Reviews

Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh

missn80's review

mysterious relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

michelleful's review against another edition

4.0

Another Shedunnit book club pick. I've read #1-#3 in this series (sadly did not have time to read #4-#8 before getting to this one) but I thought this one better than the others. While I did feel it dragged in the beginning (while giving a good atmosphere of the seaside village and the characters at play), things picked up for me when Alleyn and Fox arrive at the village and really begin their inquiries. The plot was good, I was totally fooled

Spoiler

by the most likely person being the murderer - they seem to explicitly rule him out, saying that arresting him will be a miscarriage of justice, so I lit upon the artist

. But most of all, I adored the bit when Alleyn drops his theatricality and

Spoiler

frets over the poisoned Fox and reads him the riot act when Fox stoically tries to continue his work

.

slimbay's review against another edition

4.0

EXCELLENT reading by Nadia May if you're interested in the audiobook. I think I'm in love with Inspector Alleyn thanks to her. And to Dame Marsh of course.

carolsnotebook's review against another edition

3.0

The first part of the book is quite clearly setting up the mystery. We meet the local townsfolk and the lawyer, Luke Watchman, who is on vacation with Sebastian Parish, an actor, and Norman Cubitt, a painter. It becomes obvious who the victim will be be as Marsh lays out all the other character's motive for wanting him dead. And there are quite a lot of possiblities. Although the suspect list is limited to the people in the bar that night, ten individuals at the most, each has a reason for wanting Watchman dead or out of the way. There's the local girl who is his former lover and her new beau; the guy fairly new to town who seems to have some secrets he's holding back; Parish is due to inherit and could certainly use the money and the same goes for Cubbitt.

During the investigation phase, Marsh had me looking in all directions, and totally overlooking the obvious, which makes for a good mystery.

ssejig's review against another edition

3.0

Ngaio Marsh sets up a lovely mystery in the English countryside when a dashing young man is accidentally pricked by a dart and dies of tetanus. Except that... the owner of the bar where the death occurred doesn't believe it could be an accident. His bar's reputation is going downhill and he needs the police to prove it was murder so his customers will return.
Unfortunately, Roderick Alleyn will not only have to prove that it was murder, he'll have to figure out how a diabolical plot could be launched in such a short time. You see, the poison had only been procured to kill rats the day before. So who hated the dead barrister bad enough to concoct a murder that's solution still has me scratching my head? Well, it turns out there were at least five people. The two men who would inherit his estate, the girl he had used, the boy who loved her, and an ex-con the barrister had outed.

emerion's review against another edition

mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

scorpionturtle's review against another edition

3.0

Marsh talks in this book about murderers being creatures of habit but the same is very true of her and who the murderer turns out to be. It's clever to have a clever murderer but Marsh has used the same plot with the murderer as she used in at least 3 out out the 10 books I've read of hers. Who I thought was the murderer was Miss Darragh who I quickly realized had a connection with the murderer and who I thought was trying to frame him for murder so she and her family could keep the money he had taken or to punish him for ruining their family and send him back to jail. But I have noticed that Marsh doesn't like killer women unless they are driven mad or sad old spinsters. So I really enjoyed this book for 80 percent of it and it was far better than #8 which was horrible. Also one thing I am quickly coming to be annoyed by in her plots is the only attractive female character falling in love with someone she barely knows. In this one the characters who fall in love in the end seem to have barely interacted and they even say I can't believe this is happening. Not surprising since it makes no sense and is not needed except by the rather snobbish writer who seems determined to have the gentry stick together. It's also far odd that Marsh who had the most lower class background and was not raised in England as were Christie, Sayers and Allingham seems the most invested in class divides and the the gentry being a "better class" even in her book written during and after WWII when the gentry were quickly losing their power and money. I do like that Allyn has moved beyond just questioning them again and again to get the answers and is doing some physical detective work and his character seems better formed but it's striking how poorly she writes female characters compared to even Allingham.

knitterscasket's review

mysterious slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

suzig's review against another edition

4.0

I found the beginning a bit boring, but it gets good once Alleyn shows up.

Alleyn and Fox shine in this mystery, both their personalities and their friendship. They have some really touching moments in the book.

I also found Colonel Brammington to be an annoying character, especially his part in the summing up where he drones on and on with his incorrect conclusions, although that did form an interesting counterpoint to how engaging I found Alleyn's summing up just a couples pages later. Partly because I was more interested in what actually happened, but also Alleyn is just a more engaging speaker.

I thought the book had both good clues and good red herrings.

Also I am still mad that Alleyn and Troy finished their wooing and had their marriage off screen, I'm so invested in their relationship lol

readmore's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5