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Available
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Series
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Tower
Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML: Tainted wine sends a member of a religious sect to meet her maker in a witty mystery marked by "quiet, intelligent deduction" (Kirkus Reviews). Did lovely Cara Quoyne get a whiff of the bitter almonds as she raised the goblet to her lips? We'll never know: With a single sip of prussic acid she transported herself to the Hereafter. Now Inspector Alleyn must investigate a murder at the House of the Sacred Flame, a rather quirky little religious sect in London where Cara was a novice. It seems that somebody was operating from very un-spiritual motivations . . . "Much better than the average run of mystery tales." �The New York Times.
User reviews
LibraryThing member MusicMom41
On a whim, Roderick Alleyn’s friend, the journalist Nigel Bathgate, braves a howling storm to gate-crash a cultish ceremony at the House of the Sacred Flame, whose sign he has been watching from the window of his flat. There he witnesses a bizarre ceremony which ends in an unexpected death.
In this fourth book of the series, Marsh is starting to hit her stride as a major player in the Golden Age of detective writers. Her detective is becoming more of a personality by his actions and what he says, rather than by author description, and Bathgate makes a better foil for him than Hastings does for Poirot. At one point, Alleyn refers to Bathgate as his “Watson.” The characters created for this novel are somewhat bizarre but easily distinguishable. Marsh, also seems to be more comfortable with her work now. The following conversation between Alleyn and Bathgate occurs at almost exactly the halfway point in the book:
“Look here,” said Nigel suddenly, “let’s pretend it’s a detective novel. Where would we by by this time? About halfway through, I should think. Well, who’s your pick.”
“I’m invariably gulled by detective novels. No herring so red but I raise my voice and give chase.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Nigel.
“Fact. You see in real detection herrings are so often out of season.”
“Well, never mind, who’s your pick?”
“It depends on the author. If it’s Agatha Christie, Miss Wade’s occulted guilt drips from every page. Dorothy Sayers’s Lord Peter would plump for Pringle, I fancy. Inspector French would go for Ogden. Of course, Ogden, on the face of it, is the first suspect.”
I suspect that she’s hinting that Roderick Alleyn is in the mold of the brilliant Scotland Yard detective invented by Freeman Wills Crofts a decade or so before Alleyn’s first appearance. If you enjoy Golden Age mysteries, I recommend this one. 3 ½ stars
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Rather than calling the Yard, he immediately calls his friend Alleyn and the game is afoot! (Of course, Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn calls the Yard for his crew before he leaves the comfort of his fireside and book to go out into that storm!)In this fourth book of the series, Marsh is starting to hit her stride as a major player in the Golden Age of detective writers. Her detective is becoming more of a personality by his actions and what he says, rather than by author description, and Bathgate makes a better foil for him than Hastings does for Poirot. At one point, Alleyn refers to Bathgate as his “Watson.” The characters created for this novel are somewhat bizarre but easily distinguishable. Marsh, also seems to be more comfortable with her work now. The following conversation between Alleyn and Bathgate occurs at almost exactly the halfway point in the book:
“Look here,” said Nigel suddenly, “let’s pretend it’s a detective novel. Where would we by by this time? About halfway through, I should think. Well, who’s your pick.”
“I’m invariably gulled by detective novels. No herring so red but I raise my voice and give chase.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Nigel.
“Fact. You see in real detection herrings are so often out of season.”
“Well, never mind, who’s your pick?”
“It depends on the author. If it’s Agatha Christie, Miss Wade’s occulted guilt drips from every page. Dorothy Sayers’s Lord Peter would plump for Pringle, I fancy. Inspector French would go for Ogden. Of course, Ogden, on the face of it, is the first suspect.”
I suspect that she’s hinting that Roderick Alleyn is in the mold of the brilliant Scotland Yard detective invented by Freeman Wills Crofts a decade or so before Alleyn’s first appearance. If you enjoy Golden Age mysteries, I recommend this one. 3 ½ stars
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LibraryThing member mmyoung
A intriguing opening scene is followed by a pedestrian paint-it-by-numbers investigation that stretches the incredulity of this reader. The obvious person did it -- we spend page after page going down the side alleys of homophobia and anti-drug screeds with a side dish of the rubbishing of any non
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mainstream (for the Britain of the time) religion. Show Less
LibraryThing member seasonsoflove
Ngaio Marsh is one of my favorite mystery writers, and Death in Ecstasy contained so many of the reasons why I love her work.
Nigel Bathgate and Inspector Alleyn are a great take on the classic Holmes and Watson trope. The supporting characters, especially Fox and Bailey, bring humor and a warm
The central mystery surrounds a mysterious cult, and all the unique and complex characters caught up in it. The surprises and twists are well-played, and the ending is one that rings true when reading back.
If you haven't read any Ngaio Marsh, I definitely recommend you do. She is a classic mystery writer!
Nigel Bathgate and Inspector Alleyn are a great take on the classic Holmes and Watson trope. The supporting characters, especially Fox and Bailey, bring humor and a warm
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sense of familiarity. The central mystery surrounds a mysterious cult, and all the unique and complex characters caught up in it. The surprises and twists are well-played, and the ending is one that rings true when reading back.
If you haven't read any Ngaio Marsh, I definitely recommend you do. She is a classic mystery writer!
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LibraryThing member jeffome
I struggled with this one....all i can say is thank god i did not start with this Marsh book, because i may likely have never tried another... I have enjoyed the handful i have read up until now, but this one is a near fail for me. Basically, I did not like anyone involved in the book....not even
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sure i liked Alleyn in the beginning. Weird setting, odd, unlikable characters, and i struggled to care about any of it. There was also some rather harsh treatment of 2 gay characters....from EVERYONE!!!! That was just different.....completely different time, i know, but harsh it was. The final 20-30 pages barely redeemed it for me from being a 2-star.....proceed with caution...... Show Less
LibraryThing member anthonywillard
Ngaio Marsh is one of my favorite mystery authors, but Death in Ecstasy fell sort of flat for me. The plot is way too vague to prevent the story line from getting monotonous. The detection consists of a long series of inconclusive interviews with the several suspects, all of whom are introduced at
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the outset. When everyone has been interviewed, then it is time to go back and interview everyone again, getting little or nothing more out of them, so that at the end, the evidence could be plausibly built into a case against any of them, and the solution is only reached through a couple of deus ex machina tricks that occur in the final few pages. Failed plotting. Fun characterization, though grossly prejudiced against various minorities, including Americans. The Nigel Bathgate character, awkward in previous novels of the series, becomes completely implausible in this one, but begins to play more of a second fiddle role. Alleyn, by this episode firmly established as the series detective, still has some maturing to do. He is cranky, whines a lot, and his snobbish humor is frequently sarcastic and screechy. If you haven't read the other Ngaio Marsh novels already, pick a different one. This, and Tied Up in Tinsel, should be reserved for the day when you become a Marsh completist. Show Less
LibraryThing member Figgles
An early Alleyn. Alleyn's friend, journalist Nigel Bathgate, attends (out of curiosity) the service of a pantheistic cult. At the height of the ritual one of the initiates dies horribly and Alleyn is called in to investigate. Although outwardly dated in style the book's themes of sex, drugs and
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money dressed up as weird religion are universal. First hint of Ngaio's apparent revulsion to homosexual men shown in the characters of the two delicate acolytes. Interesting read. Show Less
LibraryThing member Vivl
Not quite a classic, but very enjoyable and well-written. It seemed at the start as though the characters were going to be too stereotypic for me to cope with, but they were broadened out satisfactorily. I figured out who must have "dunnit" reasonably early on, but whether that's because some
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memory of previous read-throughs is lurking in my brain I'm not sure. Show Less
LibraryThing member amelish
Sounds spicy... wasn't really.
LibraryThing member themulhern
Ngaio Marsh's descriptions of the London rain can be rather good. The details of people's living arrangements in the '30s are interesting. Alleyn is just deeply annoying and pretentious. Heroin is the drug of choice in this book; I always thought cocaine was the drug of the 30s and that heroin was
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much more modern, but evidently not. Marsh comes across as weirdly and overtly homophobic; since she was in the theatre I guess she didn't suffer from the belief that queers didn't exist but she sure thought it was right to find them repellent. Show Less
LibraryThing member smik
This was #4 in Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn series (although Marsh's first novel was published only in 1934, two years earlier).
It features the team of Detective Inspector Alleyn, his offsider Fox, and journalist Nigel Bathgate. It all begins when Bathgate enters the House of the Sacred Flame, a
Cara Quayne was an extremely wealthy woman who was known to have left most of her fortune to the House of the Sacred Flame and to it's priest. This was her first occasion as the Sacrificial Vessel. She had been training for a month for the event.
To make sure the reader is up to speed, Alleyn and Bathgate draw up a list of suspects with motives at least twice. The author drops a couple of large hints about the identity of the murderer, which I should have picked up but didn't. There's a matter of missing bearer bonds, addiction and drug running, and entrapment, but in the long run Alleyn would not have solved the case without help from a couple of suspects.
It is an interesting novel because there is mention of how other authors like Agatha Christie would have fleshed out a plot like this.
I have read this for my participation in Crime Fiction of the Year Challenge @ Past Offences
It features the team of Detective Inspector Alleyn, his offsider Fox, and journalist Nigel Bathgate. It all begins when Bathgate enters the House of the Sacred Flame, a
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new religious sect not far from his flat, in search of amusement, and witnesses the death of a woman from poisoning. She has been participating in a ceremony where a chalice of wine is handed around a small circle of people and is finally drunk by her. Bathgate catches the unmistakeable smell of bitter almonds.Cara Quayne was an extremely wealthy woman who was known to have left most of her fortune to the House of the Sacred Flame and to it's priest. This was her first occasion as the Sacrificial Vessel. She had been training for a month for the event.
To make sure the reader is up to speed, Alleyn and Bathgate draw up a list of suspects with motives at least twice. The author drops a couple of large hints about the identity of the murderer, which I should have picked up but didn't. There's a matter of missing bearer bonds, addiction and drug running, and entrapment, but in the long run Alleyn would not have solved the case without help from a couple of suspects.
It is an interesting novel because there is mention of how other authors like Agatha Christie would have fleshed out a plot like this.
I have read this for my participation in Crime Fiction of the Year Challenge @ Past Offences
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LibraryThing member antiquary
a woman being initiated into a cult called the House of the Sacred Flame drops dead after drinking from a chalice.
LibraryThing member wdwilson3
Getting better. Oh-so-talkie police procedural has a bit of mystery to it, though the book is burdened with pseudo-American talk, mockery of gays, and drug naivete.
LibraryThing member michdubb
I found this one to be a bit tedious. Obvious solution, over done accents, under done characters, irrelevant homophobia. Marsh’s strength is in description of setting and scene. Very vivid. On to the next one in the series. Fingers crossed.
LibraryThing member nordie
When lovely Cara Quayne dropped dead to the floor after drinking the ritual wine at the House of the Sacred Flame, she was having a religious experience of a sort unsuspected by the other initiates. Discovering how the fatal prussic acid got into the bizarre group's wine is but one of the
I need an additional favourite crime writer like I need a hole in the head!
I believe this is the 4th in the series, written during the 1930s and therefore a contemporay of Agatha Christie.
The dialogue between Alleyn and Fox is witty (but I can see the potential to be annoying if it was the same in every book), and there's some implied world-awareness put into the book about the acolytes that got the message across without being too in-your-face about it ("I think the Greeks may have a word for them" being just one example).
Anyway, cant believe that I've got this far without reading Ngaio Marsh books before, and need to keep an eye out for more!
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perplexing riddles that confronts Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn when he's called to discover who sent this wealthy cult member to her untimely deathI need an additional favourite crime writer like I need a hole in the head!
I believe this is the 4th in the series, written during the 1930s and therefore a contemporay of Agatha Christie.
The dialogue between Alleyn and Fox is witty (but I can see the potential to be annoying if it was the same in every book), and there's some implied world-awareness put into the book about the acolytes that got the message across without being too in-your-face about it ("I think the Greeks may have a word for them" being just one example).
Anyway, cant believe that I've got this far without reading Ngaio Marsh books before, and need to keep an eye out for more!
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1936
Physical description
320 p.; 19 cm