Artists in Crime

Ngaio Marsh

8/12/1999

Inspector Alleyn meets the artist, Miss Agatha Troy, on the ship on the way home from New Zealand. She irritates him; he irritates her. They are aware of each other on the ship but spend very little time together. Upon arrival in England, the Inspector visits his mother to finish his vacation.

While chatting with his mother at the end of his vacation, Inspector Alleyn gets a call from Scotland Yard. Could he investigate a murder in his immediate area? An artist's model has been killed at Tattler's End, Miss Troy's studio. When he arrives the assembled artists know how she was killed. She was pushed onto a knife while arranging her pose. What no one knows, or will admit, is who positioned the deadly knife so it would kill the model.

Garcia, one of the artists, was missing. He had been planning a walking tour that should have started when the model was murdered. All the evidence seems to indicate the missing Garcia. All evidence, though, is circumstantial. Inspector Alleyn needs to meet Garcia to determine guilt.

Ms. Marsh combines her well done mystery story with the beginnings of a romance for Inspector Alleyn and Agatha Troy. It is difficult to find himself attracted to one of the main suspects of the case. Garcia remains elusive as more facts are uncovered. They all seem to point to him as the best candidate to rig the knife for the murder. But until he can be found wherever he is walking, the case remains a puzzle.

The reader would have trouble jumping ahead of Inspector Alleyn in this book. Yet the reader can solve the mystery at the same time as he discovers new information. It is a well thought out mystery. This book can be found at .

A Man Lay Dead
Enter a Murderer
The Nursing Home Murder
Death in Ecstacy
Vintage Murder
Artists in Crime
Death in a White Tie
Overture to Death
Death at the Bar
Death of a Peer
Death and the Dancing Footman
Colour Scheme
Died in the Wool
Final Curtain
A Wreath for Rivera
Night at the Vulcan
Spinsters in Jeopardy
Scales of Justice
Death of a Fool
Singing in the Shrouds
False Scent
Hand in Glove
Dead Water
Killer Dolphin
Clutch of Constables
When in Rome
Tied Up in Tinsel
Black as He's Painted
Last Ditch
Grave Mistake
Photo Finish
Light Thickens