I felt almost giddy to be reading Marsh again, and was having such fun with her style and her humor and all the good stuff that comes with a victims-confined-on-a-cruise murder; but the last quarter of the book was so oppressively heavy with the various bigotries of the time (and not in a fun, "OMG how offensive!" way) that I'm feeling a little deflated here at the end.A bit of the good stuff:"Mrs. Dillington-Blick, who might have been thought to be already in full flower, awarded herself a sort of bonus in effulgence. Everything about her blossomed madly. 'Fun!' she seemed to be saying. 'This is what I'm really good at. We're all going to like this.' She bathed Alleyn in her personality. Her eyes shone, her lips were moist, but small hands fluttered at the ends of her Rubensesque arms."Mrs. Dillington-Blick ("a tidy armful and knows it") is really a great character, and dammit she is fun, though there are times you want to give her a time-out.The bad stuff:Classism, racism and heterosexism are known entities in these things. They are frequently hilarious or even charmingly naive (I'm thinking of Christie's The Man in the Brown Suit). And it always interests me to see how blandly affectionate most of the Great Dames of detective fiction can be toward their lesbian characters, in particular (Christie again comes to mind, with A Murder is Announced). But in my opinion, Marsh manages to be quite cruel in this one. The "queer steward" is treated titteringly from the beginning (this worsens into something rather more vile as the narrative develops), but the "sexless" and broken-hearted Miss Abbott (who "runs like a man") has an exceptionally poor time of it at the hands of her author. The lesson she learns at the end of the novel is dismal. "It's a mistake for a lonely woman to form an engrossing friendship. One should have the courage of one's loneliness," she says to Alleyn, in farewell. And he agrees so whole-heartedly that he recommends singing a song in gratitude for this valuable new wisdom.The working class couple is there for us to sneer at as well, of course, mostly because they don't know enough Shakespeare to contribute to flirty, academic banter. That's pretty run-of-the-mill stuff for these mysteries, though, and probably wouldn't bother me if I weren't already horrified at how obvious Marsh was being about whose murders would be tragedies and whose murders would be really not too bad, all things considered.You know, I really didn't mean for this review to be so negative. I was having such a great time at first -- for most of it really -- that I was reading bits of it to friends and laughing constantly. But, gosh, those last fifty pages or so were depressing, and I feel sure they were not meant to be -- the book has what you might call a happy ending, after all, and a very low body count, really. But since I only just now finished it, it's my impressions of the last bit that are foremost right now. You should probably take it with a grain of salt. I still love you, Inspector Alleyn. You just have your head up your ass sometimes.
I really enjoyed this mystery and agree with the book reviews that she's better than Agatha Christie. The story takes place on board a cruise ship and the detective, Inspector Alleyn is incognito as he hunts for a serial killer who may be on board. Of course, at the time they weren't called serial killers and the psychological profiles for serial killers weren't really developed like you'd see on a crime show today. I think that's part of what made it so interesting. Also, Alleyn writes up his "casebook" in a letter to his wife and indicates pretty early on that he has a good idea who the killer is, though he doesn't let us know until the end. Excellent setting and character development as well.
What do You think about Singing In The Shrouds (1999)?
The closed circle this time is the (small) passenger complement of a cargo ship. Alleyn is not fortuitously on board this time - he is assigned to the case, and knows that one of the highly individual 'types' is responsible for the serial murders of a number of women. I fairly early on discovered the connection between these women - they all have gem names. Eventually it comes out that the murderer is - as usual with Marsh - not the least likely but the least likeable character, a grumpy little
—Surreysmum
My second Ngaio Marsh book and I really enjoyed it although the reveal of who the murderer was at the end sort of confused me as well as what one of the characters was doing at the time of the last murder. I couldn't quite get what implied oddball thing he was doing. I never cared for that character nor his wife as they were mean, busy-body types. The first book of hers' I read was one written in the 1930s and this one, I believe, is from toward the end of her career in the 1950s. I can see the change in Alleyn and am curious to read when he met his wife. There is a charm to her writing that I enjoy. The premise was interesting and the characters were unique. I didn't like the portrayal of the homosexual character as he was unfortunately written in keeping with society's views at the time.
—DH Hanni
Ngaio Marsh is brilliant for when you are too tired or busy to concentrate on anything more high brow, just like Agatha Christie. I personally prefer the earlier ones from the 1930s and during the war, and the ones set in New Zealand rather than in the UK, but they are all good. I am unashamedly in love with the hero of all Marsh's books, Inspector Alleyn, but again I do prefer him when he's younger in the earlier books. Singing in the Shrouds, is from the 1950s and takes place on a boat. It was nothing amazing, but did the job of entertaining me during a busy week without requiring too much brain power.
—Scuzzymonster
