Continuing my journey through the works of Ngaio Marsh, I’ve just completed Scales of Justice (1955). On the back cover, there was a quote from the legendary Anthony Boucher (of Bouchercon fame) that read “Her best pure formal detective story.” Indeed, the detection by Marsh’s sleuth, Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard, may be admirable, but I couldn’t connect in any signifciant way to any of the characters. (Maybe that’s the “pure formal” part?)
Usually, Marsh introduces the characters in her stories with charming, even funny, vignettes. (See for example, Death of a Peer, reviewed here.) A murder occurs, and only then does Alleyn make his appearance. In Scales of Justice, we are introduced to four families of “gentry” (as opposed to the “ordinary folk”) living in the town of Swevenings on the Chyne River. First and foremost, there are the Lacklanders (three generations: Lady Lacklander, her son George – whom she has to remind constantly not to be “an ass” – and his son Dr. Mark Lacklander). Next there is the Cartarette family: Colonel Cartarette, Rose, his daughter from his first marriage, and his second wife Kitty. Octavius Danberry-Phinn, who lives alone with his many cats, and Commander Syce, retired from the Royal Navy and suffering from lumbago, whose main pasttime is archery, complete the picture. Mark Lacklander and Rose Cartarette are in love. Syce once killed (accidentally, he claims) one of Phinn’s cats with an arrow. And there is an intense rivalry over catching an enormous trout called “The Old ‘Un.” The ‘scales’ in the title refer to the fish.
A murder occurs, and the body is found by Nurse Kettle, the “district nurse” who is administering care to both Lady Lacklander and Commander Syce. (The role of district nurse seems to be a position unique to the UK, Australia and New Zealand.) Lady Lacklander insists that Alleyn, who is gentry himself, be the one who is called in to solve it. Alleyn and his sidekick Fox arrive on the scene on page 90, and fairly soon Alleyn seems to know who the murderer is. He tells Fox several times that he knows, but he never shares any of his thoughts with the reader. The story continues for another hundred pages, and new facts emerge about these people who thought they knew all about each other. Eventually the murderer is revealed and it is no great surprise.
Readers who are unfamiliar with books from the 1940s and 1950s may find it jarring how often someone in the book ‘ejaculates’ – meaning ‘exclaims.’
I learned new things about fish scales from this book, but nothing else was very memorable.