Tags
Book Review, Crime Fiction, Death in a White Tie, Golden-Age Crime Fiction, Inspector Alleyn Book 7, Ngaio Marsh
Duchesses, Dignitaries and Debutantes Dance with Death
No less a ‘hard boiled’ crime writer than Dashiell Hammett called Marsh’s 7th Alleyn outing, Death in A White Tie ‘the best detective story I have ever read’ And it is indeed magnificent, though Marsh is a very different kind of crime writer than the gritty Americans of the same period.
Published in 1938, and impeccably set in the upper-class world of debutantes coming out for the season, Alleyn gets swept into this particular investigation in part through his mother, who is chaperoning his niece and her ‘bestie’ into their first season. And coincidentally Alleyn is already beginning to hone his intellect and his team into an investigation of the society set, as it appears a blackmailer is moving amongst them. Our hero has to tread carefully, using his society credentials without alarming those who are running the racket.
Things get much darker and much nastier though, when a murder which touches Alleyn personally turns the desire to find the killer into far more than a dispassionate solving of a crime. Grief and anger, not to mention a sense of personal responsibility are in this mix.
Glorious!! Benedict Cumberbatch uploaded to You Tube in a 7 part Audible read of this. Perfect delivery! Perfect! I am rarely entranced by voiceovers of books but, this..!
Further complications, making this more than just the routine solving of a crime are also on the agenda. Alleyn has some unresolved business to sort out with the well-respected artist Agatha Troy, who was involved for a while as a potential suspect in the previous outing, ‘Artists in Crime’ She is certainly guilty of capturing Alleyn’s heart, although being a suspect in a murder investigation does not necessarily make the best way for a far from faint heart to win a fair lady.
Alleyn (as ever) is a very human, very real person, getting more and more three dimensional as the series progresses
Death in a White Tie Amazon UK
Death in a White Tie Amazon USA
Lady Fancifull 
Great account of this novel!
Hm. That YouTube upload is presumably grossly illegal . . .
It will no doubt get pulled at some point, and the link won’t then work.
This sounds like a hidden gem – right up my era, too. I shall keep an eye out for it.
I’m really enjoying my paced canter through Marsh
I love Ngaio Marsh but haven’t read this one. I might have to acquire a copy it sounds great.
Well worth a track down. I’ve been finding some great deals on second hand Marsh’s from here there and everywhere via Abe Books
Oooh, you do make me want to start reading her books again!!
I finished number 8 not so long ago, and happily am still having to restrain myself from closing one and starting another. Delayed gratification is working beautifully and I’m teasing myself by occasionally looking at book 9 waiting to be opened………
You’re rocketing through Marsh! It’s inspirational 🙂
Ah, thank you Madame Bibi, but, truth be told I’m making myself take her more slowly than I might want to – she is such good fun!. I suspect that possibly the much later ones won’t be as enthralling for me as these earlier ones from ‘the golden age’ but we shall see.
Ooh, that Cumberbatch reading sounds like a lot of fun! I’m loving listening to various great readers doing Agatha Christie, so shall take a note of this and have a listen. It’s so many years since I last read Marsh, it’ll be fun to revisit her…
Hello fellow tennis fan. A sad Wimbledon in many ways. I wept for losers, unable to fulfil their potential. What a cruel sport, what a beautiful sport. I have no idea whether any later Marsh’s are set on the green green grass of Wimbledon. I live in hope