A review by michael5000
Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh

4.0

This installment is such a blatantly contrived scenario for a parlor mystery as to be verging on self-parody. The choice of murderer is pretty arbitrary. But what the hell, I'm finding something pretty charming in the Alleyn mysteries as I continue along through them. In this one I enjoyed the long build-up -- I believe we're more than halfway through before we encounter a detective -- the verge-of-war setting, and the mid-century fascination with Freudian psychology. Plus, it has Fox and doesn't have Bathgate, which is as it should be.