When in Rome

Summary: Alleyn goes undercover on a Roman holiday tour led by a sketchy tour guide suspected of drug smuggling and other corrupt activities and ends up collaborating in a murder investigation.

This Ngaio Marsh work is different. Alleyn travels alone and incognito to Rome to find convicting evidence on a drug smuggler who is a British subject, and discover the other key figures of a syndicate led by a man named Ziegfeldt.. Fox and Bailey are back at Scotland Yard providing support. The story draws upon Marsh’s own Roman holiday in 1968, reproducing a tour of a basilica, street scenes, and even a student demonstration which she observed in Paris.

The novel begins with author Barnaby Grant enjoying a coffee at an outdoor café when a show more melee occurs, sending him sprawling with a blow to the shoulder. When he recovers, he discovers that the brief case with the only copy of his latest novel manuscript is missing. Three days later, the manuscript turns up in the form of Sebastian Mailer, who accepts no reward but a dinner with Grant. He mentions he also is a writer, then invites Grant to less reputable entertainment…and then turns around and blackmails him the next day. But what does he have on Grant?

What he does secure is Grant’s presence on an exclusive and expensive tour Mailer organizes, the first of which begins after the launch of Grant’s novel. An elderly Dutch couple associated with a religious publisher, a reputed former military figure, Major Sweet, a dissolute young man, Kenneth Dorne, and his mother Sonia, Lady Braceley are signed up. Rounding out the group are a young girl, Sophie Jason, from Grant’s publishing house, and Alleyn, trying to get close to Mailer.

When the tour reaches the Basilica di San Tommaso several things happen. A card seller verbally attacks Mailer, and is later seen in the shadows on the lower level of the structure. Mailer disappears as does she. Subsequently she is found in a sarcophagus while Mailer remains missing but was never seen leaving the Basilica. Alleyn reveals himself and joins the Roman investigators. It turns out that every man in the entourage is being extorted in some way by Mailer and Sweet and Dorne were absent during the time when the murder may have occurred.

A few days later, Mailer turns up at the bottom of a subterranean well in the Basilica. He was the lead suspect in the death of the woman, but who killed him? Was it one of the men or Mailer’s capable assistant? Eventually, the Roman authorities identify the suspect, who dies in an accident. But Alleyn connects the dots differently, and, in a first as far as I can determine, does not reveal him but lets him go.

This twist makes for an unusual ending, far different from the exciting “revcals” in many of her stories. We also see Alleyn in more of an undercover role, even stealthily surveilling one of the tour members. While he contributes, he really takes a back seat to the Romans in the murder investigation. All this represents something of a departure for Marsh in breaking out of the typically British upper crust settings of he books (although her characters are drawn from this class). She even writes a love story into the plot. When in Rome… show less

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

You know what they don’t do in Rome? Bore their tourists silly. Sadly, that’s what this 26th entry in the series featuring Detective Superintendent Roderick Alleyn does. I have loved nearly all of the more than a dozen books I’ve read in this series; even The Nursing Home Murder and Death and the Dancing Footman at least rated two stars. And I finished them.

Not so here. Nothing much happens in When in Rome until the odious Sebastian Mailer disappears at the one-third mark. The blurb on the book reveals that he’s connected to the drug trade, so that’s no spoiler. At the halfway point, I had fallen asleep so many times while trying to read this book that I suddenly remembered something: show more Life’s too short to read lousy books. Definitely not recommended; instead, read one of Marsh’s excellent cozies. show less

One of her better later works! Alleyn is investigating the drug trade while masquerading as a tourist in 1970s Rome when drug investigation has to take a back seat to a murder investigation. Terrific characterisation with the British and Dutch tourists each a different type (including a raddled 1920s bright young thing grown old but still trying to be with it in the psychedelic 70s). The delicacy of the the relations with the Italian police, the backdrop of student riots, the mysterious beauty of the archaeological site beneath the 12th century church where most of the action takes place all add up to an engrossing and enjoyable read.

When in Rome, as the title suggests, is another mystery set away from Alleyn's home turf - which means that Alleyn yet again has to work with a foreign police force rather than his old friends.

Alleyn is not on holiday; he's in Rome to investigate a drugs smuggling case, and it is some time before a corpse turns up.

But the absence of a corpse doesn't mean there's no mystery. Instead, there are a lot of little interconnected mysteries surrounding Sebastian Mailer and his connections to the tourists he has persuaded in joining an expensive day tour.
Alleyn doesn't get to spend as much time interviewing people as he sometimes does, but that's okay; When in Rome is a satisfying, atmospheric mystery.

Also, one of the POV characters, Sophy show more reminded me just a bit of M.M. Kaye's heroines. She's a young woman travelling in a foreign country; she's sensible and likeable. And another of the POV characters is a novelist, which allows for Marsh to comment on a field she would have known a lot about. show less

Inspector Alleyn in Rome, in what he describes as an 'away fixture'. While boasting an attractive setting and one or two good characters, the book doesn't quite come together as one feels it should. It is also marred by the 'swinging' slang of the late nineteen-sixties – did anyone really say 'groovy' with a straight face?

This was my first mystery from Ngaio Marsh but I was not particularly impressed. The characters seemed stereotypical and the plot uninspired. Set in the late sixties, the attempts to be "hip" felt horribly dated.

English police superintendent Roderick Alleyn is sent to Rome to investigate Sebastian Mailer, a key member of an international drug smuggling ring. With the cooperation of the Italian police, he finds that Mailer is also involved in some other criminal activities, including blackmail. As part of one of his schemes, he leads a group of tourists through an Italian cathedral where he disappears. It’s up to Alleyn to find out what really happened to Mailer, and in the process of his investigation, he discovers the other members of the tour group each have their own secrets to hide.

This wasn’t a great mystery, but it wasn’t bad. The best parts were the descriptions of the city of Rome and the cathedral. I solved the mystery about show more two-thirds of the way through, but I was disappointed with how Marsh chose to end the book. Also, I didn’t like the way she portrayed the Italian police as being too inefficient to solve the crime in comparison to Alleyn and the English police. I don’t regret reading this one, but I probably won’t be picking up any of her other books. show less