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Dec. 26th, 2018 11:07 amMy local library has just about every Ngaio Marsh book in e-format and they're perfect quick airplane reads, so I've been chugging through the series despite the fact that several of the books have left me with a profound feeling of ambivalence.
Since the first three books I posted about earlier this year, I have now read:
Death in Ecstasy, the one where Alleyn's journalist kind-of-sort-of-sidekick Nigel stumbles on a murder in a weird religious cult; unfortunately I got so distracted by how much Marsh and Alleyn despised the cult's altar boys for their heavily implied queerness that I now cannot remember anything else that happened
Vintage Murder, the one where Alleyn is on vacation in New Zealand when (as detectives on vacation always do) he accidentally trips over a murder in the midst of a theater troupe;![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sovay has written about how this book gets 75% of the way through a reasonable representation of a Maori character and then totally upends it, but honestly having just come off Death in Ecstasy I was so grateful that the prose didn't ooze contempt for Dr. Te Pokiha with every word that the two pages of dramatic racism at the end didn't hit me quite as hard. This book is also notable for the second time in six novels that Alleyn gets flirtatious in a sad sort of way with an actress who is a.) a murder suspect and b.) lying to protect an unworthy love interest. Ngaio Marsh has a type.
Artists in Crime, the one where Alleyn meets and investigates various students of Agatha Troy, his series love interest, for a murder at the artist's colony she's hosting. Cue lots of angst and self-loathing from Alleyn, and lots of justified dubiety from Troy. It's hard not to compare this against Sayers' Strong Poison; the setup isn't particularly similar but the pining hits some of the same notes, less deftly. Lots of well-bred pity for the murder victim, an artist's model generally referred to as a 'sensual little animal', which got every one of my hackles up. I think Agatha Troy is probably meant to be in her early thirties but the description of her hair immediately made a vision pop into my head of Zoe Wanamaker as Madame Hooch and I have since clung onto it with great determination, because I enjoy it.
Death in a White Tie, the one where one of Alleyn's friends is murdered in High Society and he takes it very personally; also the one where he and Troy get together, rather too quickly in my humble opinion. That aside, this was my favorite of this batch, both because of the examination of the weirdness of debutante society, and because Alleyn knows and likes many of the people involved, which makes both Alleyn and the rest of the cast come across as significantly more appealing. (Also, there's a one-scene wonder -- an angry and unrepetantly Jewish debutante who hates debutante-ing and wants to be an artist -- who was, miraculously, treated kindly by the narrative.)
I've really been spoiled by Sayers, honestly. Wimsey as a detective makes an effort to like and sympathize with most of the people he meets; everyone down to the murderer in a Sayers novel tends to be treated with a level of empathy that I had not quite been realizing I was relying on until I hit Alleyn. Of course Sayers has the prejudices of her time, but when she looks at a thing closely the social prejudices tend to recede in the face of the humanity of the individuals involved -- take, for example, the gigolos in Have His Carcase.
In the Marsh books, on the other hand, I keep bumping up against Alleyn's lack of respect for anyone who rubs him the wrong way, and then it rubs me the wrong way. But Death in a White Tie was better in this regard and so I have hopes things may improve.
Since the first three books I posted about earlier this year, I have now read:
Death in Ecstasy, the one where Alleyn's journalist kind-of-sort-of-sidekick Nigel stumbles on a murder in a weird religious cult; unfortunately I got so distracted by how much Marsh and Alleyn despised the cult's altar boys for their heavily implied queerness that I now cannot remember anything else that happened
Vintage Murder, the one where Alleyn is on vacation in New Zealand when (as detectives on vacation always do) he accidentally trips over a murder in the midst of a theater troupe;
sovay has written about how this book gets 75% of the way through a reasonable representation of a Maori character and then totally upends it, but honestly having just come off Death in Ecstasy I was so grateful that the prose didn't ooze contempt for Dr. Te Pokiha with every word that the two pages of dramatic racism at the end didn't hit me quite as hard. This book is also notable for the second time in six novels that Alleyn gets flirtatious in a sad sort of way with an actress who is a.) a murder suspect and b.) lying to protect an unworthy love interest. Ngaio Marsh has a type. Artists in Crime, the one where Alleyn meets and investigates various students of Agatha Troy, his series love interest, for a murder at the artist's colony she's hosting. Cue lots of angst and self-loathing from Alleyn, and lots of justified dubiety from Troy. It's hard not to compare this against Sayers' Strong Poison; the setup isn't particularly similar but the pining hits some of the same notes, less deftly. Lots of well-bred pity for the murder victim, an artist's model generally referred to as a 'sensual little animal', which got every one of my hackles up. I think Agatha Troy is probably meant to be in her early thirties but the description of her hair immediately made a vision pop into my head of Zoe Wanamaker as Madame Hooch and I have since clung onto it with great determination, because I enjoy it.
Death in a White Tie, the one where one of Alleyn's friends is murdered in High Society and he takes it very personally; also the one where he and Troy get together, rather too quickly in my humble opinion. That aside, this was my favorite of this batch, both because of the examination of the weirdness of debutante society, and because Alleyn knows and likes many of the people involved, which makes both Alleyn and the rest of the cast come across as significantly more appealing. (Also, there's a one-scene wonder -- an angry and unrepetantly Jewish debutante who hates debutante-ing and wants to be an artist -- who was, miraculously, treated kindly by the narrative.)
I've really been spoiled by Sayers, honestly. Wimsey as a detective makes an effort to like and sympathize with most of the people he meets; everyone down to the murderer in a Sayers novel tends to be treated with a level of empathy that I had not quite been realizing I was relying on until I hit Alleyn. Of course Sayers has the prejudices of her time, but when she looks at a thing closely the social prejudices tend to recede in the face of the humanity of the individuals involved -- take, for example, the gigolos in Have His Carcase.
In the Marsh books, on the other hand, I keep bumping up against Alleyn's lack of respect for anyone who rubs him the wrong way, and then it rubs me the wrong way. But Death in a White Tie was better in this regard and so I have hopes things may improve.
