Vintage Murder

Rating:
Summary: Good, but I miss Fox & Co.!
Review: A good read, but I miss the comraderie and banter that goes on between Inspectors Alleyn and Fox, as well as the fingerprint and photography experts, Bailey and Thompson. It's strange, because I didn't feel the same way about _When in Rome_, where Alleyn is traveling outside of England, and therefore is without his usual force. Anyway, it's still a good read. Once again, the theatre becomes the stage for a murder, when a carefully timed birthday gag goes wrong and ends up killing someone who doesn't seem to have an enemy in the world. Taking place in New Zealand, Marsh gives the reader a good introduction to her native country.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but I miss Fox & Co.!
Review: A good read, but I miss the comraderie and banter that goes on between Inspectors Alleyn and Fox, as well as the fingerprint and photography experts, Bailey and Thompson. It's strange, because I didn't feel the same way about _When in Rome_, where Alleyn is traveling outside of England, and therefore is without his usual force. Anyway, it's still a good read. Once again, the theatre becomes the stage for a murder, when a carefully timed birthday gag goes wrong and ends up killing someone who doesn't seem to have an enemy in the world. Taking place in New Zealand, Marsh gives the reader a good introduction to her native country.

Rating:
Summary: Alleyn's first visit to New Zealand
Review: Roderick Alleyn of New Scotland Yard is visiting New Zealand on holiday for health reasons in 1937 - a very long journey in distance, then and now, and in those days by sea voyage. He'll be away from Fox, Bailey, Thompson, and the rest of his team for quite a while - more than 3 months in New Zealand itself. The story opens during a long train trip across South Island with some of his fellow passengers from the ship - the Carolyn Dacres English Comedy Company.

Ms. Dacres is the sparkling leading lady; her middle-aged, humdrum husband, Alfred Meyer, runs the business end of the company. Hailey Hambledon, Carolyn's handsome leading man, wants her to arrange a divorce with Meyer and marry him. Carolyn refuses, claiming religious scruples; it's hard to say if Carolyn loves Hailey, or is merely being diplomatic. Some of the character actors have been gambling heavily. Valerie Ganes, a mediocre actress (a dilettante with a rich father) suffered the loss of a large amount of cash, but isn't keen on even a quasi-official investigation. Meyer's business partner, Mason, seems habitually worried about money.

Meyer *seems* oblivious to all this, and after a successful run in Middleton (fictional city), arranges an elaborate birthday party for Carolyn, with an eye toward publicity, and including a flashy gimmick of lowering a huge champagne bottle from the rafters. But someone apparently decides to launch a venture by aiming the bottle at Meyer's head.

At this point in his career, Alleyn had only had one murder case entangled with the world of the theatre - _Enter a Murderer_, which occurred 2 years before this story opens - so the matter of the earlier case (and the name of the murderer) are mentioned several times. In fact, a character actress in the company was a minor character in the earlier book. While one can enjoy and follow the plot of _Vintage Murder_ without having read the earlier story, it has added depth after reading the earlier book - and if they're read out of order, the solution of the earlier book is given in the 1st chapter of this book.

While this is only the second 'theatrical' case Alleyn investigated, several more were to come, and other changes took place shortly after the events in this book. Taking ship for the return journey to England as _Artists in Crime_, the next book, opened, Alleyn was to meet Agatha Troy for the first time. :)