Marsh, Ngaio - Tied Up in Tinsel (1972)

Troy has been commissioned to paint the picture of Hilary Bill-Tasman at his ancestral home Halberds. Hilary is a very rich snob, whose fortune derives from his father's success in the antiques trade, which he built up in partnership with a rag and bone man called Bert Smith, and a couple of pools wins (Hilary must have been extraordinarily lucky); Hilary was actually raised by an Uncle and Aunt - Colonel and Mrs Forrester. He is in the process of restoring Halberds, which is at the edge of a moor in the midst of which is a prison, sparing no expense in the process. Hilary's is engaged to Cressida Tottenham, who forms part of the house party which assembles for Christmas at Halberds (the Forresters and Bert Smith forming the other members). As he was finding it hard to get servants at Halberds, due to its isolated position, Hilary hit on the idea of hiring convicted murderers recently released from prison, and five such characters form the peculiar staff. As soon as the house-party is assembled practical jokes and poison pen letters (each in some way referring to the nature of the crime for which the murderers were convicted) start to appear. Then during the elaborate Christmas festivities the Forrester's servant Moult (not a convicted murderer!) disappears. Alleyn, summoned by Troy, is on-hand to start investigating.

It will instantly be seen that the basic scenario here has a close similarity to Final Curtain; once again Troy is painting a portrait in a country house populated with a bizarre cast of characters - Marsh completes the echo by having Alleyn being away in Australia (New Zealand in Final Curtain ) at the start of the book (although it being 1972 rather than 1947 his return can be effected far more speedily!). But the character roster in this book has a very different look. Indeed the plot summary given above is such a classic mystery writer's/fan's dream that there is a more than slight suspicion of jeu d'esprit about the whole venture. A clue may perhaps be given by the appearance of a very minor character called Thomas Appleby; Hilary and his menagerie are characters who might well have appeared in Innes. This is not to suggest that the book is some kind of Innes pastiche; Marsh imposes her own stamp and a certain bleakness keeps breaking through. But if you take the very last lines of the book, in which Alleyn makes a black and rather uncharacteristic joke, I think one can perceive that Marsh intended this to be lighter than usual. And in many ways she succeeds - the murderers are a delight, the Christmas celebrations a glorious absurdity and Hilary himself a fantastic character. My own problem with the book however is much the same as my problem with Final Curtain and revolves around the character of Cressida Tottenham (Sonia Orrincourt in Final Curtain) - another sexually voracious young woman. But leaving this on one side Tied up in Tinsel is a late jewel of a Marsh and a must for all country-house mystery aficionados.

NickH.

***

I must disagree with Nick about Tied up in Tinsel. Once again, Ngaio Marsh does a fine job setting up the mystery. We get detailed pictures of all the servants and their past crimes, and apart from a laughably cliché religious maniac, these are very good portraits. We get a lot of theatrical atmosphere when the household rehearses the presentation in which the Druid appears. Alleyn’s wife Agatha Troy appears in a substantial part as one of the guests in the household—she is painting Hilary’s portrait—and she is plenty of fun to keep track of.

The problem is that as marvellous as the set-up is, Marsh loses interest as soon as the butler disappears midway through the book. We get long scenes where nothing happens and Troy waits around for Alleyn to show up—because heaven knows, an intelligent independent young woman couldn’t possibly solve a nasty crime like murder (Oops, did I give that away? Well don’t kid yourself—you knew it was coming.)… especially not without a man around. When the butler disappears, we sit around for ages waiting for the altogether-too-obvious corpse to show up and it gets very dull very quickly. Alleyn shows up and promptly gets to work... by refusing to get involved and trying to say “no” as politely as possible. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen…

This mystery falls apart because the solution comes like an afterthought in the final pages. Alleyn pulls the solution out of his a––. (I say, there are ladies present!) He’s right of course because, well, how couldn’t he be? Oh, Marsh makes a lame attempt at trying to explain the solution, but it is pulled more-or-less out of nowhere and gives no satisfaction as an ending, especially since not everything is adequately explained. This could have been an ingenious little mystery but Marsh decides to show people sitting down, servants insisting that they’re not murderers—at least, not anymore, sir—and all the fun liveliness and quirkiness of the set-up dissipates.

It doesn’t help that two of the characters are abysmal failures. One is a young girl named Cressida, engaged to Hilary. I do not think that I have ever encountered a worse portrait of a young person. Marsh was pathetically out of touch, using a poor mish-mash of slang (“You know?”) and formal dialogue. Cressida’s personality flip-flops as the scene suits her. At times she seems to be a perfect hostess but more often she’s a little b––––. (I say, my boy! The ladies!) The other failure is one of the servants, a religious maniac who keeps telling everyone that they’re sinners in the sight of the Lord and how they will all be punished by the wrath of the Heavens. Dear authors in all genres everywhere: religious people don’t act this way. Please get that through your thick skulls already. If this fellow acted this way all the time (many characters comment that “He’s certifiable!”) there is no way he’d be allowed to leave whatever institution he was in. He’s such a pathetically bad character that I can’t even remember his name.

So yeah, I don’t recommend Tied up in Tinsel. This is a book that contains some marvellous scenes, especially when the Christmas presentation is being planned and presented. There are even some fun characters, including a simply marvellous Colonel. But none of it is tied convincingly together. If you want to read the excellent set-up, go right ahead, but tune out after the disappearance. Nothing good lies beyond that point. And if you want to find out whodunit, come up with your own solution… and don’t feel the need to justify it with logic. Marsh didn’t care enough; why should you?

- Patrick

See also: http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.ca/2012/04/santas-slay.html