Dead Water: Perhaps not the best Ngaio Marsh but still a good read. The setting is a near island in Cornwall where a fairy spring and a supposed miracle cure have created a cash cow for the islanders. Consequently they are not happy when Alleyn's old french teach inherits the island and proposed to shut down the industry that she sees as exploitative. The characters are a bit cliched (particularly the stereotypical repressed spinster), but the setting is interesting and there's plenty of red herrings and possible motives with a dramating denoument in a raging storm.
Black as he's painted: An uncomfortable read in the early 21st century. Marsh's mystery is set in an around the embassy of the "emerging" African nation of Ng'ombwana of which Alleyn's old school chum (The Boomer!) is now the enlightened president. Marsh attempts to be fair to the Africans but doesn't succeed and the book is riddled with uncomfortable situations discussing race relations. There are also a couple of grossly obese villains one of whom is possibly homosexual and there's no sympathy for them at all (Marsh's dislike of gays is one of the things I find hard to take, it's not just when she was writing, Christie has a number of very sympathetic gay characters). The word picture of the nearby London area of "The Capricorns", Mr Whipplestone (retired FO) and the cat Lucy Locket are delightful but the rest doesn't age at all well. Not recommended. ( )