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    Colour Scheme (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
    Unavailable
    Colour Scheme (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
    Unavailable
    Colour Scheme (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
    Ebook360 pages5 hours

    Colour Scheme (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)

    By Ngaio Marsh

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 29, 2009
    ISBN9780007344574
    Unavailable
    Colour Scheme (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
    Author

    Ngaio Marsh

    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 an actress and producer and almost single-handedly revived the New Zealand public’s interest in the theatre. It was for this work that the received what she called her ‘damery’ in 1966.

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    Reviews for Colour Scheme (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)

    3.5/5

    137 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      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.
    • 2/5
      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.

    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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! :)
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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...