Vintage Murder (1937)

Blurb:

My review:

Based on Marsh’s own knowledge of her native New Zealand and of the theatre, this early story (her fifth) features a very Wimseycal Insp. Alleyn, visiting the North Island for his health, making very obvious attempts to avoid patronising the local police force while investigating the murder of the touring company managing director at his wife’s birthday by plummeting plonk—a method which, like the victim, is hardly hole-proof.  While the serial interviews of the archly drawn actors are lively enough, the plot (attempted murder, murder and theft) is too slender to carry the book, and there is little of note in Alleyn’s detection, the mass clearing of all suspects bar one leaving the murderer in the  open—and continually clearing him only increases suspicion.

To the Bibliography.

To the Ngaio Marsh Page.

To the Grandest Game in the World.

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