in a wacky culty church group. The way Alleyn and the Yard were introduced was slightly flimsy, what with Nigel Bathgate (the intrepid reporter who dutifully reports on Alleyn's cases) just happening to see the Sign of the Sacred Flame out his window and on a whim deciding to attend a service, but it did serve its purpose. We had a colourful cast of characters and there was no shortage of amusing dialogue. As a playwright, Marsh is probably more attuned to what sounds like good dialogue. Each character has their own little tricks of speech: Janey refers to her fiancé as "Blot", Father Garnette pronounces the final sound of words like ecstasy, sympathy, penitentiary as "ah" instead of "ee", Mr. Ogden's speech is rife with Americanisms.As for the case itself, it was pretty difficult to guess, but perhaps I was just not paying attention. It kind of snuck up on me when Alleyn revealed the killer. That's the second book in a row that's done that to me. But Alleyn's explanation did make sense, so I shall not deduct marks for that. Still, this book gets only a 3.5 and not a 4 because there are some parts where Alleyn goes on fanciful digressions when he's talking with Fox, and for some reason in this book they sounded discordant to me -- they didn't mesh with my idea of his voice and persona. Perhaps I've been away from the Marshes for too long and this is something normal that I'm just not remembering.Nevertheless, this was an enjoyable romp, very fun and silly, so if you're in the mood for that kind of a mystery, this one will do the trick.
This was #4 in Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn series (although Marsh's first novel was published only in 1934, two years earlier).It features the team of Detective Inspector Alleyn, his offsider Fox, and journalist Nigel Bathgate. It all begins when Bathgate enters the House of the Sacred Flame, a new religious sect not far from his flat, in search of amusement, and witnesses the death of a woman from poisoning. She has been participating in a ceremony where a chalice of wine is handed around a small circle of people and is finally drunk by her. Bathgate catches the unmistakeable smell of bitter almonds.Cara Quayne was an extremely wealthy woman who was known to have left most of her fortune to the House of the Sacred Flame and to it's priest. This was her first occasion as the Sacrificial Vessel. She had been training for a month for the event.To make sure the reader is up to speed, Alleyn and Bathgate draw up a list of suspects with motives at least twice. The author drops a couple of large hints about the identity of the murderer, which I should have picked up but didn't. There's a matter of missing bearer bonds, addiction and drug running, and entrapment, but in the long run Alleyn would not have solved the case without help from a couple of suspects.It is an interesting novel because there is mention of how other authors like Agatha Christie would have fleshed out a plot like this.I have read this for my participation in Crime Fiction of the Year Challenge @ Past Offences
What do You think about Death In Ecstasy (1997)?
Definitely not your usual drawing room English mystery- which is probably why I like Marsh.I kept turning to two suspects, but could never work out the motive. One of my choices was correct, but Marsh doesn't give a motive either. Maybe it was greed?? It was the chief thing that I found disappointing. She writes a hilarious sentence describing who Agatha Christie & Dorothy L Sayers would have chosen as the culprit & why. In the mid 1930s, she obviously didn't take herself, nor the genre overly seriously.I actually managed to get thru this one while very ill, so it is an easy read to most people.
—Dillwynia Peter
Well, I guess I'd better give up the disclaimer about what I think of these. They're harmless, easy fun, concerned with setting up a puzzle and then working it out, with lots of red herrings and interesting people along the way. Nothing ground breaking, but comfortable.This one did give me a little bit of unease because of the swishy, blatantly queer couple who were a walking, talking pair of stereotypes. At least they were harmless, but Marsh wrote about them rather unpleasantly and nobody thought any good of them. At least Alleyn, as I imagine him, wouldn't be an ass to them in person about it, but would respect their relationship (as long as he thought it was real, not just theatrics and melodrama). I suppose I am getting to like him, though I think I'm building on him in my own mind more than Marsh is in the text.This one only slightly breaks the trend -- there's no reconstruction, though the group do gather together again to talk it over, which is pretty close.The statement I spotted in another review that Nigel Bathgate does nothing and could he please be murdered now is sadly accurate. The one point I liked was when Alleyn rings up and tells him to act as if he's talking to Angela. That was a bit amusing.
—Nikki
Reporter Nigel Bathgate is bored enough to sneak into a New Age ceremony at the "House of the Sacred Flame" across the street from his apartment. In the midst of a bric-a-brac paganish ceremony led by the hypnotic Father Jasper Garnette, one of the wealthy female participants is poisoned when she drinks from a ceremonial goblet. Policemen Alleyn and Fox try to find the murderer in the midst of jealous rivalries, religious mania, and the thousands of pounds that the victim had earmarked for the Sacred Flame. I liked this Alleyn mystery and (unlike other reviewers) didn't find the American characters overdone--after all, they're members of a strange, Theosophist sort of fad--so it makes sense that they're not exactly sedate. It's interesting that Marsh was so ahead of her time in describing cultish organizations, since they are usually presumed to be a 1960s thing.
—Hope
