Hand in Glove

For some reason, it has been more than three years since I last read a Ngaio Marsh novel. I didn’t mean to stray. I simply got caught up with newer, more modern, flashier cozy mysteries. What was I thinking? Returning to Marsh is always a satisfying comfort.

In Hand in Glove, Roderick Alleyn, a detective inspector and the younger son of a baronet, investigates the death of retired lawyer Harry Cartell, an old-fashioned man with a very complicated family. Marsh paints a collection of exes and stepchildren and more, most of which would benefit by Cartell’s death. I never guessed the murderer, but Marsh was, as always, fair with the clues.

The novel was first published in 1962, but Hand in Glove seems to be set earlier, with more of a show more flapper than beatnik feel. The adopted niece, the incorrigible and spoiled Mary “Moppet” Ralston, and her bad-hat boyfriend all by themselves make the novel a winner. show less

A small village in England, a couple of pedantic, fussy old men, a huge dog in heat. What better place for a murder?

A satisfying mystery, with some amusement, some puzzle and some characters. I like to read Ngaio Marsh; she is reliable. Inspector Alleyn and his wife Troy are one of the few couples in mysteries which have a happy and stimulating marriage. My only disappointment was that the simpering, tittering character was not the one murdered.

Summary: An April Fool’s scavenger hunt organized by Lady Bantling ends badly when a body is found under a drainage pipe in a ditch.

It all started at lunch. Nicola Maitland-Mayne had been escorted by Andrew Bantling, with whom she is quickly taken, to the home of Mr. Percival Pyke Period. She is employed to take dictation on Pyke Period’s book on etiquette. Mr. Pyke Period invites her to what ends up a disastrous lunch. Andrew has departed to Lady Bantling’s after an angry interview with Harold Cartell, his guardian who refuses to make over Andrew’s inheritance to him so he can pursue a career as an artist. He opposed Andrew’s decision to leave the Guards to pursue his art. Harold Cartell seems generally disagreeable, a lawyer show more who has moved in with Pyke Period to conserve costs. He makes a disagreeable allusion to Pyke Period’s ancestry. He also has a truly annoying dog, Pixie, which is always getting loose and bites. Also at the lunch is sad Connie Cartell, Harold’s spinster sister has taken a 20 year old orphan, “Moppet,” under her wing. Moppet is accompanied by Leonard Leiss, a flashy dresser with a criminal background. Harold Cartell has insisted Connie end her relationship with these ne’er-do-wells. The lunch ends with Leiss looking at a cigarette case owned by Pyke Period which subsequently goes missing.

The scene shifts to Lady Bantling’s, Harold Cartell’s former wife, now married to Bimbo Dodds, who it turns out has club connections with Leiss. She’s organizing one of her legendary parties for April Fool’s, a scavenger hunt. Leiss and the Moppet wrangle an invitation and Andrew invites Nicola to join the fun. Everyone is out at one point or another in the evening. The next morning, Harold Cartell is found in a drainage ditch being dug for Mr. Pyke Period, underneath a length of drain pipe that has shattered his skull. It seems someone moved boards over the ditch everyone used so that the board upturned, knocking Cartell into the ditch, along with a lantern. Also, Mr. Pyke Period’s cigarette case is lying nearby in the ditch.

Nicola’s friend, Roderick Alleyn and his assistant, Inspector Fox are called in. Now she is a front row witness. Nearly everyone mentioned here are possible suspects. Cartell was not a beloved man. It all comes down to some missing gloves, and the hands that had been in them, moving the plank and levering the pipe into the ditch, as well as a mix up in correspondence from Pyke Period.

The upper crust folk come off pretty unlikeable, although Lady Bantling is a character. Andrew and Nicola stand out. While Andrew had a motive, he’d sat with Nicola in the car and then returned with her to Lady Bantling’s at the end of the scavenger hunt. They also stand out as the two people who are actually working to make a living; he in his art, she in her secretarial work. Eventually, even Troy affirms his art. The others seem to live vacuous lives, as do most of the wealthy in the other of Marsh’s novels I’ve read. One can’t help but to see thinly-veiled social commentary in these depictions.

While all of Marsh’s books are decent reads, this felt more workmanlike than some when it came to solving the actual murder (and another murder attempt). The eccentric but somewhat one-dimensional characters seemed to dominate the plot more than the twists and turns of unraveling the murder. I do hope, however, that we haven’t seen the last of Andrew and Nicola. show less

I liked Ngaio Marsh from the first time I read her work, which was as a teen. It immediately struck me as more personal, more emotional, more involved in the characters than the work of other mystery writers I had read. It was a break away from clever plotting to somewhat more complex situations, more character-driven.

It had been years since I read any of her work, having read everything of hers I could find many years ago. So it's been maybe 40 years or more.

I read this in a day. The story takes place in mid-century England, in Little Codling, a privileged world of upper class citizens and their servants, for the most part. Central in the story is Mr. Pyke Period, a snob but a rather likeable one, who is living with Harold Cartell, show more whose habits and dog annoy the rest of the household. Particularly Alfred Belt, Period's manservant, who mutters frequently, "It doesn't answer. I never thought it would".

Mr. Period's little world consists in the main of the Cartells (including Harold's sister Constance and her adopted niece Mary) and the Bantlings and Dodds, represented by Desiree, loud and outrageous, Andrew Bantling, her son by a previous marriage, and Bimbo Dodds, her current husband.

Into this little group comes Nicola Maitland-Mayne, fresh out of secretarial school and, a bonus to Mr. Period, from a long line of titled family. She has been hired by Period to do some typing for him. It turns out to be an etiquette book, given his obsession with proper behavior.

Andrew happens to be on the train with Nicola on the way to Little Codling, and they strike up a friendship. The friendship quickly progresses. Nicola in particular takes on the role of mostly objective observer in the events that follow, a role of value to Inspector Roderick Alleyn. For yes, there is a death that appears to be a murder.

Nicola is a longtime friend of Alleyn and his wife, painter Agatha Troy. She even shepherds her new friend Andrew to the Alleyn house to meet Troy.

While we watch Alleyn and the stalwart Inspector Fox investigate the crime, we get to see Nicola and Andrew investigate each other in the rather innocent way of the times.

Enjoyable and quick to read, full of interesting characters. show less

A good workmanlike Alleyn mystery, with a character link to "Swing Brother Swing". However the sense of period is slightly askew. Marsh may talk of Beatniks but the sensibility of the characters is resolutely pre-war. However if you enjoy her mysteries you will enjoy this one, particularly the the character of the revolting gangster's moll, Moppet!

Very good mystery. Old style but very satisfying, I think I like Ngaio Marsh more than Agatha Christie. Reading this made me want to read more by Marsh.

I was convinced that I knew who the culprit was but was mistaken. Alleyn makes quick work of this case, solving it within 24 hours!