Overture to Death

I have read about a dozen Marsh mysteries and found this to be among her best, for several reasons. The characters are distinct, some almost Dickensian in quality. The mystery is clever and very nicely revealed. And as always, Alleyn lets us in for a bit of philosophy along with his detection. It seems at this point in her career, Marsh was at the top of her game.

Ms. Marsh is definitely one of the top writers of the classic English puzzle mystery, and this book bears that out. I thought that I had read all Ngaio Marsh books years ago, and I was going to reread some of them, but when I looked I found that there were actually a few that I missed. This book was one of those. I couldn't believe how quickly I fell back into Roderick Alleyn and his sidekick Brer Fox. It was like meeting old friends. Alleyn is unique in the detective genre. He's very much a gentleman, but smart as a whip. Ms. Marsh also does the English village mystery in style. Her characters are realistic and believable, and it feels like you can picture them as you read. In this book one of the two main spinsters in the village is murdered, and when Alleyn investigates he finds there are numerous people with motives, but do they have the right victim? Was the wrong person killed? You have to read to find out.

Death by a Rachmaninov Prelude is surely one of Marsh's most inspired murder methods. In addition, we have a great village setting, a good mystery plot and Marsh's typical wit. For Christie fans unfamiliar with Marsh, this one is a great introduction.

Overture to Death is Marsh's best for a few reasons: 1) The background of the murder (English village life) is extremely well drawn. 2) The characters are so well-defined, you feel as if you know them. 3) The method of murder is the cleverest I've seen yet, from Dame Marsh, and is completely plausible. One of the reasons that people look down on mystery novels, is that often they are about plot with scant attention paid to the literary aspects. Not so with Ngaio Marsh.

For Ngaio Marsh fans, this book is a must. The usual deft and scathing descriptions of small-town characters had me rolling on the floor. I can never play the Rachmaninoff opening bars again without collapsing in laughter. Tight plot, smoothly balanced progression to a classic Marsh finish. The book includes a sweet romantic sub-plot, handled nicely. Beware, if you are particularly sensitive about remarks that make fun of spinsters, you may not find this book as funny as I did.