Over the last few months I’ve been reading Marsh’s books in order of
publication. In our last outing, the excellent Vintage
Murder, we found Inspector Alleyn on vacation in New Zealand. The
current book finds him on shipboard on his way home to England, where he
makes the acquaintance of rising artist Agatha Troy, his future wife.
There first meeting is somewhat fraught, and though Alleyn agrees to sit
for a portrait before the voyage is done, he comes away from it persuaded
that Troy dislikes him.

At journey’s end, Alleyn toddles off to spend a couple of weeks with his
old mother before returning to Scotland Yard, while Troy returns to her
home, where a number of artists are paying to study with her. They do
not encounter each other again until one of the students is murdered, and
Alleyn is called in to investigate.

What follows is both an interesting mystery and a most unconventional
romance. Professionalism dictates that Alleyn must treat Troy no
differently than any of the other suspects, and this, while clear to both
of them, adds a certain regrettable constraint to their interactions.
In addition, neither of them really understands each other at first.
Alleyn is naturally reserved, both personally and professionally, while
Troy, angry with herself for how she behaved at their first meeting, is
by turns cold, prickly, and defensive.

Ultimately, of course, Alleyn can no longer deny his feelings, and tells
Troy how he feels…but there are no wedding bells at the end of this
book, and no mad, passionate embrace. A person has just been murdered;
it has been a week of horror and pain; it’s no time for falling joyously
in love. And yet the passion is there, just below the surface, and at
the end Alleyn is given, if not encouragement, then hope for the future.

It’s a remarkable accomplishment: although writing genre fiction, Marsh
seems determined to avoid all but the most necessary bits of formula.
Very, very nice.