The man who stood before the unkindled hearth was tall and stooped a little. His hair, which had the appearance of floss, stood up thinly like a child's. He wore glasses and blinked behind them at Troy.
Good afternoon, " he said. "I'm Thomas Ancred, but of course you know that because of the card. I hope you don't mind my coming. I didn't really want to, but the family insisted. The whole thing's silly," he said. "About Papa's portrait, I mean, of course. We call him 'Papa,', you know. Some people think it sounds affected, but there it is. About Papa's portrait. I must tell you they all got a great shock when your telegram came. They rang me up. They said you couldn't have understood and I was to come and explain. "

Summary: While Inspector Alleyn is returning from wartime service in New Zealand, Troy Alleyn, his artist wife is commissioned on short notice to paint a portrait of Sir Henry Ancred, a noteworthy stage actor, meeting his dramatic family, encountering a number of practical jokes including one that infuriates Sir Henry at his birthday dinner, after which he is found dead the next morning. Inspector Alleyn arrives home to investigate a possible murder in which his wife is an interested party.

Troy Alleyn is eagerly awaiting the return of her husband, Inspector Roderick Alleyn, after a lengthy assignment in New Zealand during the war. She is an artist of some repute and receives a commission from Sir Henry Ancred, a noted stage actor, to paint his portrait at Ancreton Manor, the ancestral home of the family. She quickly discovers that she will have to contend with far more than Sir Henry, who is a striking subject. She has to reside with a theatrical family whose daily interactions are high drama. We are introduced to everyone from the responsible Paul, Sir Henry’s son to the flippant Cedric, Fenella, a granddaughter and Paul, a cousin, who are engaged despite Sir Henry’s opposition, Millament, the dutiful widowed daughter-in-law, Pauline, engrossed in her son Paul’s affairs, and Jennetta and Desdemona. Finally, there the young and willful Patricia, or as she is known, Panty–known for her practical jokes.

Troy’s arrival coincides with an outbreak of practical jokes–paint on the bannister to her room, a greasepaint message on Sir Henry’s mirror, and painting over Alleyn’s portrait of Sir Henry–humorous and easily removed. The family all thinks it points back to Panty–except for Troy who has become friends with the young child.

The family drama is heightened by another guest, Sonia Orrincourt, who is Sir Henry’s love interest. Given Sir Henry’s increasingly fragile health and his propensity to constantly change his will, which currently favors Panty, there is all kind of apprehension, gossip, and attempts to manipulate Sir Henry’s outlook. All this comes to a climax at Sir Henry’s Birthday dinner as he announces his new will and his engagement to Sonia. This is followed by the unveiling of Alleyn’s portrait of Sir Henry, once again marred by a cow, like those Panty likes to paint, flying over Sir Henry’s head. While the damage to the painting is easily undone, Sir Henry goes to bed upset in stomach from dinner and emotionally wrought out. Next morning, Barker, the butler, finds him dead.

Troy is present during all of this, which takes up nearly half the book, departing as the undertaker arrives to go and meet her husband. She recounts the story, which he enjoys, even as they get reacquainted. Then, back at Ancreton, things get more interesting. Someone sends the whole family a note written on school paper alleging that Sir Henry was murdered. Sir Henry had been interested in an ancestral embalming method involving arsenic, a book about which was in his library and several had consulted. A tin of rat poison is missing. Inspector Alleyn and his team are asked to make inquiries. Increasingly, he becomes convinced that Sir Henry was murdered.

The story turns on wills and family attachments and the unhealthy loves people can have for those around them. The unusual situation of Troy being an interested party brings her into the investigation. Her memory for detail is invaluable and it turns out that she gives Alleyn the decisive clue.

I have to admit that I had kind of hoped that most of those at Ancreton Manor apart from the butler and Panty would be found guilty. Marsh creates a family full of unlikable people as well as portraying the Inspector’s wife as a capable professional (and detective) in her own right. I hope I encounter more of Troy in future novels! It will be interesting to see if Marsh brings them together on a case again. ( )

Alleyn Returns from the War
Review of the Felony & Mayhem paperback edition (2014) of the 1947 original

Final Curtain is one of several Ngaio Marsh works that manages to combine her love of theatre with the mystery world. Inspector Alleyn's wife Agatha Troy is commissioned to paint the portrait of a venerable actor at his somewhat rundown country estate. She is hesitant about the commission but finally intrigued enough to carry it out while also still awaiting Alleyn's return from his counter-espionage activities in the Pacific theatre during World War II.

Roughly half of the book is really an Agatha Troy investigation as she observes the quirky extended family of the actor who are all manouvering their positions towards the bequests of his final will. And of course he ends up dead under suspicious circumstances. Alleyn returns home from New Zealand to solve the case.

Trivia
Aside from Marsh's own WWII New Zealand based Alleyn investigations (Colour Scheme (Alleyn #12, 1943) and Died in the Wool (Alleyn #13, 1945)), Stella Duffy recently completed Marsh's unfinished Money in the Morgue (2018) which is now #33 in the canon, but could reasonably be numbered as #13.5. ( )

A marvelous book! We get Troy and Roderick both, which I do love. And both points of view, which I find fun. The puzzle is complex, and I wasn't sure till the very end who was the culprit, which is the very best.

It's important to remember, if you haven't the context, that Alleyn was sent to New Zealand for his war work, and Troy was in England doing hers, so they were apart 3 years. And remember, you couldn't really phone NZ from UK at that point - calling from one part of the country to another required a live operator and a waiting period for an open line. So for 3 years, they had only letters. And he didn't just fly home - he takes a ship, and she doesn't know for weeks when he will arrive. They manage to get her 3 days notice when the ship is close. So different from our lives today!

It's well worth a read - and if you aren't reading the whole series, you might want to read Artists in Crime first, the 6th in the series, which is the book where Roddy and Troy first meet.

( )

Ultimately a let down. Much of this book is written as an examination of a particular type of English upper class family -- a family that wallows in the "specialness" and whose eccentricities are accepted where similar behaviour would be considered acceptable in members of another class. Marsh's obsession with this type of family goes back to her earliest books. Behaviour that would be considered narcissistic and even pathological is presented as tragic, annoying but charming or quirky if expressed by members of the correct class and educational background.

If the book were simply an examination of this type of family -- caught in amber at the last moment in time in which they could exist -- this book would be interesting. Marsh's need to cram a murder mystery into this scenario ultimates results in the book ending in a damp squib rather than a explosion let alone a satisfying conclusion.

Books like this underline how much Marsh's Scotland Yard and her detectives are mired in a world that was already dying before WWII and was moribund by the time this book reached publication. ( )