Final Curtain: Roderick Alleyn #14

This story revolves around a high-strung theatrical family prone to hysterics, tears, fights, and fainting fits in any trying situation. They are pushed to the extremes of their emotions when the head of the family is murdered.Sir Henry Ancred, baronet, has been a famous a Shakespearean actor. At seventy-five he is still unbelievably handsome with a ducal head and beautiful gestures. His family persuades Agatha Troy to paint his portrait as Macbeth. Troy is not only a renowned portrait painter but also the wife of Scotland Yard’s star investigator Inspector Alleyn.Alleyn has been on the other side of the world for over three years doing war work. His return to England and his wife is an engaging sub-theme in the novel.The puzzle is puzzling indeed. The red herrings are seductive. The waters are muddied by the Difficult Child of the family who is constantly playing pranks. And Sir Henry’s tendency to change his will regularly in anger adds to the excitement.Final Curtain was first published in 1947. Ngaio Marsh’s depiction of theatrical people is realistic and astute, no doubt reflecting her own experience as a young actress.This book fits nicely into the series, which just keeps getting better as I read through it.

The characters in the novel are very well written which makes them easy to visualize and also to laugh at. Yes, it's a murder mystery, but that doesn't mean that the characters have to walk around looking mysterious and threatening. The first part of the story is seen through the eyes of Roderick Alleyn's wife, Troy, who has gone to an estate to paint a portrait of the patriarch of the family. The patriarch, his adult children, and grandchildren have been stage actors. The family members who haven't chosen the stage, still have the histrionics of stage actors, much to the dismay of Troy and the inlaws married into the family.The plot twists are unexpected, and this is one of my favorite Ngaio Marsh novel.s

A keeper. However I will have to wait several years before I reread it. It is the solutions of the ones that stump us that stick firmly in our memory of a mystery novel.A World War 2 , novel. Alleyn is off on secret war related business so Agatha Troy lets herself be talked into going up North to paint a portrait of an elderly Shakespearian actor who was knighted for his acting. She arrives at a very uncomfortable family house party. There are so many people/suspects in this plot that I had to contruct a family tree. And as the title of this review states, Marsh completely stumped me on this one.

It has been a relatively long time since I read FINAL CURTAIN and I have read several other books thereafter. I no longer have a copy of the book and I cannot recall very much about it. However, Ms Marsh never seems to close off the narrative of Alleyn's life at the end of each novel and the reader can be certain that life continues for our hero. There will be more to come. I suspect there is some doubting that "we're done here." Meanwhile, the genre is alive and thriving. Have Faith (in) Martin, et al.

As usual, Marsh wrote a murder complex enough to involve multiple suspects, while keeping the whodunit reasonable and satisfying. What starts out as chaos contains a thread of logic. I found the pace to be one of the slowest of any Marsh book. One possibility is that, as satisfying as the murder mystery set-up is, some of the most annoying people ever are in this book. Marsh balances out their nails-on-chalkboard histrionics with the story of Roderick Alleyn's reunion with his wife, Agatha Troy, after three years of separation due to WWII. This is a sophisticated treatment of the difficulties war can impose (and did impose) on relationships, even deeply loving ones like that of Rory and Troy. I have since reread these scenes, and not the whole novel. The book picks up considerably in the last third.

This is truly one of Marsh’s best. Extremely well plotted. In retrospect I should have known who the murderer was but there were several that clearly could have been it and that I would have been happy had any one of them been it.

An insufferable family is the focus of their mystery. The patriarch dies, and everyone is a suspect. Troy gets caught up in the mystery, poor thing.

Another in a series of Allyn mysteries. Set in an old manor house, a portrait to be painted, mischeif , and a suspicious death.

Ms Marsh invites the reader to a hideous Victorian mansion whose pretentious ugliness reflects the dysfunctional family in residence. The tale is vividly of its time: the war is staggering to its close, rationing has encouraged overseas friends to send canned food to Britain, childish tricks can spur on homicide and Agatha Troy is commissioned to paint a silly, grand old man of the theatre whose 'borrowed robes' are too big for him...Ms Marsh's novels interest me because she shows how serious crimes are rarely the result of impulse but have been brewing for years. They are the outcome of many small life-events, perceived slights and insults, however mistaken, that twist the perpetrator's view of themselves and their victim. What the killers have in common is their focus on self, in which the decision that the victim has no right to live comes to seem logical and justified. Ms Marsh comes back to 'Macbeth' at the end of her writing career' in 'Light Thickens', another compelling read that shows her deep-rooted pity for warped humanity and at the same time her faith in the regenerative powers of kindness and courage.I would recommend 'Final Curtain' to anyone who likes a bizarre puzzle and a wide range of characters living in a damaged wartime society, where old values and patterns of power are challenged and money is still the root of all evil. The book is sometimes comic, sometimes pathetic, always true to its purpose, which is to show the terrible consequences of 'vaulting ambition.' The Scottish Play is here only a part of the theatrical history and fantasy of an actor whose 'life is fallen into the sere, the yellow leaf.'

Agatha Troy - artist - is married to Roderick Alleyn - a Scotland Yard detective. Troy, as she is usually known, is commissioned to paint a portrait of Henry Ancred at his country house, Ancreton. It is clear from the start that the members of his family do not get on and that Sir Henry's mistress, Sonia, is very unpopular.Troy endeavours to stay out of the arguments as she wants to get the portrait finished as soon as possible and get home in time to welcome her husband who has been away for over three years working for Special Branch. Sir Henry is found dead just before Troy leaves and she finds herself unwillingly mixed up in a murder enquiry that her husband is investigating.This is a detective story in the classic mould and it will appeal to readers who enjoy Dorothy L Sayers, Gladys Mitchell, Patricia Wentworth and Agatha Christie. I found it an intriguing story with some interesting characters and it kept me guessing until almost the end. I liked the writing style and found that the scenes and characters came to life as I was reading. Very enjoyable and I shall be reading other books by this author.

A Kindle book. Very fond of Ngaio Marsh, despite the slightly dated nature of the stories. A good read.

This must be one of Marsh's best. Most of the characters are so terribly theatrical darling, and likeable ones thin on the ground apart from the regular ones. The whole Ancred family is grotesque, the child Panty (yeugh!) is foul. My entire sympathy is for the poor cat. I have read all Marsh's books and wish there were more.

This must be one of Ngaio Marsh's best books. It's all there - colourful characters, a sleuthing Troy and Inspector Rory Alleyn the supreme upper-crust police detective. What more can one ask?