''Scales of Justice'' is a

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

Ngaio Marsh Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh (; 23 April 1895 – 18 February 1982) was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. As a crime writer during the "Golden Age of Det ...

. it is the eighteenth novel to feature

Roderick Alleyn Roderick Alleyn (pronounced "Allen") is a fictional character who first appeared in 1934. He is the policeman hero of the 32 detective novels of Ngaio Marsh. Marsh and her gentleman detective belong firmly in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, ...

, and was first published in 1955. With a classic 'Golden Age' crime novel's setting, in the idyllic, self-contained, rural English community of Swevenings, the suspects all members of a tight-knit social group revolving around the local baronet and his family (the Lacklanders), the plot concerns the brutal murder of Colonel Carterette, an enthusiastic fisherman, who is preparing for publication the deceased squire's memoirs, which include the admission that as a high-ranking diplomat before World War Two, the baronet had treasonably put class before country in what has been called the Herrenvolk heresy, and knowingly let a young member of the embassy staff take the blame. The young man in question, who idolised the Lacklander ambassador, had committed suicide and his eccentric father is now the murdered colonel's neighbour. Apart from its ingenious plotting, murder method and solution (revolving around the proposition that fishes' scales are individually identifiable in the same way as human fingerprints, hence the punning title), the novel represents a shift in the author's presentation of the English gentry, with whom she was on close terms from her youthful days in New Zealand, and then in 1920s London. (Comparison has been made with Marsh's somewhat more deferential pre-War presentation of the English landed gentry in earlier Alleyn novels; with the 1941 ''

Surfeit of Lampreys Surfeit is a human gene cluster that consists of a group of very tightly linked genes on chromosome 9 that do not share sequence similarity. Genes in this cluster are numbered 1 through 6: SURF1, SURF2, SURF3, SURF4, SURF5, and SURF6 Surfeit ...

'' showing a more ambivalent attitude.) Through its plot, characters and solution, the book is frankly critical of its rural gentry, their values and actions, especially in key confrontations between Lady Lacklander and the dead boy's father, and between the kindly, conservative District Nurse Kettle and the interloper revealed to be the murderer, for whom considerable reader sympathy is elicited.

Television adaptation and accusations of snobbism

This novel was adapted in 1994 for the television series ''

The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries ''The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries'' is a British detective television series, broadcast on BBC1, which was adapted from nine of the novels by Dame Ngaio Marsh, featuring the character Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. The pilot episode was show ...

'', with

Patrick Malahide Patrick Gerald Duggan (born 24 March 1945), known professionally as Patrick Malahide, is a veteran British film, television and theatre actor, author and producer, known, amongst other things, for his roles as Inspector Alleyn in ''The Inspect ...

and, prominently among an outstanding cast,

Elizabeth Spriggs Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

as Lady Lacklander and

Frances Barber Frances Barber (née Brookes, born 13 May 1958) is an English actress. She received Olivier Award nominations for her work in the plays '' Camille'' (1985), and ''Uncle Vanya'' (1997). Her film appearances include three collaborations with Gar ...

as Mrs Cartarette. It is interesting that, according to Marsh's first biographer Margaret Lewis, a proposed and abandoned 1955 BBC radio adaptation has the reader's filed note: "we should have to eliminate the appalling snobbishness". As Dr Lewis justly comments, "a truer reading of the novel would be that the appalling snobbishness is accurately depicted and firmly ridiculed by the author".

References

External links

* Roderick Alleyn novels 1955 British novels Collins Crime Club books British detective novels {{1950s-crime-novel-stub