Death at the Bar

Rating:
Summary: A very clever plot
Review: I've just started reading Ngaio Marsh's mysteries, so I don't know if this book is a "typical" Marsh mystery, but I certainly hope so. The characters were well-drawn, and the plot quite brilliant. A man dies while playing darts, because it appears that a dart daubed with cyanide sticks in the back of his hand. Almost everyone has a motive, and the evidence at hand can point to almost any of them. Reading this novel is like threading a conch-shell. You slip in a piece of string and it snakes through various chambers and entries until it finally comes out at the end. I was a big Christie fan, but now I think I'll be moving on to Marsh.

Rating:
Summary: A very clever plot
Review: I've just started reading Ngaio Marsh's mysteries, so I don't know if this book is a "typical" Marsh mystery, but I certainly hope so. The characters were well-drawn, and the plot quite brilliant. A man dies while playing darts, because it appears that a dart daubed with cyanide sticks in the back of his hand. Almost everyone has a motive, and the evidence at hand can point to almost any of them. Reading this novel is like threading a conch-shell. You slip in a piece of string and it snakes through various chambers and entries until it finally comes out at the end. I was a big Christie fan, but now I think I'll be moving on to Marsh.

Rating:
Summary: Good Intricate Poisoning
Review: One of Marsh's most tightly-knit jobs. Victim a famous K.C., poisoned with KNC in the private taproom of a Devon inn while taking part in a demonstration of darts-throwing; plenty of good circumstantial detail leads to supposition of impossible crime. Alleyn, called in both by publican and by local police, does a splendid and fast (24 hours) job of discovering murderer, whose identity is a masterly demonstration in diverting suspicion from the most likely person. Method ingeniously simple, and hence convincing: a very neat job. Virtuoso display of logic at the end, including a delightful false solution propounded by a most amusing Chief Constable.

Rating:
Summary: Good Intricate Poisoning
Review: One of Marsh's most tightly-knit jobs. Victim a famous K.C., poisoned with KNC in the private taproom of a Devon inn while taking part in a demonstration of darts-throwing; plenty of good circumstantial detail leads to supposition of impossible crime. Alleyn, called in both by publican and by local police, does a splendid and fast (24 hours) job of discovering murderer, whose identity is a masterly demonstration in diverting suspicion from the most likely person. Method ingeniously simple, and hence convincing: a very neat job. Virtuoso display of logic at the end, including a delightful false solution propounded by a most amusing Chief Constable.

Rating:
Summary: Dart over to this one!
Review: Perhaps not one of her more richly written efforts, but buoyed by a marvellous mystery plot, set in a wonderful English pub. Darts and beer, a fatal combination.

Rating:
Summary: Dart over to this one!
Review: Perhaps not one of her more richly written efforts, but buoyed by a marvellous mystery plot, set in a wonderful English pub. Darts and beer, a fatal combination.

Rating:
Summary: Far Below Her Best
Review: When a famous attorney is found poisoned in a small town pub following a game of darts, Inspector Allen is set on the case--but the result is far from Marsh's best work.

Although DEATH AT THE BAR gives us a large cast of characters and a potentially interesting setting and mysterious plot, the novel lacks even the faintest trace of the wit we expect from Marsh. Worse still, much of the work relies upon endless exposition and the solution to the crime is not so much surprising as it vaguely annoying. Diehard fans will want to read the novel, but all others are urged to stay away.