I really didn't enjoy it all that much. I didn't like who was picked to be the murderer and it is set in the late 50's or early 60's, which is very annoying. Edwardian England is enchanting. England of the middle part of the century is simply depressing and vulgar. I didn't pick up on hardly any of the clues, mostly, I think, because I really wanted the murderer to be someone else. ( )

This was my first exposure to the Inspector Roderick Alleyn mysteries, and friends have told me that it probably wasn't the best one to read "first" (as it is near the end of the 30+ book series). Honestly, however, I enjoyed it. It's quite slow to get into at first, with perhaps too many characters introduced in the first few chapters. But, once the "murder" occurs, I got sucked into the story and the character interactions. Alleyn himself doesn't appear as fully developed as some of the "guest" characters, but that allowed the rest of the cast to shine.

Although I figured out parts of the "mystery" before the big reveal at the end, I was reading this one mainly for the atmosphere and the interesting characters. Ultimately, I found this one to be quite entertaining, and will certainly track down more Ngaio Marsh when the opportunity presents itself. ( )

This was my first mystery by Ngaio Marsh...and last. I got about half way through it, and skipped to the end, and wasn't sorry I did. The narrative was written from the perspective of too many different characters who were too clearly free of guilt, and the main detective was too far from the core of the book. It took too long to start up. The capping sin of this book, in my opinion, was a few characters got fairly explicit auras of suspicion written into the narrative, including (all) the guilty character(s). ( )

It's been interesting to read this series in order. Her later books have more modern dialogue and the main characters are more relaxed with each other.

This book finds Alleyn and company doing what they do best, poking around in a murder in a small village. The conversations between Alleyn and Fox are what I enjoy the most and are at their best in this book. Everything is satisfactorily resolved, well, almost everything. I like it when the best not so good people don't reward for the misdoings and that doesn't happen here. It's probably a better reflection of real life though. ( )