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Roderick Alleyn #8
Overture to Death
It was planned as an act of a new piano for the parish hall, an amusing play to finance the gift. But its execution was doomed when Miss Campanula sat down to play. A chord was struck, a shot rang out and Miss Campanula was dead. A case of sinister infatuation for the brilliant Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn.
277 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1939
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About the author
Ngaio Marsh
200 books825 followersDame Ngaio Marsh, born Edith Ngaio Marsh, was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900, but she was born in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand.
Of all the "Great Ladies" of the English mystery's golden age, including Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh alone survived to publish in the 1980s. Over a fifty-year span, from 1932 to 1982, Marsh wrote thirty-two classic English detective novels, which gained international acclaim. She did not always see herself as a writer, but first planned a career as a painter.
Marsh's first novel, A MAN LAY DEAD (1934), which she wrote in London in 1931-32, introduced the detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn: a combination of Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey and a realistically depicted police official at work. Throughout the 1930s Marsh painted occasionally, wrote plays for local repertory societies in New Zealand, and published detective novels. In 1937 Marsh went to England for a period. Before going back to her home country, she spent six months travelling about Europe.
All her novels feature British CID detective Roderick Alleyn. Several novels feature Marsh's other loves, the theatre and painting. A number are set around theatrical productions (Enter a Murderer, Vintage Murder, Overture to Death, Opening Night, Death at the Dolphin, and Light Thickens), and two others are about actors off stage (Final Curtain and False Scent). Her short story "'I Can Find My Way Out" is also set around a theatrical production and is the earlier "Jupiter case" referred to in Opening Night. Alleyn marries a painter, Agatha Troy, whom he meets during an investigation (Artists in Crime), and who features in several later novels.
Series:
* Roderick Alleyn
Of all the "Great Ladies" of the English mystery's golden age, including Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh alone survived to publish in the 1980s. Over a fifty-year span, from 1932 to 1982, Marsh wrote thirty-two classic English detective novels, which gained international acclaim. She did not always see herself as a writer, but first planned a career as a painter.
Marsh's first novel, A MAN LAY DEAD (1934), which she wrote in London in 1931-32, introduced the detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn: a combination of Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey and a realistically depicted police official at work. Throughout the 1930s Marsh painted occasionally, wrote plays for local repertory societies in New Zealand, and published detective novels. In 1937 Marsh went to England for a period. Before going back to her home country, she spent six months travelling about Europe.
All her novels feature British CID detective Roderick Alleyn. Several novels feature Marsh's other loves, the theatre and painting. A number are set around theatrical productions (Enter a Murderer, Vintage Murder, Overture to Death, Opening Night, Death at the Dolphin, and Light Thickens), and two others are about actors off stage (Final Curtain and False Scent). Her short story "'I Can Find My Way Out" is also set around a theatrical production and is the earlier "Jupiter case" referred to in Opening Night. Alleyn marries a painter, Agatha Troy, whom he meets during an investigation (Artists in Crime), and who features in several later novels.
Series:
* Roderick Alleyn
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 382 reviews
October 20, 2025
The novel has been described as 'a social comedy of manners' and it definitely is the one with the detective story serving only as a backdrop for the complicated relationships between the charactes. Overall, it is quite an enjoyable read thanks to the author's humour and irony.
August 8, 2018
"It's like one of those affairs in books," said Bailey disgustedly."Someone trying to think up a new way to do a murder. Silly, I call it."
"What do you say, Roper?" said Alleyn.
"To my way of thinking, sir," said Sergeant Roper, "these thrillers are ruining our criminal classes."
The humour in this novel (Miss Marsh's 8th Alleyn title) is its saving grace. That and some excellent dialogue. This book has a slow (and quite dull) start, Nigel Bathgate (the world's most annoying Watson) and
This is a Marsh I haven't read before and I'm quite sure I won't read again.
July 21, 2018
When a group of worth locals decide to put on some amateur theatricals, in order to raise money for a new piano, it inflames local passions, jealousies and insecurities. Our cast include the local Squire, Jocelyn Journingham, his cousin, Eleanor, his son, Henry, who is in love with the Rector’s daughter, Dinah, her father, Rector Copeland – a man adored by the two local, gossipy spinsters, Cousin Eleanor and Idris Campanula, the local doctor, Dr Template, whose wife is an invalid and the attractive widow, Mrs Celia Ross, who is rumoured to be having affair with the doctor.
Eleanor and Idris are united in their disapproval of much of the behaviour they come across in others, but compete for the attentions of the rector. Idris is a wealthy woman, while Eleanor is the ‘poor relation,’ and reliant upon Jocelyn’s goodwill. When Henry and Dinah fall in love, it would weaken Eleanor’s position and so she is determined to do all she can to stop the match. Jealousy, greed, love and fear are all involved in this crime, which results in Idris Campanula being shot dead by an ingenious method, which could be found only in Golden Age mysteries. However, although Miss Campanula was the victim, was she the intended victim?
Published in 1939, this is the eight in the Inspector Roderick Alleyn series. I am greatly enjoying this series and loved listening to this audio version, as Alleyn, Fox and Nigel Bathgate, undercover the reasons for murder in a small village hall. The cast are colourful, the number of possible suspects and the crime itself give a number of possibilities to solve the murder. The two, spiteful spinsters, Cousin Eleanor and Idris Campanula, jar somewhat with modern ears. There is a reliance on the idea of women considered ‘Old Maids,’ being repressed sexually, like Eleanor and Idris, or vampish seducers, such as Mrs Ross. Still, overall, a good read and a series I look forward to continuing.
Eleanor and Idris are united in their disapproval of much of the behaviour they come across in others, but compete for the attentions of the rector. Idris is a wealthy woman, while Eleanor is the ‘poor relation,’ and reliant upon Jocelyn’s goodwill. When Henry and Dinah fall in love, it would weaken Eleanor’s position and so she is determined to do all she can to stop the match. Jealousy, greed, love and fear are all involved in this crime, which results in Idris Campanula being shot dead by an ingenious method, which could be found only in Golden Age mysteries. However, although Miss Campanula was the victim, was she the intended victim?
Published in 1939, this is the eight in the Inspector Roderick Alleyn series. I am greatly enjoying this series and loved listening to this audio version, as Alleyn, Fox and Nigel Bathgate, undercover the reasons for murder in a small village hall. The cast are colourful, the number of possible suspects and the crime itself give a number of possibilities to solve the murder. The two, spiteful spinsters, Cousin Eleanor and Idris Campanula, jar somewhat with modern ears. There is a reliance on the idea of women considered ‘Old Maids,’ being repressed sexually, like Eleanor and Idris, or vampish seducers, such as Mrs Ross. Still, overall, a good read and a series I look forward to continuing.
September 20, 2014
I have developed a theory regarding the appeal of these "golden age" British mysteries: every character is so poisonous and hateful that one is freed from any concern for their fates or sadness about the fictional death and suffering.
This installment is set just before Alleyn's marriage, but sadly Troy does not feature.
This installment is set just before Alleyn's marriage, but sadly Troy does not feature.
August 25, 2018
When reading the synopsis for Overture to Death (1939) by Ngaio Marsh, one can be excused for thinking that this will be another of her theatrical mysteries. After all, it tells us that a group of seven amateur actors are preparing to put on the play Shop Windows when Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C Sharp Minor" is set for the overture. Then on opening night the pianist barely gets started--playing three chords and then stepping on soft pedal--before a loud bang is heard and Miss Idris Campanula falls dead against the sheet music. There's no performance and the play setting itself features very little in the plot other than to provide a way for Marsh to insert a rather ingenious method of murder. I'm quite sure I'd never come across a deadly piano before I read this one the first time (long ago and far way from our local library).
The stars of Marsh's show are Miss Campanula and her bosom friend Miss Eleanor Prentice, two embittered old maids who like nothing more than to spread dreadful rumors about their neighbors and then confess their sins to the handsome rector. Of course, the dear friends are also rivals for the rector's regard--each woman imagining herself to be the front-runner in the "rector's wife" stakes. When Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives on the scene to decide who gave Miss Campanula such a dramatic death scene, he finds that he must first discover if the murderer has cast the right woman as victim. For until about twenty minutes or so before curtain time, everyone assumed that Miss Prentice would be playing her standard piece as the opening. She is prevented from doing so by an infected finger and only agrees to give up her martyr's determination to play no matter how much it hurt after the rector convinces her. There seems to have been no time for the gun to have been rigged up in the piano after the change in pianists took place--so was Miss Prentice the intended victim? And what was the motive? Do people really kill just because someone is a meddling, gossipy busybody?
This was an enjoyable entry in the Alleyn case files. A cast of interesting characters from repressed village spinsters and the handsome cleric to the county squire and the young lovers (whose parents are forbidding the match) to the doctor and his adulterous love interest, the attractive widow; a clever murder method; a heaping helping of red herrings (some provided courtesy of the young scamp George Biggins; and plenty of humor and excellent dialogue. Alleyn does an amusing turn as Holmes and we (blessedly) see little of Nigel Bathgate (I am getting a bit tired of Mr. Bathgate). Great fun even though I remembered who the culprit is. ★★★ and a half. (rounded to four here)
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
The stars of Marsh's show are Miss Campanula and her bosom friend Miss Eleanor Prentice, two embittered old maids who like nothing more than to spread dreadful rumors about their neighbors and then confess their sins to the handsome rector. Of course, the dear friends are also rivals for the rector's regard--each woman imagining herself to be the front-runner in the "rector's wife" stakes. When Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives on the scene to decide who gave Miss Campanula such a dramatic death scene, he finds that he must first discover if the murderer has cast the right woman as victim. For until about twenty minutes or so before curtain time, everyone assumed that Miss Prentice would be playing her standard piece as the opening. She is prevented from doing so by an infected finger and only agrees to give up her martyr's determination to play no matter how much it hurt after the rector convinces her. There seems to have been no time for the gun to have been rigged up in the piano after the change in pianists took place--so was Miss Prentice the intended victim? And what was the motive? Do people really kill just because someone is a meddling, gossipy busybody?
This was an enjoyable entry in the Alleyn case files. A cast of interesting characters from repressed village spinsters and the handsome cleric to the county squire and the young lovers (whose parents are forbidding the match) to the doctor and his adulterous love interest, the attractive widow; a clever murder method; a heaping helping of red herrings (some provided courtesy of the young scamp George Biggins; and plenty of humor and excellent dialogue. Alleyn does an amusing turn as Holmes and we (blessedly) see little of Nigel Bathgate (I am getting a bit tired of Mr. Bathgate). Great fun even though I remembered who the culprit is. ★★★ and a half. (rounded to four here)
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
July 29, 2018
This book was published in 1939 and it shows. The plot involves the murder of an unpopular but rich middle-aged spinster and a cast of very unlikeable suspects indeed. Ngaio Marsh, despite being a spinster herself, is very keen to push all the stereotypes of the time surrounding unmarried women of a certain age. They are narrow-minded, hysterical, sexually repressed, bitter harpies. It is a constant in the story and one which left a very unsavoury taste in my mouth. I think it is my least favourite of the Roderick Alleyn series.
January 11, 2021
At last I’m seeing the reason for Marsh’s popularity.
The first one I read was promising. The next one I tried was definitely disappointing.
In Overture I find a mystery writer with a deft hand, her signature clever murder scenario, an engaging cast of quirky village characters, a nice rhythm, no overdose of melodrama—though there is some and it’s more feature than downfall, and a pleasing absence of fluff.
The first one I read was promising. The next one I tried was definitely disappointing.
In Overture I find a mystery writer with a deft hand, her signature clever murder scenario, an engaging cast of quirky village characters, a nice rhythm, no overdose of melodrama—though there is some and it’s more feature than downfall, and a pleasing absence of fluff.
October 8, 2015
It’s a solidly entertaining mystery, I suppose, aware of the genre and making sly little jokes at its expense. It doesn’t really sparkle, though; I felt that the culprit was made obvious by their behaviour, and not just because they acted guilty — also because they had that whole cliché Freudian repressed sexuality going on, which seems to crop up in crime fiction of that period far too much. Gaudy Night is another example, though it does sparkle, because of the character development that’s going on too. In this one, despite his engagement, and the appearance of some regular characters, it isn’t really about Alleyn or development of him or the minor characters. In fact, the POV characters are pretty much two young lovers who we may not even see again.
The repressed sexuality stuff is worthy of an eyeroll, but the machinations of the murder set-up are quite interesting to follow. It gets a bit repetitive, and does that irritating holding-back-of-details that means you can’t solve the crime for yourself (or, in this case, be sure about it), but as a murder mystery it’s alright. I just hope somebody kicks Alleyn into a higher gear…
Originally posted here.
The repressed sexuality stuff is worthy of an eyeroll, but the machinations of the murder set-up are quite interesting to follow. It gets a bit repetitive, and does that irritating holding-back-of-details that means you can’t solve the crime for yourself (or, in this case, be sure about it), but as a murder mystery it’s alright. I just hope somebody kicks Alleyn into a higher gear…
Originally posted here.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 21, 2017
Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn goes to the small village of Chipping in 1939’s Overture to Death, published during the height of Ngaio Marsh’s heyday. The local church really needs a new piano, so a group of eight local citizens gets together to raise money for a new piano by putting on a play. Two middle-aged spinsters, Idris Campanula and Eleanor Prentice, embody the modern term “frienemies,” heads always together in gossip against the rest of the world, but backbiting at each other in private and fighting over the affections of the widowed Rector Copeland. Eleanor Prentice lives with her brother-in-law, the someone dense Squire Jocelyn Journingham, and his son, Henry, who is in love with Dinah Copeland, daughter of the rector and a young lady trying to make her way on the London stage. Both the squire and rector oppose the marriage of this young couple, the squire because Dinah does not have money and the rector because of what Dinah calls reverse snobbery, concern that she’s trying to reach above her station. The final pair consists of Dr. Template and Mrs. Celia Ross, a new resident of Chipping with a suspicious background and with whom it seems apparent that Dr. Template, the husband of an invalid, has been having an affair.
Read the rest of this review and other fun, geeky articles at Fangirl Nation
Read the rest of this review and other fun, geeky articles at Fangirl Nation
December 11, 2018
Just as amateur pianist Miss Campanula strikes the third chord of the overture to a new village play, a shot rings out and she slumps dead across the keys. Closer examination reveals the piano was boobytrapped: a cunning arrangement of pulleys within meant that, the first time someone pressed the "soft" pedal, a cord would pull the trigger of an internally mounted Colt automatic pistol.
But who could have wanted Miss Campanula dead? Just to complicate matters, was Miss Campanula really the intended victim? After all, until mere minutes before, Miss Campanula's bosom friend and bitter rival, Miss Prentice, was the designated pianist; it was only thanks to the influence of the vicar that Miss Prentice abruptly conceded the honor because of a septic finger.
Enter Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn and his trusty sidekick, Inspector Fox, drafted in from the Yard because the local rozzers are tied up handling the latest exploit of a serial burglar gang.
The cast of suspects seems easily whittlable down to the seven people involved in the presentation of the play -- eight, if you count Miss Campanula herself, who might feasibly have chosen to boobytrap her piano as a particularly macabre means of suicide. Slowly and painstakingly, Alleyn and his team tease out the truth . . .
After reading Marsh's 1953 romp Spinsters in Jeopardy , it was refreshing, even although I enjoyed that book a great deal, to turn to one of her more traditionally formed mystery stories. Most of the book is taken up with Alleyn's investigation, which might have become a tad longwinded had it not been for Marsh's prose, laced as it is with numerous of her trademark good jokes and shrewd observations of village life and human foibles. The revelation of the murderer came as no great surprise -- not because it was obvious whodunnit but simply because, by the novel's latter stages, any one of several of the suspects could have been revealed as the guilty party without my raising an eyebrow. Leaving that aside, the denouement was perfectly satisfying -- as it should be in a good Golden Age 'tec.
I know some people have difficulty with Ngaio Marsh's fiction as a whole, but I'm not one of them. This isn't a particularly outstanding example of her work -- more like beans on toast than smoked salmon -- but it did for me exactly what it set out to do: provide good, solid enjoyment for a few hours.
But who could have wanted Miss Campanula dead? Just to complicate matters, was Miss Campanula really the intended victim? After all, until mere minutes before, Miss Campanula's bosom friend and bitter rival, Miss Prentice, was the designated pianist; it was only thanks to the influence of the vicar that Miss Prentice abruptly conceded the honor because of a septic finger.
Enter Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn and his trusty sidekick, Inspector Fox, drafted in from the Yard because the local rozzers are tied up handling the latest exploit of a serial burglar gang.
The cast of suspects seems easily whittlable down to the seven people involved in the presentation of the play -- eight, if you count Miss Campanula herself, who might feasibly have chosen to boobytrap her piano as a particularly macabre means of suicide. Slowly and painstakingly, Alleyn and his team tease out the truth . . .
After reading Marsh's 1953 romp Spinsters in Jeopardy , it was refreshing, even although I enjoyed that book a great deal, to turn to one of her more traditionally formed mystery stories. Most of the book is taken up with Alleyn's investigation, which might have become a tad longwinded had it not been for Marsh's prose, laced as it is with numerous of her trademark good jokes and shrewd observations of village life and human foibles. The revelation of the murderer came as no great surprise -- not because it was obvious whodunnit but simply because, by the novel's latter stages, any one of several of the suspects could have been revealed as the guilty party without my raising an eyebrow. Leaving that aside, the denouement was perfectly satisfying -- as it should be in a good Golden Age 'tec.
I know some people have difficulty with Ngaio Marsh's fiction as a whole, but I'm not one of them. This isn't a particularly outstanding example of her work -- more like beans on toast than smoked salmon -- but it did for me exactly what it set out to do: provide good, solid enjoyment for a few hours.
February 24, 2020
A-: This would be a 10/10 novel for me, if it wasn't for a couple of clues which too easily give away the murderer. The reveal is so brilliantly put-together though, that I kept doubting myself! The main strengths of the book are in the setup before Alleyn even gets there, which so wonderfully captures poisonous regressive politics in a quaint English village, the method of murder (ingenious), and that perfect, dramatic title.
So far, my favourite of Marsh's to read (I've read #1-8 and #10), although "Surfeit of Lampreys" is maybe technically more astute.
So far, my favourite of Marsh's to read (I've read #1-8 and #10), although "Surfeit of Lampreys" is maybe technically more astute.
June 1, 2015
Well written, engaging, very detailed...but the pacing wasn't quite right. It seemed quite repetitive and longer than it needed to be. An enjoyable Golden Age mystery, but lacking that touch of magic that you get with Agatha Christie. Somehow not quite gripping enough.
October 11, 2020
I do love the Roderick Alleyn mysteries. I've read the first 8 so far, with Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh being the 8th one, plus a couple of others further down the line. They do seem to get better and better. The mysteries are always interesting. In this story, an unpopular woman is murdered in a most interesting way. Was she the target or another? Alleyn and his team, the steady, constant Inspector Fox and his friend, news reporter Nigel Bathgate, accompany Alleyn to Pen Cuckoo at the behest of the local authorities as they are busy trying to sort out a series of robberies. I love the investigation, the interviews with the various characters. I also like how Marsh develops the story, leading up the murder before even bringing Alleyn into the picture, about half way through the story. There is nice humour, there are lovely touches (I'm thinking of late in the story when Alleyn writes a letter to his beloved, Troy. The whole story is a joy to read and hard to put down. Excellent series and excellent story. (4 stars)
September 14, 2025
This is one of my favorite of Marsh's books. I really like Dinah and Henry, the young couple in the story. They're quite likable but also occasionally amusing, as they solemnly analyze their elders with a fun combination of wisdom and naivete. I like Henry and Dinah's fathers, they fill the required stereotypical roles while still being interesting. I even like the feuding spinsters.
Also, the plot is attractive with an amateur play, a young delinquent with a squirt gun, and other elements that add up to a good story. Who was the intended victim, and who killed the pianist? It's a good puzzle by itself in an attractive setting with interesting characters.
Also, the plot is attractive with an amateur play, a young delinquent with a squirt gun, and other elements that add up to a good story. Who was the intended victim, and who killed the pianist? It's a good puzzle by itself in an attractive setting with interesting characters.
June 7, 2012
Those familiar with Ngaio Marsh and her Roderick Alleyn novels know that her writing style isn't the frenzied roller-coaster ride so popular today. She takes her time letting you know her characters and slyly sending up the upper classes of her day. However, in Overture to Death, four or five chapters slip by simply exploring the petty machinations of two village harpies: a pair of gossipy, spiteful, meddlesome spinsters without equal. The endless focus of these parodies of the malicious spinster droned on so long that I nodded off several time. While sometimes humorous, a lot less of Eleanor Prentice and Idris Campanula would have gone a long way in helping speed the pace a bit.
Once past the lengthy exposition and when the overbearing Miss Campanula gets what's coming to her and Alleyn comes on the scene, however, the novel picks up quite a bit. I recommend the book to Marsh fans like myself; however, those who make Overture to Death their first taste of Marsh are unlikely to be back for seconds. Newcomers are better off starting with A Man Lay Dead, Artists in Crime, or Death In A White Tie.
Once past the lengthy exposition and when the overbearing Miss Campanula gets what's coming to her and Alleyn comes on the scene, however, the novel picks up quite a bit. I recommend the book to Marsh fans like myself; however, those who make Overture to Death their first taste of Marsh are unlikely to be back for seconds. Newcomers are better off starting with A Man Lay Dead, Artists in Crime, or Death In A White Tie.
July 21, 2018
At first I thought, oh yum, village theatricals! Always a hotbed of discontent, of course you expect everyone to have their knives into everyone else, but shooting someone in the head is a little extreme! Unfortunately, Marsh was soon riding her psychological hobbyhorse round and round, and trust me--the old grey mare just ain't what she used to be. I get miffed when "lady writers" sell out their own sex by blaming everything from obsessive housecleaning to--well, murderous impulses--on thwarted sexuality. And yet they all do it. Christie, Sayers, Mitchell, and now Marsh, who goes so far as to repeatedly use the term "hysteria" in its Victorian sense. Then there's the "man's woman", by which Marsh means the sultry temptress who chases anything in pants with her husky voice and seductive glances. That cost it a star.
The other star was removed because of the tell-not-show recap in the last chapter. If you've written well, it's not necessary--readers are not stupid. I was also heartily sick of Nigel Bathgate in this volume, and I got the feeling Alleyn was, too. I missed his mum, though.
The other star was removed because of the tell-not-show recap in the last chapter. If you've written well, it's not necessary--readers are not stupid. I was also heartily sick of Nigel Bathgate in this volume, and I got the feeling Alleyn was, too. I missed his mum, though.
August 29, 2024
Number Eight in my chronological re-read of the Alleyn series of novels. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the previous one but it is still an excellent book and well worth the four stars. Possibly a little far-fetched but with the usual exquisite writing, especially in the dialogue. There are some very strong female characters as well as a rather vague vicar all of whom are described brilliantly. The author's habit of having a cast of characters at the beginning I always find welcome.
All of these books are must reads to any devotee of Golden Age Crime. Very highly recommended.
All of these books are must reads to any devotee of Golden Age Crime. Very highly recommended.
August 13, 2017
Wanda McCaddon (who also narrates under the names Donada Peters and Nadia May) was perfect for this Golden Age mystery.
August 2017: Very enjoyable even knowing the solution. I could appreciate how well Marsh gives the reader a the clues without making it obvious.
August 2017: Very enjoyable even knowing the solution. I could appreciate how well Marsh gives the reader a the clues without making it obvious.
June 19, 2015
Beware! Anti-spinster propaganda.
January 30, 2022
When reading the synopsis for Overture to Death (1939) by Ngaio Marsh, one can be excused for thinking that this will be another of her theatrical mysteries. After all, it tells us that a group of seven amateur actors are preparing to put on the play Shop Windows when Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C Sharp Minor" is set for the overture. Then on opening night the pianist barely gets started--playing three chords and then stepping on soft pedal--before a loud bang is heard and Miss Idris Campanula falls dead against the sheet music. There's no performance and the play setting itself features very little in the plot other than to provide a way for Marsh to insert a rather ingenious method of murder. I'm quite sure I'd never come across a deadly piano before I read this one the first time (long ago and far way from my hometown Carnegie Library).
The stars of Marsh's show are Miss Campanula and her bosom friend Miss Eleanor Prentice, two embittered old maids who like nothing more than to spread dreadful rumors about their neighbors and then confess their sins to the handsome rector. Of course, the dear friends are also rivals for the rector's regard--each woman imagining herself to be the front-runner in the "rector's wife" stakes. When Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives on the scene to decide who gave Miss Campanula such a dramatic death scene, he finds that he must first discover if the murderer has cast the right woman as victim. For until about twenty minutes or so before curtain time, everyone assumed that Miss Prentice would be playing her standard piece as the opening. She is prevented from doing so by an infected finger and only agrees to give up her martyr's determination to play no matter how much it hurt after the rector convinces her. There seems to have been no time for the gun to have been rigged up in the piano after the change in pianists took place--so was Miss Prentice the intended victim? And what was the motive? Do people really kill just because someone is a meddling, gossipy busybody?
This was an enjoyable entry in the Alleyn case files. A cast of interesting characters from repressed village spinsters and the handsome cleric to the county squire and the young lovers (whose parents are forbidding the match) to the doctor and his adulterous love interest, the attractive widow; a clever murder method; a heaping helping of red herrings (some provided courtesy of the young scamp George Biggins; and plenty of humor and excellent dialogue.
Great fun even though I remembered who the culprit is--of course I did read this about four years ago. This time I listened to an audio version read by Wanda McCaddon. She does a very nice job giving voice and unique personality to each of the characters and increased the rating for this reading from 3.5 stars (previous) to a full ★★★★.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.
The stars of Marsh's show are Miss Campanula and her bosom friend Miss Eleanor Prentice, two embittered old maids who like nothing more than to spread dreadful rumors about their neighbors and then confess their sins to the handsome rector. Of course, the dear friends are also rivals for the rector's regard--each woman imagining herself to be the front-runner in the "rector's wife" stakes. When Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives on the scene to decide who gave Miss Campanula such a dramatic death scene, he finds that he must first discover if the murderer has cast the right woman as victim. For until about twenty minutes or so before curtain time, everyone assumed that Miss Prentice would be playing her standard piece as the opening. She is prevented from doing so by an infected finger and only agrees to give up her martyr's determination to play no matter how much it hurt after the rector convinces her. There seems to have been no time for the gun to have been rigged up in the piano after the change in pianists took place--so was Miss Prentice the intended victim? And what was the motive? Do people really kill just because someone is a meddling, gossipy busybody?
This was an enjoyable entry in the Alleyn case files. A cast of interesting characters from repressed village spinsters and the handsome cleric to the county squire and the young lovers (whose parents are forbidding the match) to the doctor and his adulterous love interest, the attractive widow; a clever murder method; a heaping helping of red herrings (some provided courtesy of the young scamp George Biggins; and plenty of humor and excellent dialogue.
Great fun even though I remembered who the culprit is--of course I did read this about four years ago. This time I listened to an audio version read by Wanda McCaddon. She does a very nice job giving voice and unique personality to each of the characters and increased the rating for this reading from 3.5 stars (previous) to a full ★★★★.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.
December 31, 2025
Not quite as good as the other book by the author I've read previously, but still a fun mystery. The pre-murder-phase drags a bit: it's great to explore characters dynamics but they were already established in a third of the pages it actually took. I really enjoyed the writing, the characters are memorable and distinct, but I think both the investigation and the detective Alleyn seemed more dynamic and fun in that other book, The Vintage Murder.
July 23, 2019
I really enjoyed this classic Marsh tale. A murder in the church hall, 6 suspects, two crazy old woman at each other’s throats and a village play!
Great characters and a gripping plot!
Great characters and a gripping plot!
January 21, 2021
A surprisingly refreshing and unique murder mystery that kept me hooked from start to end!
In the small town of Chipping, some of its principal inhabitants are getting ready to stage an amateur play for charity. Miss Prentice, the middle-aged cousin of the local squire, successfully wrestles the part of playing the play's overture from her best frenemy Miss Campanula. Unfortunately, a swollen and inflamed finger puts a damper on things and finally forces Miss Prentice to give way to Miss Campanula last minute just before the performance. But when Miss Campanula strikes up the first three chords of her infamous Prelude and puts her foot on the soft pedal - a gun goes off from inside the piano.
In terms of the mystery, my very first initial suspicion of the culprit turned out to be correct (thanks for the training, Agatha Christie!) but that doesn't mean that the mystery was in any way predictable. Marsh did a great job leading me on a wild goose chase and I changed my suspicions around almost the entire cast of characters before the final answer was revealed.
The characters themselves were not exactly endearing, but they certainly jumped off the pages at you, especially the two main church hens of Miss Prentice and Miss Campanula. I enjoyed the characterisation of them all immensely. The only complaint I'd have is that Marsh really writes her female characters viciously. I get that this book and the character dynamics within it are a product of their times, but it was still hard to read when we barely get a single female character that we can get behind (). It also always seemed that all the women in this novel hate and plot against each other, and usually because of the way they related to men. I've read some of Marsh's other works but I don't recall if this was as prominent in them as it was here.
I love golden era cosy murder mysteries for three of its main characteristics: the interesting-ness of the puzzle/mystery, sorting out the red herrings and the actual clues, and finally finding out the answer in the end with everything wrapped up in a neat little bow. In those aspects, I think this book definitely hit the spot, hence my high rating for it. When it comes to gender relations and stereotypes, honestly very few of the books from the 20's and 30's will hold up to intense scrutiny (some better than others though), so I've learnt to turn a blind eye to that, even if it's not something I would be able to look past for a book written in the past 20 years. So if you can look past that dynamic, the mystery and character work of this book is definitely magnificent and well done.
In the small town of Chipping, some of its principal inhabitants are getting ready to stage an amateur play for charity. Miss Prentice, the middle-aged cousin of the local squire, successfully wrestles the part of playing the play's overture from her best frenemy Miss Campanula. Unfortunately, a swollen and inflamed finger puts a damper on things and finally forces Miss Prentice to give way to Miss Campanula last minute just before the performance. But when Miss Campanula strikes up the first three chords of her infamous Prelude and puts her foot on the soft pedal - a gun goes off from inside the piano.
In terms of the mystery, my very first initial suspicion of the culprit turned out to be correct (thanks for the training, Agatha Christie!) but that doesn't mean that the mystery was in any way predictable. Marsh did a great job leading me on a wild goose chase and I changed my suspicions around almost the entire cast of characters before the final answer was revealed.
The characters themselves were not exactly endearing, but they certainly jumped off the pages at you, especially the two main church hens of Miss Prentice and Miss Campanula. I enjoyed the characterisation of them all immensely. The only complaint I'd have is that Marsh really writes her female characters viciously. I get that this book and the character dynamics within it are a product of their times, but it was still hard to read when we barely get a single female character that we can get behind (). It also always seemed that all the women in this novel hate and plot against each other, and usually because of the way they related to men. I've read some of Marsh's other works but I don't recall if this was as prominent in them as it was here.
I love golden era cosy murder mysteries for three of its main characteristics: the interesting-ness of the puzzle/mystery, sorting out the red herrings and the actual clues, and finally finding out the answer in the end with everything wrapped up in a neat little bow. In those aspects, I think this book definitely hit the spot, hence my high rating for it. When it comes to gender relations and stereotypes, honestly very few of the books from the 20's and 30's will hold up to intense scrutiny (some better than others though), so I've learnt to turn a blind eye to that, even if it's not something I would be able to look past for a book written in the past 20 years. So if you can look past that dynamic, the mystery and character work of this book is definitely magnificent and well done.
Read
October 10, 2022I don't know about this one. You can always count on Ngaio Marsh for a light, breezy mystery - and one that's fair play, so you stand a decent chance of figuring it all out if you spot the right clues. But the attitude towards female characters in this book was quite deplorable - either they were "repressed" spinsters, or scheming seducers (never mind that a married man gets seduced - and he's never criticised for it) - and the only women that are praised are those who embody the convential norms of society, so to speak - those who are in, or are about to entire into a heteronormative, monogamous alliance. I know Marsh is a product of her times and all that, but the characterization just got too grating and felt too lazy in this book
August 23, 2021
Audible.com 7 hours Narrated by Wanda McCadden (C-)
Listening to this book was like eating cotton candy, sweet by left me hungry for something more nourishing. This murder is solved for the reader in the final chapter by setting down each piece of evidence and showing how it figures into the solution of the case. Maybe it was better in print.
Listening to this book was like eating cotton candy, sweet by left me hungry for something more nourishing. This murder is solved for the reader in the final chapter by setting down each piece of evidence and showing how it figures into the solution of the case. Maybe it was better in print.
December 30, 2025
There are a handful of stock plots that never seem to get old: a trial, students at an elite boarding school, and a group a group of people putting on a play. Ngaio Marsh is an aficionado of the last one, and she doesn’t disappoint in Overture to Death, which makes the most of all the petty jealousies, sexual tension, and comic ineptitude of an amateur theatrical. The book features a number of enjoyably hatable characters, an outlandish method of murder, and some clever clues. Pretty much the template for this kind of classic mystery.
September 4, 2023
Unlike other Roderick Alleyn novels, (I’m thinking specifically of book #4 with its drug addicts and occult practices) this one was more my speed with the all-too-familiar English village folk: the earnest rector, the spiteful spinster, the young lovers, and the suspicious stranger. It starts out as a domestic comedy with a little romance thrown in, but soon turns into an ugly murder that requires the services of the ever-dependable Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard.
I really enjoyed this mystery and Marsh’s deft, often witty, handling of the various relationships. The smattering of light profanity can be overlooked because of the rich language Marsh uses throughout the novel - great words like ruction (quarrel, disturbance), spinney (small area of trees and bushes), attenuated (unnaturally thin), assiduous (showing great care and perseverance), and bumptious (irritatingly assertive). Also, Alleyn is a veritable fountain of literary quotes (Bible and Shakespeare usually), which I find delightful.
I really enjoyed this mystery and Marsh’s deft, often witty, handling of the various relationships. The smattering of light profanity can be overlooked because of the rich language Marsh uses throughout the novel - great words like ruction (quarrel, disturbance), spinney (small area of trees and bushes), attenuated (unnaturally thin), assiduous (showing great care and perseverance), and bumptious (irritatingly assertive). Also, Alleyn is a veritable fountain of literary quotes (Bible and Shakespeare usually), which I find delightful.
December 18, 2008
Pom! Pom! Pom! Three notes sounded from the piano. As the third one died away a shot rang out and a murder was committed in a sleepy English village where the inhabitants enjoyed their gossip and illicit love affairs.
The local bobby was deemed incapable of solving the crime without the help of Chief Inspector Alleyn of Scotland Yard. He duly arrives with his trusty assistants and Nigel Bathgate, his faithful Watson.
He interviews all the suspects and, in turn, it appears as though each of them could just have committed the crime. But who actually did do it? Alleyn is probably the only one who knows and he keeps it to himself, naturally, until the final few pages when he reveals the culprit in an eminently readable novel in which he also maintains a little love interest of his own!
The local bobby was deemed incapable of solving the crime without the help of Chief Inspector Alleyn of Scotland Yard. He duly arrives with his trusty assistants and Nigel Bathgate, his faithful Watson.
He interviews all the suspects and, in turn, it appears as though each of them could just have committed the crime. But who actually did do it? Alleyn is probably the only one who knows and he keeps it to himself, naturally, until the final few pages when he reveals the culprit in an eminently readable novel in which he also maintains a little love interest of his own!
April 8, 2024
Very gripping comedy of manners style, detective novel with witty dialogue, intriguing characters, quaint Dorset setting and the delightful Inspector Alleyn. But the most remarkable and entertaining aspect of the novel was the remarkably macabre murder method somewhat of a speciality with Dame Ngaio- the deadly dilapidated village hall Piano, which will stay with me long after I have forgotten the plot of the novel.
Another aspect was the venomous friendship between our two main village gossipmongers both of whom were capably rendered. Also the camaraderie between Alleyn and Fox was displayed very prominently. Plot wise too it contains one of the best examples the killer hidden in plain sight in a Marsh novel, which completely skipped under my radar.
Another aspect was the venomous friendship between our two main village gossipmongers both of whom were capably rendered. Also the camaraderie between Alleyn and Fox was displayed very prominently. Plot wise too it contains one of the best examples the killer hidden in plain sight in a Marsh novel, which completely skipped under my radar.
August 27, 2010
One of my favourite things about Marsh's book is that she spends quite a bit of time on the set up for the mystery-if you like action from the very beginning this book is not for you. I love the fact that we see so much scene development and character development in a mystery. For me, the scene and the atmosphere are as important as the mystery itself. DO NOT read the chapter titles, unless you like spoilers. If I had to pick my two favourite detectives ever, I would pick Poirot and Alleyn. Alleyn is as enjoyable for me to read as Poirot. Another classic 1930's mystery, and really, what's not to love about a booby-trapped piano as the murder weapon?
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