Classic mystery has an atmospheric setting
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| Marsh's Death at the Bar - a pleasure to read |
The gentlemanly Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn has travelled to Devon with his subordinate officer, Detective Inspector Fox, to investigate the death of a well-known barrister, Luke Watchman, who has been staying at a village pub in Devon for a holiday with his cousin and a friend.
The post
mortem analysis has shown the presence of some kind of cyanide in Watchman’s
blood and so the local police have called in Scotland Yard to help them.
Alleyn and
Fox are glad to get away from the summer heat in London and they go to stay at
the traditional Devonshire inn, The Plume of Feathers, while they conduct their
investigation. Marsh presents the reader with a beautifully described setting,
some interesting characters and a complex investigation, that keeps you turning
the pages until she finally reveals the truth.
The death
occurs during a game of darts in one of the bars at the pub and it is not clear
whether the cyanide was on one of the darts or in a glass of brandy. The lights
went out because of a storm that evening and the floor ended up covered with
broken glass that had been trodden on by
the people in the bar.
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| Patrick Malahide played the part of Roderick Alleyn in the 1990s BBC TV adaptation |
Death at the
Bar, the ninth book in the Roderick Alleyn series by Ngaio Marsh, was published
by Collins in 1940. It was written in the spring of 1939 before the start of
World War II. Contemporary reviews were all positive about the novel and many of
the reviewers praised the plot and characters and said they had enjoyed the
humour.
Marsh had been
on a long visit to England in 1937 and 1938 and had visited Devon and Cornwall.
She was drawing on her memories of staying in Polperro when she created the
fictional village of Ottercombe, which is the setting for the novel.
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