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A review by ssejig
Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh
3.0
I can't find the spelling for the characters so some of the names may be a bit off.
A house party has been carefully assembled. The host, Jonathon Royal, has "plotted" to bring together a group of people with who to make a "flesh and blood" art project He wants to confine a group of people in his house to see how drama might unfold. To that end, he has invited seven characters with an "emotional, intellectual tension and antagonism."
He explains to his "audience," Audrey Mandrake, a playwright, who all of the characters in this macabre play are to be. A mother, Mrs. Sandra Compline, with two sons, William (32, soldier) and Nicholas (29). She clearly favors the second, more handsome Nicholas, who is to be cut completely out of his inheritance by the rules of entail. William is engaged to Nick's ex-fiancee, Miss Cloris Wynn (also invited, hated by Sandra). Also, the Nick's inamorata, the reason for his breakup with Cloris, Madame Lissa, who has also come under the gimlet eye of our host's aunt, Lady Hersey Amblington when she opens a beauty salon which takes away the brilliant and brightest customers from the aunt's. The last guest? Dr. Francis Hart, the man who not only leaves Madame Lissa's flat "at a most scandalous hour" but who is also a beauty specialist. In fact, the one who botched Sandra's plastic surgery twenty years ago.
The first morning of the house party, Audrey is pushed into the swimming pool and almost drowns. Having been wearing a cloak that Nicholas, Jonathon, and Francis all own identical versions of, it is hard to say who the intended victim really was.
Then a trap is set up for Nicholas, but it ends up William who dies. His mother takes an overdose and lies on the edge of death. Who has planned all this? And who perpetrated such a horrible murder? It all hangs on the footman who dances along to "Bootsy, Baby" in the corridor.
A house party has been carefully assembled. The host, Jonathon Royal, has "plotted" to bring together a group of people with who to make a "flesh and blood" art project He wants to confine a group of people in his house to see how drama might unfold. To that end, he has invited seven characters with an "emotional, intellectual tension and antagonism."
He explains to his "audience," Audrey Mandrake, a playwright, who all of the characters in this macabre play are to be. A mother, Mrs. Sandra Compline, with two sons, William (32, soldier) and Nicholas (29). She clearly favors the second, more handsome Nicholas, who is to be cut completely out of his inheritance by the rules of entail. William is engaged to Nick's ex-fiancee, Miss Cloris Wynn (also invited, hated by Sandra). Also, the Nick's inamorata, the reason for his breakup with Cloris, Madame Lissa, who has also come under the gimlet eye of our host's aunt, Lady Hersey Amblington when she opens a beauty salon which takes away the brilliant and brightest customers from the aunt's. The last guest? Dr. Francis Hart, the man who not only leaves Madame Lissa's flat "at a most scandalous hour" but who is also a beauty specialist. In fact, the one who botched Sandra's plastic surgery twenty years ago.
The first morning of the house party, Audrey is pushed into the swimming pool and almost drowns. Having been wearing a cloak that Nicholas, Jonathon, and Francis all own identical versions of, it is hard to say who the intended victim really was.
Then a trap is set up for Nicholas, but it ends up William who dies. His mother takes an overdose and lies on the edge of death. Who has planned all this? And who perpetrated such a horrible murder? It all hangs on the footman who dances along to "Bootsy, Baby" in the corridor.