The Bitterness of Eternal Murder Monday

[evelyn_b]

Inspector Alleyn finally shows up about two hundred pages into Death and the Dancing Footman -- or rather, Inspector Alleyn's heretofore corpse-free vacation is interrupted by murder-weary stock characters from the next town who have just been comparing the improbability of one of their theories to that of the improbable murder machine in Busman's

Comments

[lost_spook]

I like Colour Scheme but I also simultaneously dislike it. It's a very odd one.

(I think with Death and the Dancing Footman, part of the thing is that the characters are presented almost as grotesques, but what becomes apparent by the end and is known on any re-read, is that they're not, they're fairly ordinary human beings (well, the Complines are a little odd, but still). So it's sort of weird on the initial read, but I find that rather pleasing on a re-read. It's an odd sort of mislead to do, though.)

[evelyn_b]

the characters are presented almost as grotesques, but what becomes apparent by the end and is known on any re-read, is that they're not, they're fairly ordinary human beings

Yes! I mean, that makes sense. I'm just not sure it comes off very well. The last thirty pages or so are good, but getting to them is a bit of a chore. I did enjoy the Averted Murder Machine and all or the pages with Alleyn in them. I'm not sure right now what I think Marsh would have to do to make the grotesque fake-out think work the first time around -- I'd have to re-read it.

And it's strangely -- detached from? at right angles to? the Impending War that everyone keeps talking about. I don't know if it's entirely successful in what it's trying to do there, either.

Colour Scheme is so prickly and . . . a little unsavory around the edges? I like it a lot so far. Barbara, the resort owners' daughter, is a good character, but everyone behaves very badly toward her.

[lost_spook]

And it's strangely -- detached from? at right angles to? the Impending War that everyone keeps talking about. I don't know if it's entirely successful in what it's trying to do there, either.

It's set in the early months of the War in Britain - the Phony War, as it was known & I suppose was only what everybody already knew was like, as they'd all lived through it a year or two earlier.

I think it was one I didn't rate highly on the first read, so I was pleasantly surprised on re-reads, that's all.

Colour Scheme is sometimes one I really like and sometimes one I can't take at all. (I may have re-read this series far too many times at one point! They're very comforting. Colour Scheme is not so comforting, so it depended on my mood. I like Barbara, though, very much.)