Colour Scheme (Inspector Roderick Alleyn, 12)

by Ngaio Marsh

Paperback, 2013

Status

Available

Publication

Felony & Mayhem Press (2013), Edition: Reprint, 312 pages

Description

It was a horrible death, Maurice Questing was lured into a pool of boiling mud and left there to die. Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, far from home on a wartime quest for German agents, knows that any number of people could have killed him: the English exiles he'd hated, the New Zealanders he'd despised or the Maoris he'd insulted. Even the spies he'd thwarted, if he wasn't a spy himself.

User reviews

LibraryThing member ds_61_12

Not my favourite Ngaio Marsh mainly because I don't like the spy theme and I miss Br'er Fox. The plot is good though, the clue are there, although they are rather involved this time. I myself have the "handicap" that plays an important role, so that does make it interesting, but the way it is

used...

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LibraryThing member Figgles

Interesting setting in an ill-run thermal spa in NZ during the middle of WWII. Did he fall or was he pushed into the boiling mud? Who is the spy, who is stealing sacred Maori objects? Everyone has a motive. (Interesting to note that when this was written the outcome of the war was still unknown).

Somewhat stereotyped characters - the pakeha as much as the Maori, and her much loved theatrical sideline. Enjoyable period piece, though not her very best.

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LibraryThing member mmyoung

I found most of the book plodding and by the numbers. As a novel set in New Zealand in the early years of WWII it was interesting; as a murder mystery it needed to be no more than a novella. Almost all the cast of characters are little more than caricatures. I found myself uninterested in or

impatient with most of them. The book would probably have been less tortuous to read had Marsh not felt a need to shoehorn Alleyn into an environment where one would not expect him to be given the state of the world at the time. A disappointment after the hints of deeper philosophical questioning glimpsed in the previous novel she wrote.

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LibraryThing member lahochstetler

A rather suspicious and unbelievable set of circumstances finds Inspector Alleyn in New Zealand. In the midst of the thermal springs of northern New Zealand, a rather unpleasant character meets his death by drowning in a pool of boiling mud. The blundering Claire family owns the local resort, and

they are well in debt to Maurice Questing, the unfortunate victim. Many wanted Questing dead.

At first I found the setting of this mystery to be quite interesting. The landscape is dramatic. That said, the solution to the mystery, the how, is deceptively simple. The who is rather unsatisfying, as the killer's character is not as developed as it could be. The side-plot about WWII spies operated at such a level of simplicity as to be somewhat absurd. A significant part of this mystery is figuring out how, exactly, Alleyn will come to be involved. I had that part figured about well before the end. This is not the best of Marsh's work. Her New Zealand mysteries never are.

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LibraryThing member leslie.98

While I enjoyed the north New Zealand setting, this WW2 mystery/spy thriller struck me as more dated than some of her more traditional mysteries. Even though this came across to me as more of a spy story than a murder mystery, Marsh did 'play fair' with the clues being there for the observant

reader (which wasn't me this time!)

I did appreciate how Marsh managed to get in a touch of the theater world even among the mud pots of Rotorua with visiting actor Gaunt and his entourage! :)

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LibraryThing member Kristelh

A mystery set in New Zealand during WWII written by Ngaio Marsh, a mystery writer from the Golden Age and one of the Queen's of Crime. I've read three of the four authors and have Margery Allingham left. This was an okay story. I read it for the GeoCAT. The story is in New Zealand area of thermal

activity and close to Maoris reserve. Ms Marsh is also a theater director and there is a bit of Shakespeare to the whole as well. I read a library copy printed in 1943 (I am surprised it was still on the shelf) with a back cover "This book, like all books, is a symbol of the liberty and the freedom for which we fight. You as a reader of books, can do your share in the desperate battle to protect those liberties--Buy War Bonds.

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LibraryThing member mirihawk

This book is full of disagreeable people and hardly features Mr. Alleyn at all. It's extremely dated and hardly worthy of Ms. Marsh. It's got a dreadful attitude to the native New Zealand population, a hearty disrespect for the transplanted Britishers who one supposes are the protagonists, and the

murder victim is a disgusting lecherous creep. Even the romance doesn't quite come off. The only saving grace is that I borrowed the audiobook from the library and so don't have to own it.

I continued to listen to the end because I am reading all of the Alleyn books in order, but I have to say you could totally skip this one. It doesn't further Roderick or Troy's story at all, except to tell one that Roderick is in NZ as part of his foreign office war work.

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LibraryThing member Matke

This book, like its sequel, Died in the Wool, takes place in New Zealand, with part of the plot involving espionage. But while I enjoyed DIW, this book fell flat for me. There were too many plot threads, which led to too little character development. And the story itself seemed to be missing her

sly humor.

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LibraryThing member leslie.98

3.5*

While I enjoyed the north New Zealand setting, this WW2 mystery/spy thriller struck me as more dated than some of her more traditional mysteries. Even though this came across to me as more of a spy story than a murder mystery, Marsh did 'play fair' with the clues being there for the observant

reader (which wasn't me this time!)

I did appreciate how Marsh managed to get in a touch of the theater world even among the mud pots of Rotorua with visiting actor Gaunt and his entourage! :)

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