Grave Mistake

This was a late Marsh set in a cosy Kentish village in the 1970s. Alleyn and Fox are called in to investigate a suspicious death at a spa. Was it suicide or murder? The familiar class distinctions are made with the faded aristocracy, nouveau rich, the servants and a doctor and vicar thrown in as wel......more

A couple of days ago I was reading a critique of Marsh's novel Last Ditch (1977) that pulled the book apart on a whole bunch of grounds, with most of which I agreed: it's indeed pretty dire. But when the reviewer then said that all of Marsh's last few books were "atrocious" I had to demur. Grave Mis......more

I enjoyed reading this work by Marsh as I had time to savor the careful construction and development of characters that held this English village mystery together beginning to end. The role of gardener is front and center in this tale, as we are introduced to our first dead body by page 7, the garde......more

In Grave Mistake by Ngaio Marsh, former woman of the theater Verity Preston has lived in her original hometown of Upper Quintern and now uses the chance to write plays. Her childhood sometimes-friend, Sybil Foster, whose daughter Prunella is Verity’s goddaughter, accompanies Verity to a private part......more