1989 collection of short mystery stories, some featuring Roderick
Alleyn.
Last year I read Allingham's Mr Campion and Others, and found
it something of a failure, with stories that became repetitious and
failed to develop enough character to be really interesting. This
volume is a rather more effective approach to the anthology of short
mystery stories, with more varied plots; while there still isn't
really room to develop characters in detail, they feel as though
given space they might do more than their stock roles indicate.
Roderick Alleyn and Portrait of Troy are Marsh's descriptions of
the geneses of these characters; I've found them attached to other
novels in the series. (Marsh claims that Sayers fell in love with
Wimsey, and that she didn't with Alleyn; I don't find either part of
this entirely convincing.)
Death on the Air (1936) has a domestic tyrant killed by an ingenious
and perhaps over-complex scheme; there's an obvious false lead, and
things are wrapped up neatly as (characteristically of early Alleyn)
the murderer is provoked into a confession.
Dr Meadows looked at the Inspector. You agree with me, it seems. Do
you suspect—?"
"Suspect? I'm the least suspicious man alive. I'm merely being
tidy."
I Can Find My Way Out (1946) should be read between Surfeit of
Lampreys (which introduces a significant character) and Opening
Night (which gives away how this one was done); it's a murder at a
theatre which uses many of the same stock roles as Opening Night
would expand on, and since I happened to read Opening Night before
this it seemed rather flat.
The stage manager returned to the set where he encountered his
assistant. "What's biting him?" asked the assistant.
"He wanted a dressing room with a fire."
"Only natural,' said the ASM nastily. ‘He started life reading gas
meters."
Chapter And Verse: the Little Copplestone Mystery (1973) has
mysterious notations in a family bible leading to Alleyn's uncovering
of a serial killer. And that's it for Alleyn in this book.
The Hand in the Sand (1953) is an account of real life, with
possible insurance fraud; Marsh explains how she'd have liked to use
it in a novel, but part of its charm is the mystery and incompleteness
of the story.
The Cupid Mirror (1972) is a short anecdote of praiseworthy murder
in plain sight, in the context of an excellent dinner.
A Fool About Money (1973) is a non-mystery anecdote, a trivial event
which might be drawn from the life.
Morepork (1979) has a variety of unsympathetic people on a camping
trip deep in the wilds of New Zealand, and a method of catching the
killer that might have been more remarkable in earlier decades.
Moonshine (pre-1936) is a very early piece concerning a child and
Father Christmas.
Evil Liver (1975) is a script for
Crown Court
concerning a lethal falling-out between neighbours. Because of the
programme's format (the jury of non-actors would be expected to make
their own decision during recording), there are two abbreviated
endings, but it's pretty clear well before that point what has been
happening.
My Poor Boy (1959) is an explanation of the life of an author,
written in the form of a response to a hopeful novelist: in short,
it's hard work.
This is a very mixed bag, and the mysteries are better than the
non-mysteries, but everything here works, and it never quite becomes
formulaic (though a clue to one story is given by the resolution of an
earlier one). Recommended.
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