I had forgotten what a smart read this was. A bit tough to get going, but once you're past the first third or so, it becomes quite entertaining. ( )

This installment in the Alleyn mystery series was in the same vein as much of the series, but, like the previous ones, this book is bulkier than the beginning ones. Alleyn's personal life, in the form of Troy, his love interest, adds to the novel. His romantic aspirations have to take a backseat to the latest crime. Alleyn has been investigating a series of blackmails targeting women of the upper class, and since his family is also a part of that gentile group, he has been employing an old family friend, Lord Gospel, affectionately known as Bunchy, to make the type of inquiries unavailable to police officers. The case takes a dark turn when Bunchy winds up dead, strangled with his own tie.

This is the first time that we've seen Alleyn investigate the death of a friend, and we are privy to his guilt, anger, pain, and uncertainty. That, combined with his love life, makes this the novel that has revealed the most, so far, of Alleyn's personal life. The story still has the usual complement of suspects, all with their secrets, some related to the crime, and some not. Also, the mystery is interesting. I enjoyed the blackmailing angle as a change of pace from murder (as much as I love my murder mysteries), and I really wanted to know who did it, a sign of a good mystery.

A couple of things didn't work for me, though. First off, the size. I enjoy my big clunker books, but with Marsh, and most mysteries, for that matter, I like them short and swift. Notice how Agatha Christie's books are all in bite-size pieces? I like that. Helps me get to the end, and therefore the answer, quicker. Marsh's books started out that way, but they have gradually been gaining weight, presumably because we are getting more into Alleyn's personal life, not just his professional. I like learning all that information, but maybe spread out in smaller doses across more books? The other aspect that I didn't like was she made it a little too easy this time: I figured out the culprit in the side mystery quickly, and I determined the killer before all was revealed. I like it when my mystery authors make me surprised at the end. Thus the three and a half stars, rather than four. A solid read, but not as good as earlier entries in the series. ( )

Lady Alleyn is chaperoning her granddaughter (Inspector Alleyn’s niece) in her coming out season. Alleyn has enlisted the help of a dear old friend to look into a case of blackmail; this request leads to murder. I think this is the second book which has Troy in it. This was a very good story and although I had a pretty good idea who the culprit was I wasn’t absolutely sure until the end. I think I was sleepy when the clinching clue was subtly presented—it wasn’t blatant and required a little bit of time calculating, but I should have caught it. ( )

Interesting, though I tagged the murderer before he even did it. I liked Inspector Allyen and his cohorts, but not on the same intimate level as Lord Peter, Archie Goodwin and Cadfael. Not as humorous. ( )

I've got several of Marsh's Inspector Allen mysteries, I understand she wrote dozens. Only the ones written during the 30s and 40s really interest me, and this was one of the earliest. All about debs and gels coming out, doncher know. Great fun. ( )