Surfeit of Lampreys by Ngaio Marsh

Surfeit of Lampreys is the tenth entry in the Roderick Alleyn detective stories. It opens with antics of the Lamprey family who always seem to be on the cusp of financial ruin, but who are marvelously unperturbed by it. They are scatter-brained yet delightful, and everyone (except their creditors) seems to fall under the spell of their charms.  

I kept wondering how Marsh was going to turn this happy-go-lucky tale into a murder mystery, but I needn’t have worried. The murders do happen, and their gruesomeness is in stark contrast to the fun-loving Lampreys. Another welcome contrast to the murderous mayhem is Alleyn’s sidekick, the unflappable Inspector Fox. Shortly after a horrific murder, Fox appears in all his placidness, which is quite a comfort to the reader. With each successive novel, I love him more and more!

I always enjoy the literary references sprinkled throughout Marsh’s books. This one included nods to Dickens, Shakespeare, Hans Christian Anderson, and even Beatrix Potter. She even threw a bone to Charlotte Brontë fans with this conversation between Henry Lamprey and Robin, a young family friend:

“What do you think of us, Robin? You’re such a composed little person with your smooth head and your watchfulness.”

“That sounds smug and beastly.”

“It isn’t meant to. You’ve got a sort of Jane Eyre-ishness about you. You’ll grow up into Jane Eyre, I daresay, if you grow at all….”

And then there is the great writing: From Chapter Nine: Alleyn had been confronted with the Lampreys for only some twenty minutes, but already he had begun to feel a little as though they were handfuls of wet sand which, as fast as he grasped them, were dragged through his fingers by the action of some mysterious undertow.

From chapter Thirteen: Alleyn began to feel as if Tinkerton was a bad cork and himself an inefficient corkscrew, drawing out unimportant fragments, while large lumps of testimony fell into the wine and were lost.

The novel contains a touch of romance and a fair bit of light profanity. Nevertheless, this was one of my favorite entries in the series so far.

Any other Ngaio Marsh fans out there?

Christmas blessings,