Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand mystery writer who is often compared to Agatha Christie. Her signature detective, Roderick Alleyn, is not as much a caricature as Hercule Poirot (whom I love, but is decidedly a comical figure). Alleyn is steady, mild-mannered, and modest. He is the best part of Marsh’s Collected Short Mysteries, a short book featuring a few mysteries, a teleplay and some oddities.
I enjoyed this collection, but there isn’t an awful lot to say about it. There are some standard short mysteries and an interesting teleplay Marsh wrote without an ending, leaving it the viewer to decide who is guilty (the editor of the book presents five options, the last of which seems to be the answer, so the reader is not left hanging). There is strange non-fiction essay about an amputated hand and a man dressed in large goggles and a red wig that has no solution. There is a mystical story without a point. I think these are just scrap stories that Marsh may not have intended to publish. Even so, they are diverting.
My mother, who introduced me to Agatha Christie, loved Ngaio Marsh’s full-length mysteries, so I think I’ll pick one up and give her another go.