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Final Curtain: Roderick Alleyn #14 Kindle Edition

by Ngaio Marsh (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 636 ratings
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A Shakespearean actor shuffles off his mortal coil in this “skillfully wrought” country-house mystery (The New York Times).

Sir Henry Ancred, a celebrated Shakespearean actor, has arranged to have his portrait painted by Agatha Troy, wife of Inspector Roderick Alleyn. But when Ancred is killed at his own birthday party, leaving behind a family full of suspects, Troy’s work ends and Inspector Alleyn’s begins . . .

“It’s time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around.” —New York Magazine

“A peerless practitioner of the slightly surreal, English-village comedy-mystery.” —Kirkus Reviews
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  1. Book 14 of 33
    Inspectr Roderick Alleyn
  2. Print length
    308 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Felony & Mayhem Press
  6. Publication date
    December 15, 2012
  7. File size
    1436 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

''Nadia May's British accent and soprano voice perfectly capture Marsh's narrative. Her portrayal of the bizarre cast of characters is superb.'' --AudioFile

''Nadia May gives a wonderful reading.'' --Library Journal

About the Author

Ngaio Marsh, born Edith Ngaio Marsh in 1895, grew up in Christchurch, New Zealand. She wrote 32 mystery novels between 1934 and 1982, earning her widespread acclaim and comparisons to Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Margery Allingham. In addition to writing, she pursued her passion for theater and directed a number of plays as a member of the University of Canterbury Drama Society. She also wrote plays, essays, and an autobiography titled Black Beech and Honeydew. In 1966 she was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her accomplishments in the arts, and in 1978 she was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Dame Ngaio Marsh split her time between New Zealand and the UK, and died in Christchurch in 1982. Her home there is now a museum.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00BI8CCFO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Felony & Mayhem Press; Reprint edition (December 15, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 15, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1436 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 308 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 636 ratings

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Ngaio Marsh

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
636 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Patto
5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional murder
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2018
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This story revolves around a high-strung theatrical family prone to hysterics, tears, fights, and fainting fits in any trying situation. They are pushed to the extremes of their emotions when the head of the family is murdered.

Sir Henry Ancred, baronet, has been a famous a Shakespearean actor. At seventy-five he is still unbelievably handsome with a ducal head and beautiful gestures. His family persuades Agatha Troy to paint his portrait as Macbeth. Troy is not only a renowned portrait painter but also the wife of Scotland Yard’s star investigator Inspector Alleyn.

Alleyn has been on the other side of the world for over three years doing war work. His return to England and his wife is an engaging sub-theme in the novel.

The puzzle is puzzling indeed. The red herrings are seductive. The waters are muddied by the Difficult Child of the family who is constantly playing pranks. And Sir Henry’s tendency to change his will regularly in anger adds to the excitement.

Final Curtain was first published in 1947. Ngaio Marsh’s depiction of theatrical people is realistic and astute, no doubt reflecting her own experience as a young actress.

This book fits nicely into the series, which just keeps getting better as I read through it.
10 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully written murder mystery and romance - but some characters were too annoying
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2016
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As usual, Marsh wrote a murder complex enough to involve multiple suspects, while keeping the whodunit reasonable and satisfying. What starts out as chaos contains a thread of logic. I found the pace to be one of the slowest of any Marsh book. One possibility is that, as satisfying as the murder mystery set-up is, some of the most annoying people ever are in this book. Marsh balances out their nails-on-chalkboard histrionics with the story of Roderick Alleyn's reunion with his wife, Agatha Troy, after three years of separation due to WWII. This is a sophisticated treatment of the difficulties war can impose (and did impose) on relationships, even deeply loving ones like that of Rory and Troy. I have since reread these scenes, and not the whole novel. The book picks up considerably in the last third.
3 people found this helpful
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michaelmasdaisy
5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Final Curtain
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2020
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The characters in the novel are very well written which makes them easy to visualize and also to laugh at. Yes, it's a murder mystery, but that doesn't mean that the characters have to walk around looking mysterious and threatening. The first part of the story is seen through the eyes of Roderick Alleyn's wife, Troy, who has gone to an estate to paint a portrait of the patriarch of the family. The patriarch, his adult children, and grandchildren have been stage actors. The family members who haven't chosen the stage, still have the histrionics of stage actors, much to the dismay of Troy and the inlaws married into the family.
The plot twists are unexpected, and this is one of my favorite Ngaio Marsh novel.s
One person found this helpful
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Risa Reads
5.0 out of 5 stars Enter Mrs. Troy
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2021
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Troy is badgered into taking a portrait commission for the GOM of the Acred family. The entire eccentric group is gathered for the patriarch"s birthday and the unveiling of the finished artwork. A death, of course, occurs, clues are dropped, and red herrings float up. It is refreshing to see Troy in an active, rather than in a passive role!
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Richard A. Erickson
4.0 out of 5 stars Is That All There Is?
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2019
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It has been a relatively long time since I read FINAL CURTAIN and I have read several other books thereafter. I no longer have a copy of the book and I cannot recall very much about it. However, Ms Marsh never seems to close off the narrative of Alleyn's life at the end of each novel and the reader can be certain that life continues for our hero. There will be more to come. I suspect there is some doubting that "we're done here." Meanwhile, the genre is alive and thriving. Have Faith (in) Martin, et al.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Ngaio Marsh At Her Best
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2021
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This is truly one of Marsh’s best. Extremely well plotted. In retrospect I should have known who the murderer was but there were several that clearly could have been it and that I would have been happy had any one of them been it.
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Siska
3.0 out of 5 stars Another convoluted who dunnit
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2021
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In the style of Agatha Christie. Well written, great character development of the 'suspects'. I personally found the book a bit plodding.
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Carol Mello
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good, this one stumped me!
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2015
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A keeper. However I will have to wait several years before I reread it. It is the solutions of the ones that stump us that stick firmly in our memory of a mystery novel.

A World War 2 , novel. Alleyn is off on secret war related business so Agatha Troy lets herself be talked into going up North to paint a portrait of an elderly Shakespearian actor who was knighted for his acting. She arrives at a very uncomfortable family house party. There are so many people/suspects in this plot that I had to contruct a family tree. And as the title of this review states, Marsh completely stumped me on this one.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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C.C.
4.0 out of 5 stars Vale conhecer!
Reviewed in Brazil on August 29, 2016
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Para quem gosta de Agatha Christie, essa é ótima escolha. Na verdade, “Final Curtain” lembra bastante “Crooked House”. Mansão no campo, família disfuncional, personagens excêntricas, crime (ops! será?!), melhor dizer morte misteriosa... Na verdade, até bem pouco tempo, eu nunca havia ouvido falar em Ngaio Marsh. Contudo, como sou viciada em séries britânicas (simplesmente amo as produções da BBC), comprei, meio que apostando na sorte, o dvd da série “The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries”. Gostei muito dessa história em particular e, então, resolvi lê-la. Para quem gosta do estilo mistério a ser resolvido em “lugar restrito” (ilha, casa isolada, prédio em quarentena, não importa), com personagens que afirmam ser algo, mas com relação aos quais não há qualquer certeza, essa é, com certeza, uma boa opção de leitura.
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Lacey Green
5.0 out of 5 stars That which should accompany old age...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 31, 2013
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Ms Marsh invites the reader to a hideous Victorian mansion whose pretentious ugliness reflects the dysfunctional family in residence. The tale is vividly of its time: the war is staggering to its close, rationing has encouraged overseas friends to send canned food to Britain, childish tricks can spur on homicide and Agatha Troy is commissioned to paint a silly, grand old man of the theatre whose 'borrowed robes' are too big for him...

Ms Marsh's novels interest me because she shows how serious crimes are rarely the result of impulse but have been brewing for years. They are the outcome of many small life-events, perceived slights and insults, however mistaken, that twist the perpetrator's view of themselves and their victim. What the killers have in common is their focus on self, in which the decision that the victim has no right to live comes to seem logical and justified. Ms Marsh comes back to 'Macbeth' at the end of her writing career' in 'Light Thickens', another compelling read that shows her deep-rooted pity for warped humanity and at the same time her faith in the regenerative powers of kindness and courage.

I would recommend 'Final Curtain' to anyone who likes a bizarre puzzle and a wide range of characters living in a damaged wartime society, where old values and patterns of power are challenged and money is still the root of all evil. The book is sometimes comic, sometimes pathetic, always true to its purpose, which is to show the terrible consequences of 'vaulting ambition.' The Scottish Play is here only a part of the theatrical history and fantasy of an actor whose 'life is fallen into the sere, the yellow leaf.'
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Tilu
2.0 out of 5 stars Je n'ai pas accrochee.
Reviewed in France on December 7, 2012
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Ce livre de N. Marsh est une enquete de plus de l'inspecteur Alleyn. Deux choses rendent cet episode special:
1) Agatha, la femme de l'inspecteur Alleyn, se trouve des le debut confronte aux protagonistes et se retrouve du coup impliquee de pres dans le meurtre.
2) L'histoire se passe au moment ou apres une longue separation due a la guerre, Alleyn rentre enfin pour retrouver sa femme. Leurs retrouvailles se feront en parallele de l'enquete.
Je suis une inconditionelle de N. Marsh, et pourtant, pour la premiere fois, je n'ai pas apprecie ce livre. J'ai meme eu du mal a le finir. Commencons par le positif. C'est N. Marsh. Donc, on retrouve le style excellent pour decrire une situation, une ambience et depeindre la psychologie des personnages. La qualite est bien la. Maintenant, pour moi, il y avait aussi du negatif. D'abord, dans la realite, sa femme etant directement impliquee dans le meurtre, Alleyn n'aurait jamais ete nomme pour mener l'enquete. Mais bon, ce n'est qu'un detail. Plus genant, mon probleme a ete que meme en me replacant dans le contexte de l'epoque, ce qui est necessaires pour tous les livres de Ngaio, je n'ai jamais pu croire aux personnages. Ils etaient - pour moi - beaucoup trop caricaturaux. Certains passages en devenaient ridicules, voire meme incomprehensibles, et petit a petit, j'ai decroche et n'ai plus jamais pu "entrer" dans l'histoire. Enfin, en plus de ca, les retrouvailles entre l'inspecteur et sa femme sont restees pour moi un puzzle sans solution. Leurs facons de penser et leurs reactions m'ont totalement echappes.
Conclusion: Si vous ne connaissez pas encore les enquetes de l'inspecteur Alleyn, qui sont geniales, ne commencez pas par cette episode. Gardez le pour plus tard, comme une curiosite dans tout ce qu'elle a ecrit.
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jackpot
1.0 out of 5 stars poor printing
Reviewed in Japan on April 29, 2015
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内容の印刷状態が劣悪。この版の購入は絶対すすめない。目が悪くなります。
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David Nash-Brown
4.0 out of 5 stars Ultimate Marsh
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2013
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This must be one of Ngaio Marsh's best books. It's all there - colourful characters, a sleuthing Troy and Inspector Rory Alleyn the supreme upper-crust police detective. What more can one ask?
2 people found this helpful
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