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Read Tied Up In Tinsel (2000)

Tied Up In Tinsel (2000)

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Rating
3.81 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0006512275 (ISBN13: 9780006512271)
Language
English
Publisher
harpercollins

Tied Up In Tinsel (2000) - Plot & Excerpts

Originally published on my blog here in July 1999.This novel was published in the early seventies, but like most of Marsh's later works it still reads as though set in the thirties. The contemporary references it contains (there is one on the first page to Steptoe and Son, for example) seem rather out of place. Part of the reason for this is Alleyn's refusal to age; he spends over thirty years in his early forties. (Other authors managed to do this more convincingly: Leslie Charteris keeps Simon Templar around thirty, but he remains contemporary with his surroundings.)It is hardly surprising, given the title, that Tied Up in Tinsel is set at Christmas. It is an English country house party Christmas, as portrayed in several Marsh novels (and innumerable Christie ones). It is the title that leads me to suspect that it was written specifically for the Christmas present market in what is perhaps a rather cynical way.As happens so frequently, Troy Alleyn becomes involved in a murder through her painting. The victim is the personal servant of one of the houseguests - this is one of the reasons that the novel seems to be more of the thirties than of the seventies. The house servants are the one element which marks out Tied Up in Tinsel from so many other crime novels. Owing to a particular interest in criminal reform on the part of the house's owner, they are all convicted murderers, men considered particularly unlikely to re-offend. This provides a mechanism by which the puzzle can be made more convoluted. While it would not really be fair to make the murderers objects of suspicion - and those involved in the investigation affirm their innocence throughout - their fear of an automatic assumption of their guilt is used to motivate truculence, lying and obstruction.

I'm a huge Agatha Christie fan and I kept seeing Marsh's name pop up when looking for similar authors. But honestly, although there may be quite a lot of similarities between those two authors' plots, Christie's writing is far, far superior. It literally took half the book until the murder happened and the detective/main character showed up. That is just way too much build-up. If it's done properly, it doesn't need to be a problem, but it was just filled with superfluous detail and boring non-events. I was hoping that the second half would be more exciting, but alas. The detective is absolutely bland and the other characters are totally unbelievable and not nearly interesting enough to make up for that. The worst part though was the murderer - there were no clues whatsoever for the reader to work out who had committed the murder. At the end it was simply revealed and only then did we find out the motive etc. I think I'll stick with Christie.

What do You think about Tied Up In Tinsel (2000)?

This is one of my favorite Ngaio Marsh mysteries, set at Christmas at a sumptuous restored manor located just over the hill from a British prison. The "lord" of the manor is a sybaritic, snobbish man who is also an astute and wealthy businessman restoring his family's decrepit estate with ostentatious luxury. This being the early 70s, he can't find the storybook family retainers so he hires ex-cons: one-time murderers, to be exact. Into this he brings Troy Alleyn to paint his portrait, and also his eccentric family and his hypersexual fiancee. Naturally, there's a murder, and naturally, Troy's husband, Superintendent Roderick Alleyn, is called in to crack the case.
—Nancy Butts

A later entry in the Roderick Alleyn series, although it reads as if it were taking place in the 1930s. The characters and the setting are pure Alleyn......a manor house, eccentric characters, moneyed families and suspicious servants. A disappearance takes place during a Christmas party and of course, it turns out to be murder.......the question is not so much who killed the victim but why and how was he killed. If you are paying attention, that "who" and "why" are telegraphed about half-way through the book, so the question becomes "how" did the killer accomplish the deed. A satisfying mystery in this enjoyable series.
—Jill Hutchinson

Tided Up in Tinsel – Ngaio Marsh audio performance by James Saxon 4 starsEnglish country house mysteries are such perennial favorites, but I imagine it’s a challenge for an author to continually keep up appearances. This country estate drama has the further challenge of being set in what must have been the 1960’s. And, hey, ho, it’s Christmas Eve.The master of the house Hillary Bill-Tasman, having reacquired the ancestral home, is having his portrait painted. The artist is the well known Agatha Troy, who is also, conveniently, the wife of Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. The house is full of eccentric guests, including the fiancée, Cressida, who sprinkles her speech with ‘groovy’ and ‘it sends me’. There’s Uncle ‘Flea’ and Aunt ‘Bed’, a gruff old Colonel and his wife who arrive with devoted manservant. All of the other servants are convicted, but paroled, murderers. What could be better?On Christmas Eve there is a traditional and extravagant entertainment planned for the village children. Uncle Flea dresses up, not as Father Christmas, but as a Druid to distribute the presents. And, naturally, the unplanned part of the entertainment is a murder.There is actually a bit of a clever puzzle involved in the solving of the mystery. But mostly this is a spoof. It was fun. James Saxon gave just the right touch to the ridiculous characters to make them silly without being stupid.
—Jgrace

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