Artists in Crime by Ngaio Marsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The best part of this novel is the detective’s mom. She’s super cool. Second is the romance, which is quite fun. Third is the horrific ways that people get killed in it. (One of them is, I think, pretty much exactly what people call ‘ironic’ but is not actually ironic. In an Alanis sort of way, you know?)
Oh, and the structure of the novel adheres to the traditional Christie form, which is a departure for Marsh, as far as I can tell, inasmuch as it includes the second murder that signals the beginning of the third act.
I would be remiss not to mention the humorous Australian, to whom the detective goes full Polonius with the fatherly advice in a way that one strongly suspects broke the fourth wall for some unlucky actual young reader. It’s a weird moment.
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