Vintage Murder - Ngaio Marsh

Published in an omnibus edition with "Death in Ecstasy"; "Artists in Crime", by Harper: Hammersmith, London, 2009. Originally published 1937.

 A classic whodunnit, Vintage Murder has an extra fascination for me by being set in New Zealand (my home-country) in the 1930s. The author, Ngaio Marsh, was born in New Zealand yet was based in the UK for much of her career. It is fascinating to see how she interprets early New Zealand through the eyes of her English main character, Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn.

The setting for this mystery is a theatre in the fictional New Zealand town of Middleton, where a giant bottle of wine ends up crushing its victim right in front of Alleyn. This creative death is very quickly deemed suspicious, and Alleyn happens to get involved simply due to his proximity at the time.

I enjoyed the story, the setting, and some of the characters, although I did feel that the solution - though being technically plausible - might have been a slight stretch. Not my favourite Ngaio Marsh story, but certainly worth a read.

Completed 5 April 2019.

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