Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Boston: Little, Brown, 1956
Description
At the winter solstice, South Mardian's swordsmen weave their blades in an ancient ritual dance. But for one of them, the excitement proves too heady, and his decapitation turns the fertility rite into a pageant of death. Now Inspector Roderick Alleyn must penetrate not only the mysteries of folklore but also the secrets and sins of an eccentric group, including a surly blacksmith, a domineering dowager, and a not-so-simple village idiot.
User reviews
LibraryThing member mmyoung
At this point in my rereading of Marsh I realize that I am having trouble seeing the books as they were received when first written and published. This particular story bothered me particularly for a number of reasons:
First, Marsh's books continue to be painfully class ridden. Members of the gentry
Second, one expects the murder mystery writer to use smoke and mirrors to distract the reader from the "truth" of whodunnit. What is not reasonable is that her detectives should be able to solve the crimes they are investigating in little time if it were not for the fact that they are constantly unwilling to do their actual work. In earlier books Alleyn felt uncomfortable requiring fingerprints from suspects and in later books he seems to feel uncomfortable actually asking questions. People don't answer questions. Police don't ask questions. Suspects are allowed to mill around and move things. In this particular case the SPOILER WARNING!!!!! murderer spends much of the book ordering those who witnessed the murder to shut up whenever they come close to spilling the truth--in front of police officers. The only way Marsh can account for the difficulty of solving the case is to have the local police officers act like bucolic yokels and the men from Scotland Yard to spend more of their time deferring to the gentry and feeling uncomfortable asking questions than doing the work they were called in do to.
Marsh does not limit her stereotyping to the gentry and the "peasants" either. The German woman in this book acts not like someone who has lived in England for years but rather as a recent refugee from the movie version of Nazi Germany. Marsh also throws in, for good measure, a rather nasty picture of the those who are 'inappropriately' interesting in British forkways. Appropriate interest is felt by members of the British gentry. Inappropriate interest is felt by foreigners who wear "different" clothes and speak with accents.
Throw in a thoroughly broad and uninformed picture of epilepsy and you have a book that seems to have been designed to reflect the biases and preconceptions of the fairly narrow demographic that made up Marsh's readership.
First, Marsh's books continue to be painfully class ridden. Members of the gentry
Show More
are well educated, speak standard English and either privately wealthy or hold down jobs as artists, lawyers or doctors. Members of the lower class are badly educated, speak painfully broad dialect and carry on the modern day equivalent of the jobs of their forebears. The books was published in 1956 and yet it reads as if it were a flashback to a time far earlier.Second, one expects the murder mystery writer to use smoke and mirrors to distract the reader from the "truth" of whodunnit. What is not reasonable is that her detectives should be able to solve the crimes they are investigating in little time if it were not for the fact that they are constantly unwilling to do their actual work. In earlier books Alleyn felt uncomfortable requiring fingerprints from suspects and in later books he seems to feel uncomfortable actually asking questions. People don't answer questions. Police don't ask questions. Suspects are allowed to mill around and move things. In this particular case the SPOILER WARNING!!!!! murderer spends much of the book ordering those who witnessed the murder to shut up whenever they come close to spilling the truth--in front of police officers. The only way Marsh can account for the difficulty of solving the case is to have the local police officers act like bucolic yokels and the men from Scotland Yard to spend more of their time deferring to the gentry and feeling uncomfortable asking questions than doing the work they were called in do to.
Marsh does not limit her stereotyping to the gentry and the "peasants" either. The German woman in this book acts not like someone who has lived in England for years but rather as a recent refugee from the movie version of Nazi Germany. Marsh also throws in, for good measure, a rather nasty picture of the those who are 'inappropriately' interesting in British forkways. Appropriate interest is felt by members of the British gentry. Inappropriate interest is felt by foreigners who wear "different" clothes and speak with accents.
Throw in a thoroughly broad and uninformed picture of epilepsy and you have a book that seems to have been designed to reflect the biases and preconceptions of the fairly narrow demographic that made up Marsh's readership.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ParadisePorch
February was a month of first tries of well-respected authors. I grew up loving Agatha Christie – and I don’t know how I never heard of Ngaio Marsh before a couple of years ago. (And I’m not sure that, without the Internet, I would be familiar with her yet today.)
This was my first Marsh
I liked Alleyn and I thought the mystery was fairly clued, if a little confusing, since there was a heavy country dialect and an apparent assumption that the reader would have some knowledge of British country folk theatre.
I’m definitely going to read lots more Marsh. This first try: 3½ stars
Read this if: you have an interest in folk theatre, particularly in winter solstice dance rituals.
This was my first Marsh
Show More
because I won it from Bev at My Reader’s Block for completing a mini-challenge in last year’s Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge, but it’s #19 in the Insepctor Roderick Alleyn series.I liked Alleyn and I thought the mystery was fairly clued, if a little confusing, since there was a heavy country dialect and an apparent assumption that the reader would have some knowledge of British country folk theatre.
I’m definitely going to read lots more Marsh. This first try: 3½ stars
Read this if: you have an interest in folk theatre, particularly in winter solstice dance rituals.
Show Less
LibraryThing member antiquary
My parents liked Ngaio marsh and I read a umber of them but overall found them too gloomy for my taste and did not keep many. I got this one because it involves traditional English village dancing.
LibraryThing member CasualFriday
I had high hopes for this book. Murder and morris dancing in an English village - what's not to like? But this did not capture my interest. I enjoy folklore and would have liked to learn much, much more about the origins of morris dancing and the mysterious figures of the ritual: the Hobby-Horse,
Show More
the Betty, and the Fool. But the characters and setting were just props for the puzzle-mystery. I don't know if this is the case in all the books, but the Inspector Alleyn of this work was boring: a mystery-solving non-entity. And the puzzle-mystery itself was unsatisfying. The who was easy to figure out; the how was confusing. Show Less
LibraryThing member ritaer
mysterious death in the midst of an ancient village mumming at Winter Solstice. Too much left to guess but characters good.
LibraryThing member Matke
This is probably the best Inspector Alleyn mystery I’ve read. It’s full of well-researched folkloric history involving Morris Dances, Sword Dances, and fertility rites. The yesteryear itself is pretty good, although the killer is obvious fairly early on. Marsh incorporates various village stock
Highly recommended.
Show More
characters to an excellent effect. Highly recommended.
Show Less
Awards
Crime Writers' Association Awards (Shortlist — 1957)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1956
Physical description
302 p.; 21 cm