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''Vintage Murder'' 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 ...
by
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 fifth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1937. Based in New Zealand, the plot centres on a travelling theatrical troupe and prominently features Doctor Rangi Te Pokiha, a Māori, and a "tiki" (
hei-tiki The hei-tiki () is an ornamental pendant of the Māori of New Zealand. Hei-tiki are usually made of pounamu ( greenstone), and are considered a taonga (treasure) by Māori. They are commonly called ''tiki'' by New Zealanders, a term that origi ...
) a Māori fertility pendant. One of the cast members was a minor character in '' Enter a Murderer'', and refers to that case early in the story. The inspiration for this novel's theater troupe, the Carolyn Dacres Comedy Company, comes from the real-life
Allan Wilkie Allan Wilkie CBE (9 February 1878 – 7 January 1970) was an English Shakespearean actor of Scottish descent noted for his career in Australia. Biography Born in Toxteth Park, Lancashire, he was educated at Liverpool High School and went to ...
Company which Marsh once belonged to.


Plot Summary

Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn is traveling through
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
while he recovers from an operation. On a train with the famous Carolyn Dacres Comedy Company, on tour of New Zealand, Alleyn befriends members of the troupe. Among them are Susan Max, an actress he met previously, Carolyn Dacres and her husband Alfred Meyer, owner of Incorporated Playhouses. Alleyn's identity as a
Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
officer is secret to most of the actors, but he reveals himself to Meyer and Dacres when Meyer insists he was nearly murdered when someone allegedly tried to push him off the train. A young actress named Valerie Gaynes reports stolen money, but Alleyn does not believe the incidents are related. Once in Middleton, Alleyn joins up with the acting troupe for Carolyn's birthday celebration where he presents Carolyn with a Maori tiki, a symbol of fertility. Meyer plans an elaborate charade for his wife in which a jeroboam of champagne will fall down from the theater ceiling and land in a basket. Despite many successful practice runs, the bottle drops down, hits Meyer on the head and kills him. Foul play is suspected and when Alleyn investigates the contraption, he finds a small weight when a larger one should have been and was used previously. He also finds the tiki on the ground nearby. Everyone has an alibi before and after the incident, so no one seems to have been able to remove the weight than put it back after the murder. The obvious suspect is George Mason, Meyer's partner who is set to inherit his estate, but he has the strongest alibi. Alleyn and local police's attention veers toward Valerie Gaynes' stolen money. A young actor named Courtney Broadhead seems the likeliest thief because he mysteriously was able to pay off gambling debts without explanation. However, another actor named Francis Liversidge is too keen to blame Broadhead and Alleyn begins to suspect him. Liversidge, in private, admits to taking Valerie's money for vague reasons of his own. Meyer was aware of this and confronted the actor. Meanwhile, Alleyn falls smitten with Carolyn Dacres and works to clear her name. He confronts her about the tiki and she admits that she is the one who replaced the weight on the contraption. She knew about her husband's surprise for her birthday and after the murder, she placed the small weight on the device to make it look a simple accident when the weights were mixed up. She did so to protect Hailey Hambeldon, an actor who has thrice asked Carolyn to leave her husband and marry him. She insists Hailey is innocent but believes the police would suspect him. She accidentally dropped the tiki backstage and this is the vital clue Alleyn needs to solve the case since he now knows the murderer never had to go back up to the contraption after the murder. The murderer is George Mason. Mason was heavily indebted due to a number of failed projects and he needed his inheritance from Meyer. Although several people claimed to see Mason the entire day before the murder, they are actually incorrect. Mason allegedly spent the afternoon in his office at the back of the theater. Several people saw him there but not the entire time. He escaped the theater through the back entrance, circled around and removed the weight from the device to set it off balance. He returned to the office the same way. Other characters claimed it was impossible for Mason to visit the contraption because they were in the area. However as Alleyn explains, Mason used a series of opened doors and large props to bounce around the area undetected.


Characters

*Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard *Inspector Fox (via correspondence only) *Inspector Wade of the New Zealand Police *Sergeants Packer and Cass *Carolyn Dacres - a leading actress of the stage *Alfred Meyer - her husband, proprietor of Incorporated Playhouses *Hailey Hambledon - an actor *George Mason - Meyer's partner *Dr. Rangi Te Pokiha - a local Maori doctor *Ted Gascoigne - the stage manager *Susan Max - a veteran stage actress who last appeared in ''Enter a Murderer'' *St. John Ackroyd - a comedian *Valerie Gaynes - a young, talentless actress *Francis Liversidge - an actor *Courtney Broadhead - a young stage actor *Brandon Vernon - a character actor *Bob Parsons - a dresser


Television adaptation

''Vintage Murder'' was one of four Alleyn novels adapted for New Zealand television in 1977; Alleyn was played by George Baker, in a series called the ''
Ngaio Marsh Theatre The Ngaio Marsh Theatre is a theatre at the University of Canterbury Students' Association in Christchurch, New Zealand. The Ngaio Marsh theatre was named in honour of Dame Ngaio Marsh, who was a director and patron of theatre, especially Shak ...
''.


References

{{Ngaio Marsh Roderick Alleyn novels 1937 British novels Novels set in New Zealand Theatre-fiction Geoffrey Bles books British detective novels