Two by NGAIO MARSH —

    ●   Overture to Death. Collins Crime Club, UK, hardcover, 1939. Lee Furman, US, hardcover, 1939. Reprinted many times since, in both hardcover and soft.

    ●   Black As He’s Painted. Collins Crime Club, UK, hardcover, 1974. Little Brown, US, hc, 1974. Also reprinted many times.

   For new generations of mystery fans some other fine works are available in recent reprints, including Ngaio Marsh’s best book, Overture to Death (1939), provided to us by Jove. Here are some devastating portraits of people in a small British village and a murder method as unusual as any I can recall.

   Roderick Alleyn’s questioning of suspects, sometimes too lengthy, seems just right here, and everything gets wrapped up in one of Marsh’s best solutions.

   For Marsh in a more modern vein, try Black As He’s Painted (1974), also from Jove. Not only do we get the contemporary London scene, but we even have a murder at the embassy of an emerging African state, the ruler of which went to school with Alleyn. (Troy Alleyn has been commissioned to paint his portrait while he is in London.)

   Some 35 years after she hit her peak, Marsh was more interested in bringing realism to her scenes and her characters. She did this successfully in her later books, and while her puzzles were not as good as they once had been, they were adequate, and the overall effect was to give us books, such as Black as He’s Painted, which could be enjoyed on several levels.