Enter a Murderer

The second book in my Ngaio Marsh Challenge is set in the theatre and had me wondering if I was going to cope with all the actors!

My copy is a 1983 Fontana edition with an eye catching, but unimaginative cover.

The back cover blurb goes thus:



Enter a Murderer, by Ngaio Marsh.

THE CRIME
was committed on stage at the Unicorn Theatre, when an unloaded gun fired a very real bullet.

THE VICTIM
was Arthur Surbonadier, an actor clawing his way back to stardom using blackmail instead of talent.

THE SUSPECTS
included two unwilling girlfriends and several relieved blackmail victims.

The stage was set for one of Roderick Alleyn's most baffling cases...

I suppose I should have known that if I can't stand looking at the lives of actors and actresses played out all over the media in the real world, I'd struggle with their goings on and dramatics in a fictional one, so although overall I enjoyed the book, it did irritate me. Call it my inbuilt anti-histrionics-o-meter, but I did have an overwhelming urge to slap a few of them. Apologies to all the actors and actresses I may have just offended.

I think it will take me a few Ngaio Marsh books to settle in to the language of the day and learn to read them through my nostalgia tinted glasses, but I failed to warm to Roderick Alleyn in this one, and much preferred him in the first book, A Man Lay Dead.

Never mind, I shall push on, roll on the next book... The Nursing Home Murder...Hopefully no actors in that one.