Product Description

Ngaio Marsh returns to her New Zealand roots to transplant the classic country house murder mystery to an upland sheep station on South Island -- and produces one of her most exotic and intriguing novels. One summer evening in 1942 Flossie Rubrick, MP, one of the most formidable women in New Zealand, goes to her husband's wool shed to rehearse a patriotic speech -- and disappears. Three weeks later she turns up at an auction -- packed inside one of her own bales of wool and very, very dead...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142711 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
'In her ironic and witty hands the mystery novel can be civilized literature.' NEW YORK TIMES 'Ngaio Marsh is one of the detective novelists whose books I regularly re-read, always the test of a good detective story.' P.D. JAMES 'In the front rank of crime-story writers.' THE TIMES 'The finest writer in the English language of the pure, classical puzzle whodunnit. Among the crime queens, Ngaio Marsh stands out as an Empress.' THE SUN

About the Author
Dame Ngaio Marsh was born in New Zealand in 1895 and died in February 1982. She wrote over 30 detective novels and many of her stories have theatrical settings, for Ngaio Marsh's real passion was the theatre. She was both actress and producer and almost single-handedly revived the New Zealand public's interest in the theatre. It was for this work that she received what she called her 'damery' in 1966.

Customer Reviews

A well-spun yarn, but not too colorful
The chief suspects in this murder mystery each describe their version of events, some eighteen months after the crime. This gives the story a most unusual and intriguing structure. The characters are well drawn, distinct without being overstated. There is also a fine sense of period and place, those being wartime New Zealand.

So why a grudging three stars? Well, the solution to the puzzle is rather plodding; a systematic analysis of details rather than a brilliant insight. Also there is a general dullness about the characters and their setting. I suppose that's not surprising, given they are on a remote farm in winter, suffering the deprivations of war and trying to come to terms with an unsolved murder. But it would have benefited from the occasional comic relief or lightness of touch that Dorothy L Sayers or Conan Doyle could have brought to it.

All in all, recommended for the unusual structure and setting (albeit the 'local colour' is mostly grey) and for the quality of the writing, which is very good, but don't expect a classic puzzle. The author even makes one error in the solution (don't worry, this is not a spoiler) when Alleyn says "Only (the guilty person) could have put...". Actually, one other person could have; namely the one who found said item. I will however concede that the build up to the climax is genuinely suspenseful.

An excellent read.
This was the first Nagaio Marsh book that I have read. I am an Agatha Christie fan and really enjoy her books, but I have now found an excellent equal to Christie and would recommend Nagaio Marsh to all Murder Mystery readers.