 First edition | |
| Author | Ngaio Marsh |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Roderick Alleyn |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Collins |
Publication date | 1940 |
| Media type | Print () |
| Preceded by | Overture to Death |
| Followed by | Surfeit of Lampreys |
Death at the Bar is a crime novel by Ngaio Marsh, the ninth to feature her series detective Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard and published in 1940 by Collins (UK) and Little, Brown (USA).
The novel was adapted for television in 1993.
The novel's title is a pun on the legal term the bar, and the public house as the plot concerns the murder of a leading King's Counsel, or barrister-at-law, during a game of darts in the bar of a pub in a small South Devon village.
The novel is unusually dated on its final page 'May 3, 1939, New Zealand'. Despite its publication after the start of World War Two, the story is clearly set before the war, in Spring 1939.
Luke Watchman, a top London barrister and King's Counsel, holidays in the fictional village of Ottercombe, South Devon, staying for a second year at the village pub, The Plume of Feathers, with his cousin Sebastian Parish, a West End actor, and their good friend Norman Cubitt, a painter. Ottercombe is a small, self-contained, picturesque fishing village, accessible only by a narrow road and foot tunnel. The Feathers is run by Abel Pomeroy and his son Will, who is an enthusiastic Communist, much involved in the recently formed Coombe Left Movement. The CLM has acquired recent arrival in town Bob Legge (who lives at the pub) as its treasurer and secretary. Also staying at the Feathers is Honorable Violet Darragh, a middle-aged, hard-up Anglo-Irish aristocrat and amateur watercolorist. The cast of suspects is completed by Decima Moore, a local farmer's daughter recently graduated from Oxford University, who has an understanding with Will Pomeroy, based on their shared left-wing views, and with whom Watchman is eager to rekindle a brief fling from the previous year.
The evening after Watchman's arrival, Bob Legge strikes the lawyer's finger with a dart while performing a trick and Watchman dies suddenly of cyanide poisoning, a particularly toxic rat poison used earlier in the pub's garage. How the cyanide entered Watchman's body is unknown. Although there are traces of the poison on the dart, it does not seem as if anyone could have tampered with it until after the fact. The police attention then turns to some brandy Watchman drank that was given to him by Decima to calm his nerves after the dart hit him.
Alleyn, with Inspector Fox, travels to Ottercombe at the request of Abel Pomeroy to investigate the murder. The Feathers's reputation is at stake because the inquest was inconclusive and some patrons believe Watchman was poisoned by Pomeroy's neglect. Alleyn rapidly detects the usual welter of motives, and the case seems to revolve around an old fraud trial, in which Watchman successfully defended Lord Bryonie by suggesting he was the gullible pawn of Montague Thringle, who was convicted and given a severe prison sentence. Before Alleyn can unmask Watchman's killer, in the face of considerable obstruction or outright hostility from the suspects, he only just contrives to save his assistant Inspector Fox from death by drinking cyanide-laced sherry from a bottle set aside for the two policemen.
With Fox recovering quickly, Alleyn unmasks the killer: Bob Legge. Legge is Montague Thringle who blames Watchman for his lengthy prison stay. Watchman fails to recognize Legge, whose appearance has changed drastically, but Legge recognizes him. While anyone could have poisoned the brandy or the dart after it was thrown, only Legge would have known that dart would pierce Watchman's finger when he deliberately missed the shot. Legge poisoned neither the dart nor the brandy but the iodine used to clean out Watchman's wound.
The local police work with Alleyn, and the Chief Constable asks to play Watson to Alleyn’s Sherlock.
Contemporary reviews were uniformly positive for this novel.
Maurice Percy Ashley writing in The Times had strong praise for the plot and noted an improvement in style compared to her earlier novels, less sentimental. Miss Marsh “presents us with a really clever problem in detection, the very thing to absorb our attention on snowbound, blacked-out evenings.” [1]
Ralph Partridge in The New Statesman called it a competent story, as “All the characters are lively, all the suspects plausibly suspicious and the clue is scrupulously fair.” [2]
Katherine Woods in The New York Times called it “a treasure” because of the rich characters, humor and setting, on top of the key aspect, a mystery to solve. [3]
Isaac Anderson in The New York Times Book Review liked the characterizations, and said “she knows how to employ humour without overplaying it.” [4]
In her autobiography Black Beech And Honeydew, [5] Ngaio Marsh describes Marton Cottage, the home in the hills outside Christchurch (NZ) she shared with her widowed father, as "a masculine household... with the emphasis on my father's generation", who would gather there of an evening to play darts. According to Marsh biographer Joanne Drayton, [6] by April 1938, Marsh had returned to Christchurch after a long 1937-8 visit to England, where she had spent time with her old friends, the Rhodes family, visiting Devon and Cornwall, including Polperro (on which she drew for her fictional Ottercombe), adding to Death At The Bar her knowledge of the darts games her father Henry Marsh enjoyed, in which Ngaio sometimes took part.
The novel was adapted for television in 1993 as part of the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries . The episode was directed by Michael Winterbottom and starred Patrick Malahide as Roderick Alleyn. [7]
Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966.
Roderick Alleyn is a fictional character who first appeared in 1934. He is the policeman hero of the 32 detective novels of Ngaio Marsh. Marsh and her gentleman detective belong firmly in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, although the last Alleyn novel, Light Thickens, was published in 1982.
Final Curtain is a 1947 crime novel by the New Zealand author Ngaio Marsh, the fourteenth in her series of mysteries featuring Scotland Yard detective Roderick Alleyn. It was published in Britain by Collins and in the USA by Little, Brown. Although set in a large English country house, immediately after the 2nd World War, it is effectively one of Ngaio Marsh's crime stories with a theatrical setting, given that it concerns Alleyn's wife Agatha Troy accepting a commission to paint a portrait of the great actor Sir Henry Ancred in the role of Macbeth, onstage at the theatre of his ancestral home, Ancreton Manor, to be unveiled at his 70th birthday party, amongst his family, most of whom are actively involved in the London theatre, one way or another. The novel was well received and reviewed.
The Nursing Home Murder (1935) is a work of detective fiction by New Zealand author Ngaio Marsh and Henry Jellett. It is the only book Marsh co-authored.
A Man Lay Dead is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the first novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1934. The plot concerns a murder committed during a detective game of murder at a weekend party in a country house. Although there is a side-plot focused on Russians, ancient weapons, and secret societies, the murder itself concerns a small group of guests at Sir Hubert Handesley's estate. The guests include Angela North, Charles Rankin, Nigel Bathgate, Rosamund Grant, and Mr and Mrs Arthur Wilde. Also in attendance are an art expert and a Russian butler. Unlike later novels, this novel is more focused on Nigel Bathgate and less so on Alleyn.
Enter a Murderer is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh. This is her second novel to feature Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1935. The novel is the first of the theatrical novels for which Marsh was to become famous, taking its title from a line of stage direction in Macbeth. The plot concerns the on-stage murder of an actor who has managed to antagonize nearly every member of the cast and crew. By chance, Inspector Alleyn is in the audience.
Death in Ecstasy is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh, the fourth to feature her series detective, Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard. It was first published in 1936.
Vintage Murder is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the fifth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1937. Based in New Zealand, the plot centres on a travelling theatrical troupe and prominently features Doctor Rangi Te Pokiha, a Māori, and a "tiki" (hei-tiki) a Māori fertility pendant.
Artists in Crime is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the sixth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1938. The plot concerns the murder of an artists' model; Alleyn's love interest Agatha Troy is introduced.
Death in a White Tie is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh. It is the seventh novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1938. The plot concerns the murder of a British lord after a party.
Overture to Death is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the eighth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1939. The plot concerns a murder during an amateur theatrical performance in a Dorset village, which Alleyn and his colleague Fox are dispatched from Scotland Yard to investigate and duly solve.
Surfeit of Lampreys is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the tenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1941. The novel was published as Death of a Peer in the United States.
Death and the Dancing Footman is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh, the eleventh of her Roderick Alleyn books and a classic example of the Country house mystery. Written in New Zealand, but set in a Dorset (England) country house, it was first published in 1941 (America) and 1942 (Britain), receiving rave reviews from The New York Times, and Britain's The Observer and The Tatler and hailed by the New Zealand Listener as "Miss Marsh's favourite among her own books".
Colour Scheme is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the twelfth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1943 by Collins Crime Club. The novel takes place in the Northland region of New Zealand during World War II; the plot involves suspected espionage activity at a hot springs resort on the coast of New Zealand's Northland region.
Opening Night is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the sixteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1951. It was published in the United States as Night at the Vulcan.
Spinsters in Jeopardy is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the seventeenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1954. The novel is set in Southern France, where Alleyn, his painter wife Agatha Troy and their young son Ricky are holidaying, although Alleyn is also tasked by his Scotland Yard superiors with meeting French police colleagues to discuss international drug trafficking through Marseilles.
Dead Water is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the twenty-third novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1964.
Last Ditch is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the twenty-ninth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1977. The plot concerns drug smuggling in the Channel Islands, and features Alleyn's son, Ricky, in a central role.
Grave Mistake is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the thirtieth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1978. The plot concerns the supposed suicide of a wealthy widow in a chic rest spa, and involves a rare, and famous, postage stamp. Set in and around the fictional village of Upper Quintern in England's Weald of Kent, it is the last of Marsh's "cosy" English village mysteries, and was followed by Photo Finish (1980), her final novel set in New Zealand, and Light Thickens (1982), her final novel with a theatrical setting. The book was well received and sold extremely well, as the author wrote in 1979 to a friend: "Grave Mistake seems to be beating all records in the U.S.A. It has sold 22,000 copies... & [is] still going strong".
Photo Finish (novel) is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the thirty-first, and penultimate, novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1980. Set in a millionaire's island mansion on a lake in New Zealand's South Island, it is the last of Ngaio Marsh's four New Zealand set novels - the others being Vintage Murder (1937), Colour Scheme (1943) and Died in the Wool (1945).
