Death in a White Tie

An interesting story set in the London Season of the 1930s. Someone is blackmailing Society ladies, so Alleyn, unable to overtly investigate, asks his friend Lord Robert “Bunchy” Gospell, a well known Society character, to help with the investigation. In the meantime Alleyn’s beloved mother is chaperoning his niece through her first season – I love Alleyn’s mother, she’s such a fun character – and Troy, also a friend of Bunchy’s attends one of the balls. Then some close to Alleyn is murdered and Alleyn has to work hard to remain detached in order to complete his investigation. I really enjoyed this story, it completes the humanisation of Alleyn which started with Artists in Crime.

Overture to Death

Set in a Dorset village this is a story very much of its time, with two warring spinsters fighting for the attentions of the local vicar and when one of them is murdered, whilst playing the piano at a charity performance staged to raise money for a new piano, Alleyn is called into investigate, with the first order of business being whether or not she was the intended victim. While its very much of its time Marsh beautifully evokes the claustrophobic atmosphere of a small village, where everyone knows everyone’s else’s business and everyone has an agenda. I have one small quibble with this, Marsh seems to have gone for the easy route in selecting her murderer and the motive.

Death at the Bar

A murder takes place in a bar, but this is the simplest part of the plot. Called in to help the local police, Alleyn and Fox, have to try and work out the motive for the murder and the means, before they have a chance of singling out the murderer from a number of suspects. There were some inventive elements, our intrepid detectives are nearly murdered themselves, which brings about some lovely scenes between Alleyn and Fox, but again Marsh seems to have gone the easy way in choosing her murderer, although there are lots of red herrings along the way. ( )