An Excellently Twisty Tale

The first time I read this story I remember being disgusted that the nastiest character didn't seem to get their comeuppance. But with Ngaio Marsh you never do know who the baddie is until quite late on. Sometimes the nicest seeming characters turn out to be the star baddies.
Very well written and pretty well narrated too. A nice clear voice, even though sometimes the vocal distinction between characters wasn't always clear.
I very much enjoyed having Jeremy Sinden read this tale to me.

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Narrator not a patch on Saxon

This is a typically funny and well-written Marsh story - the county classes are parodied delightfully while the whodunit is littered with red herrings (some a little obvious) and a few subtle hints. I was not so enamoured of the narrator who cannot even pronounce the chief character's surname as Marsh specified. But it was his interpretation of Fox that was really jarring. Fox, we are told, including in this novel, has a bass voice, and for some reason Sinden ignores this completely, losing all the character's grave dignity in the process. Even worse, he gives Fox a foppish upper-class accent, when the character is most definitely not. The friendship and mutual respect between Alleyn and Fox sheds most of its charm and warmth when they both seem as privileged as the other.

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Another excellent Marsh.

Another wonderful period piece, classic, golden age whodunnit by one of its greatest proponents. Dame Ngaio's use of language is beautifully descriptive and this novel is fantastically and deliberately laugh out loud funny on many occasions. While read supremely by Jeremy Sinden, the mispronunciation of "Alleyn" is more sinful than Sinden. It detracts from the narration very slightly but it's a small deficiency. If he ever reads Dame Agatha's Poirot novels, l doubt he'll say "Poy Royt"!

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Learn how to pronounce Alleyn for goodness sake

Years ago, when I first read a Ngaio Marsh novel, my first task was how to pronounce her first name and her main character's second name. People are free to pronounce the name however they wish, but it is generally agreed that the upper classes (and Alleyn is definitely upper class) pronounce the name ALLEN. In a story which includes a pernickety pedantic family historian who cares about such things it is impossible to believe that the name would be pronounced Allain. It took me ages to learn to think of it as Allen... and the name is tripping me up all through the otherwise well done audio book. It's probably too late now, but if the name is pronounced the same way by all the other readers, it will probably dissuade me from buying another Ngaio Marsh. I find it soo irritating that the publisher didn't check this. They must have checked the pronunciation of Ngaio?

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Super narrator

I've listened to all the Ngaio Marsh narrators and Mr Sinden is my favourite: especially his Inspector Fox.

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Enjoyable

I am working my way through Ngaio Marsh's books. This I have to say is possibly my favourite so far. It kept me listening when ever I could. The Narrator Jeremy Sinden is I think the best.

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narration very poor

really made me appreciate even more the other narrators in this series. I do hope this is the only one narrated by this chap. Very dull and very little voice acting

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