Spinsters in Jeopardy
 First UK edition | |
| Author | Ngaio Marsh |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Roderick Alleyn |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Little, Brown |
Publication date | 1953 |
| Media type | |
| Preceded by | Opening Night |
| Followed by | Scales of Justice |
Spinsters in Jeopardy is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the seventeenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1953.[1][2]
The novel is set in Southern France, where Alleyn, his painter wife Agatha Troy and their young son Ricky are on holiday. Alleyn is tasked by his Scotland Yard superiors with meeting French police colleagues to discuss international drug trafficking through Marseilles. On the overnight sleeper train from Paris, the Alleyns witness what appears to be a fatal night-time stabbing in the illuminated window of a dramatically-set mediaeval castle overlooking the railway line. This proves to be the resort of an élite, louche group of socialites who are dabbling in Black Magic under the auspices of a smoothly dubious host and 'high priest' of a cult that clearly involves recreational drug-taking, with vulnerable wealthy women potentially exploited. Alleyn's investigations are complicated by the kidnapping of Ricky from their hotel.
Plot[edit]
While she paints their son Ricky's portrait, Troy and Alleyn discuss P.E. Garbel, her distant relative she has never met who sends Troy letters from the Maritime Alps. Alleyn suggests they visit France together, as Garbel would like them to: Alleyn has to liaise with the Sûreté about narcotics, in an area near Roqueville, Garbel's home.
As the Alleyns' train nears Roqueville, husband and wife see something alarming through the window of a house they pass: a woman falling backwards, a white-robed man standing over her with a blade in his hand. An attendant confirms that the house is the Château de la Chèvre d'Argent, owned by a Mr Oberon. Miss Truebody, another passenger, is diagnosed with a perforated appendix. The Alleyns agree to get her operated on. Alleyn knows of a Dr Baradi staying at the Château and reluctantly arranges to contact him.
At the Château, Baradi greets them. Sedated, Truebody chatters about herself before slipping under: she has no living relatives and few acquaintances.
While Alleyn and his hired chauffeur Raoul assist Baradi in the operation, Troy meets Oberon (who officiates over a cult) and his acolyte Grizel Locke, an eccentric middle-aged woman, plus the youthful initiates Ginny Taylor and Robin Herrington. After the operation, Alleyn collects Troy and Ricky. Herrington offers to show the family the area since they don’t know anyone locally, then, when Alleyn mentions Garbel, looks appalled and exits rapidly.
Alleyn tells Troy Oberon's cult is a 'sideline' to his drug-running. Raoul drives Troy and Ricky to Roqueville. Troy seeks out Garbel at home but has no luck; after she has left, Garbel's concierge calls the Château.
Alleyn waits at the Château for Raoul to collect him. Carrying out a covert search, he finds a ledger with Garbel's name written in it, relating to the local chemical factory. Baradi questions Alleyn about himself, then, when Alleyn mentions Garbel, falls silent.
When Alleyn arrives at his hotel, Troy is distraught: Ricky has been abducted. After frantic searching and enquiries, Troy glimpses Ricky on a balcony outside Garbel's apartment building. As they rush out, Alleyn notices flowers that have arrived: the card attached says Garbel is sorry to be away during their visit.
Alleyn searches the building fruitlessly; searching Garbel's apartment, he discovers that Troy's cousin is female, not male as he assumed. Garbel, a chemist, works for Oberon: her letters were cryptic warnings about drug manufacture.
Alleyn and the local Commissaire, Dupont, agree that Oberon's gang have taken Ricky to the factory, to keep Alleyn occupied. A phone call comes through demanding ransom: Alleyn agrees to drop off money. He and Dupont plan a course of action.
At the factory, Alleyn recovers Ricky. Herrington asks Alleyn for help extricating Ginny from Oberon's cult. They agree that, the following evening, when a ritual is planned, Herrington will get Ginny away from the Château, while Alleyn and Raoul infiltrate the ceremony wearing Herrington and Ginny's robes.
The next night, Dupont has the Château's electricity cut off. Alleyn and Raoul approach the Château stealthily but Alleyn encounters Oberon. Alleyn's cover-story is that he has come to ask after Truebody, who Oberon tells him has died. Baradi takes Alleyn to see the body laid out, but drops his torch, plunging the room into darkness. Examining the corpse, Alleyn finds a cavity under the left breast.
Alleyn pretends to leave but hides in Herrington's room. Grizel Locke enters: she is in fact Miss Garbel. The real Locke died early the previous morning. The acolytes were told she overdosed on heroin, though Garbel suspects murder: Locke, Ginny's aunt, was worried for her niece and threatened to expose the cult. Baradi agreed to operate on Truebody as an opportunity to dispose of Locke's corpse: Locke would be buried as Truebody, and after the Alleyns had gone and Truebody had recovered, a false headstone would be put over Locke's grave.
Alleyn and Raoul infiltrate the ritual as planned. At the ceremony's climax (Oberon was to deflower Ginny), they subdue Oberon and Baradi; Dupont arrests the cult members.
A train passes, and Alleyn sees the passengers reflected in Oberon's enormous mirror: he realises that he saw a reflection of the murder, that the murderer was holding a dagger in his left hand, and that this was Baradi, the only left-handed celebrant. He leaves Garbel nursing the convalescent Truebody, her fellow spinster.
Reception[edit]
Kirkus Reviews had a brief review of this novel, closing with "Good summer sustenance."[3]
In a critical essay on Marsh, Jessica Mann wrote, "Spinsters in Jeopardy... like the pre-war Death in Ecstasy uses the peculiarities of a lunatic and vicious religious sect as the peg for its plot... From this theme, as from others, Marsh retreats from full exploration; she is amused and sardonic, even a little disgusted, but not really interested, and the irrational urges of the devotees, the corrupt motives of those who batten on them, are seen wholly through a policeman's eye. It is interesting to compare this treatment with Margaret Millar's of a similar sect in How Like an Angel (1962). Millar makes events arise from the necessities of the cult and its dogma, rather than using it as merely a setting."[4]
Themes[edit]
The novel revisits similar themes to Marsh's earlier Alleyn mystery novel Death in Ecstasy (1936),[5][4][6][7] which also concerns a suspect cult with drug-taking a part of its practice and a dubiously charismatic cult leader, although the earlier book is set in fashionable London society, not Southern France. According to Marsh's biographer Margaret Lewis, Marsh drew on her knowledge of an actual 1890s scandal in her native Christchurch: The Temple of Truth, whose leader Arthur Bentley Worthington had "a fondness for wealthy but gullible widows".[8][9] Lewis also says that Marsh based the sinister chateau on a French Saracen fortress where her lifelong friends, the Rhodes family, holidayed in 1949.[10]
The novel is one of several by Marsh where drug trafficking and drug abuse play a prominent part: Enter a Murderer (1935), Death in Ecstasy, Swing Brother Swing (1949), Clutch of Constables (1968), Last Ditch (1977) and Grave Mistake (1978).[11][12][a] It is the first where the Alleyns' son Ricky appears as a character; here he is six years old.[14] Earl F. Bargainnier notes how much the novel (with its murder occurring very early in the story, the kidnapping of Ricky, and the action climax) departs from "the classical formulas" of Golden Age crime fiction, calling it "Hitchcockian".[15]
Publication[edit]
The novel was published in the United States in 1953 by Little, Brown of Boston, her usual American publisher, and in 1955 in an abridged edition titled The Bride of Death by Spivak of New York. It was published in Britain by William Collins in 1954.[16]
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ McDorman 1991, pp. xiii–xiv.
- ^ Harding 1998, pp. 675–676.
- ^ "SPINSTERS IN JEOPARDY by Ngaio Marsh". Kirkus Reviews. 1 August 1953. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ a b Mann, Jessica (1981). Deadlier than the Male: An Investigation into Feminine Crime Writing. Newton Abbot; London: David & Charles. p. 232. ISBN 0-7153-7877-5.
- ^ Bargainnier 1981, p. 95.
- ^ McDorman 1991, p. 113.
- ^ Harding 1998, p. 673.
- ^ Lewis 1998, p. 73.
- ^ Hill, Richard S. "Worthington, Arthur Bently". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
- ^ Lewis 1998, p. 147.
- ^ Bargainnier 1981, p. 100.
- ^ Harding 1998, p. 671.
- ^ Bargainnier 1981, p. 102.
- ^ Bargainnier 1981, p. 90.
- ^ Bargainnier 1981, p. 101.
- ^ Harding 1998, p. 676.
Bibliography[edit]
- Bargainnier, Earl F. (1981). "Ngaio Marsh". In Bargainnier, Earl F. (ed.). 10 Women of Mystery. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. pp. 81–105. ISBN 0-87972-173-1.
- Harding, Bruce (1998). "Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982)". In Winks, Robin W.; Corrigan, Maureen (eds.). Mystery and Suspense Writers: The Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage. Volume 2: Ross Macdonald to Women of Mystery. New York: Scribner's. pp. 665–677. ISBN 0-684-80520-0.
- Lewis, Margaret (1998). Ngaio Marsh: A Life. Scottsdale: Poisoned Pen Press. ISBN 1-890208-05-1.
- McDorman, Kathryne Slate (1991). Ngaio Marsh. Boston: Twayne. ISBN 0-8057-6999-4.
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