Artists in Crime (Roderick Alleyn, #6) in Reading the Detectives

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Artists in Crime (Roderick Alleyn, #6)

Ngaio Marsh

Start date: June 1, 2018

Finish date: June 30, 2018

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: The next book in our Ngaio Marsh challenge, considered by many people to be one of her best.
[close] The next book in our Ngaio Marsh challenge, considered by many people to be one of her best.

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Group Challenges

* May 25: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)
By Susan · 17 posts · 22 views

last updated May 06, 2025 06:35AM

* May 25: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - SPOILER Thread - (1926)
By Susan · 15 posts · 15 views

last updated May 06, 2025 07:37AM

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What Members Thought

Oct 05, 2013 Teri-K rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: old-favorites, great-to-re-read, historical-mystery, mystery-golden-age

This is one of my favorite Alleyn novels. In part that's because it's where he meets Agatha Troy, and then has to investigate a murder at her home, so we get to see the beginnings of their relationship. But it's also a really good traditional mystery, with diverse characters for suspects, a limited setting, the chance to work the case through step-by-step with the investigator, and some gruesome murders that you definitely want to see solved.

I also enjoy getting to see a bit of Alleyn's family ...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Pat rated it it was amazing

Shelves: veddy-veddy-english, audiobook, golden-age

re-read after 20 years. I recently read Queens of Crime, which featured Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers solving a mystery at a house party. I have read (I think) almost the entire Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers canon, but not Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham. I remember enjoying Inspector Alleyn and Albert Campion very much, and decided to see how the books have held up. Very happy to have re-read this, it is an escape to what seems like another world now. ...more

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May 08, 2013 Tracey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, audio, art

If I ever finish my book, and manage to have an audio edition, I want Benedict Cumberbatch reading it. Even with all the other readers I've come across whose voices I've fallen for, BC is a little bit spectacular. And I'm not even a "Cumberbitch". This is an abridged version of the novel, which normally I feel is an abomination, but for Cumberbatch's narration? I'm in.

This was the book I heard a clip of on Tumblr, the moment when Cumberbatch "does" the voice of an American woman with a heavy So ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 17, 2012 Carol Evans rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, audio-book

Marsh does a wonderful job, as always, of giving motives to each of her rather quirky suspects, and parceling out the clues but in a way that they are easily missed, allowing her to lead us down the wrong path right until the twist at the end. For me though, the highlight here was the interactions between Troy and Alleyn, the tension, the misunderstandings, and Alleyn's trying to keep his feelings seperate from the case. Troy is, after all, a suspect. The blooming romance is a good edition, it d ...more

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May 01, 2019 Theo rated it really liked it

Shelves: ngaio-marsh

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I've read 5 Roderick Alleyn mysteries including the first one and ones from 60's. Artist in Crime benefits from established characters like Sergeant Fox and Nigel Bathgate and interesting new characters that would re-occur such as Agatha Troy and Alleyn's mother. The negatives of the book are the ones I have with all of Marsh's books, there is a lot of conversations and little action. This one picked up in the final third but before that it is very formulaic isolated murder at an estate. It also ...more

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