Final Curtain

Ultimately a let down. Much of this book is written as an examination of a particular type of English upper class family -- a family that wallows in the "specialness" and whose eccentricities are accepted where similar behaviour would be considered acceptable in members of another class. Marsh's

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obsession with this type of family goes back to her earliest books. Behaviour that would be considered narcissistic and even pathological is presented as tragic, annoying but charming or quirky if expressed by members of the correct class and educational background.

If the book were simply an examination of this type of family -- caught in amber at the last moment in time in which they could exist -- this book would be interesting. Marsh's need to cram a murder mystery into this scenario ultimates results in the book ending in a damp squib rather than a explosion let alone a satisfying conclusion.

Books like this underline how much Marsh's Scotland Yard and her detectives are mired in a world that was already dying before WWII and was moribund by the time this book reached publication.

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A marvelous book! We get Troy and Roderick both, which I do love. And both points of view, which I find fun. The puzzle is complex, and I wasn't sure till the very end who was the culprit, which is the very best.

It's important to remember, if you haven't the context, that Alleyn was sent to New

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Zealand for his war work, and Troy was in England doing hers, so they were apart 3 years. And remember, you couldn't really phone NZ from UK at that point - calling from one part of the country to another required a live operator and a waiting period for an open line. So for 3 years, they had only letters. And he didn't just fly home - he takes a ship, and she doesn't know for weeks when he will arrive. They manage to get her 3 days notice when the ship is close. So different from our lives today!

It's well worth a read - and if you aren't reading the whole series, you might want to read Artists in Crime first, the 6th in the series, which is the book where Roddy and Troy first meet.

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Alleyn Returns from the War
Review of the Felony & Mayhem paperback edition (2014) of the 1947 original

Final Curtain is one of several Ngaio Marsh works that manages to combine her love of theatre with the mystery world. Inspector Alleyn's wife Agatha Troy is commissioned to paint the portrait of a

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venerable actor at his somewhat rundown country estate. She is hesitant about the commission but finally intrigued enough to carry it out while also still awaiting Alleyn's return from his counter-espionage activities in the Pacific theatre during World War II.

Roughly half of the book is really an Agatha Troy investigation as she observes the quirky extended family of the actor who are all manouvering their positions towards the bequests of his final will. And of course he ends up dead under suspicious circumstances. Alleyn returns home from New Zealand to solve the case.

Trivia
Aside from Marsh's own WWII New Zealand based Alleyn investigations (Colour Scheme (Alleyn #12, 1943) and Died in the Wool (Alleyn #13, 1945)), Stella Duffy recently completed Marsh's unfinished Money in the Morgue (2018) which is now #33 in the canon, but could reasonably be numbered as #13.5.

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