Book Review: The Light Thickens

Light Thickens by Ngaio Marsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This Marsh cozy made me want to read Macbeth.  Then read the cozy again.  If nothing else, that makes this a mystery worth reading.

Marsh's last mystery.  Brings back some characters from Killer Dolphin (Death at the Dolphin in the UK).  The murder itself doesn't happen until the final 50 or so pages.  But, as I say again and again, who the hell cares?  Excellent writing, intriguing characterization and, bonus, makes one feel more literate about that Scottish play.


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Book Review: Killer Dolphin

Killer Dolphin by Ngaio Marsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There are two books that feature the fictional Dolphin Theater; this is the first one.  I read them in the wrong order so some of the plot points were already old hat to me.

Not one of Marsh's strongest mysteries but still a wonderful beach read.  Or sick bed read.  Her characterizations of professional actors are always a hoot and the prim attitude of Alleyn always makes me half-smile.


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Book Review: Black As He's Painted

Black as He's Painted by Ngaio Marsh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My least favorite Marsh book so far.  Very dated and rather offensive to modern sensibilities.  That said, please don't rewrite it and remove all allusions to the negro race as Marsh describes them; that would be silly.  The exploration of prejudice itself is very instructive, even if the mystery wanders over into sensationalism in a very un-Marsh-like way.

As a secondary note, I read the Jove paperback, published in the 70s.  Very, very obvious what was selling then;  the back cover blurb talks about a murder that might start World War Three when there's not even a hint of something of that within the text of the book.  Marsh's name is written in a font that my son said looked "bloody and full of terror."  Marketed as a slasher novel.  Yet still a cozy;  a cozy set outside the typical confines of most books of this nature but still featuring the type of persnickety-yet-likeable main character more often found in St. Mary Meade.


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Book Review: Scales of Justice

Scales of Justice 
by Ngaio Marsh 

Another pleasantly entertaining Marsh cozy. This one seemed to have more invested in the actual mystery but the Marsh watermark of cleverly-crafted descriptions remains the reason to read; "Smoke rose in cozy plumes from one or two chimneys; roofs cuddled into surrounding greenery ... a trout stream meandered through meadow and coppice and slid blamelessly under two bridges."

Book Review: Colour Scheme

Colour Scheme
by Ngaio Marsh 


Another Marsh cozy. I love these things for many reasons; I enjoy mystery, WWII era behavior and mores, and Brits. But the real reason I keep returning to Marsh is this; consider how she introduces the character of Maurice Questing;

"Maurice Questing was about fifty years old and so much a type that a casual observer would have found it difficult to describe him. He appeared in triplicate at private bars, hotel lounges, business meetings and race-courses. His features were blurred and thick, his eyes sharp. His clothes always looked expensive and new. His speech, both in accent and in choice of words, was an affair of mass production rather than selection. Yet though he was as voluble as a radio advertiser, shooting out his machine-turned phrases in a loud voice, and with a great air of assurance, every word he uttered seemed synthetic and quite unrelated to his thoughts."

A wordsmith if there ever was one. And, again, the murder almost seems unnecessary (in this one, it doesn't happen until almost half-way through) as one is so taken with the character studies and the chemistry of relationships.

I recommend that you pick these small masterpieces up at your local used bookstore when you see them and save them for a rainy day or an afternoon on the beach. Wonderful stuff.

Book Review: A Wreath for Rivera

A Wreath for Rivera (A Roderick Alleyn Mystery)
by Ngaio Marsh 


A Ngaio Marsh cozy. Though this mystery was very far-fetched and didn't have a satisfying closure, I am in love with the way this woman writes. Describing a character; "She had the air of being encased in a transparent, closely fitting film that covered her head as well as her clothes and permitted no disturbance of her surface. She had the faultless diction and balanced phraseology of the foreigner who has perfect command but no love of the English language."

Or a woman who walks into a ballroom where she had spent time dancing at balls during her teen years before the war; "Carlisle repeopled the hollow room and felt again the curious fresh gaiety of that night. She felt the cord of her programme grow flossy under the nervous pressure of her gloved fingers. She saw the names written there and read them again in the choked print of casualty lists."

Or the phrase "patently bogus."

An astute observer of human character, Ms. Marsh was.  And an excellent way with the written word.

Book Review: The Mystery of the Blue Train

The Mystery of the Blue Train: A Hercule Poirot Mystery
by Agatha Christie 


I love well-mannered, murder mysteries; Agatha Christie, Nagio Marsh, Mary Stewart. And I have an affinity for the ocd-persnickity style of Hercule Poirot ("The Comte de la Roche, as your expressive idiom has it, was not born on the preceding day") and for the practical, sensible yet alluring and romantic heroines. This book is the whole package. In the same vein as The Man in the Brown Suit (Christie) and Madam Will You Talk (Stewart). A lovely little read.