Black as He's Painted

By: Ngaio Marsh

Narrated by: Nadia May

Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

When the President of Ng'ombwana proposes to dispense with the usual security arrangements on an official visit to London, his old schoolmate, Chief Superintendent Alleyn, is called in to try to persuade him otherwise.

Alleyn performs his mission so successfully that on the night of the Ng'ombwanan Embassy's reception, the house and grounds are stiff with police. However, an assassin does strike, and Alleyn discovers a wealth of suspects in a coterie of ex-colonials residing in the very shadow of the Embassy.

©1973, 1974 Ngaio Marsh (P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Nadia May is nothing short of extraordinary in this complicated mystery....Every character's eccentricity is explored and appropriately interpreted, adding spice, humor, and authenticity to a proper British mystery." (AudioFile)
"It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." (New York)
"The finest writer in the English language of the pure, classical puzzle whodunit. Among the crime queens, Ngaio Marsh stands out as an Empress." (The Sun)

One of the best Marsh books ever!

Ngaio Marsh came back strong with her 28th book, 1974's <strong>Black as He's Painted</strong>. The president of Ng'ombwana, a newly emerging African nation (in other words, a former colony of England, finally allowed to have its own government), is scheduled to make a state visit to England, and Special Branch is highly concerned. In a recent visit to Mozambique, the president barely escaped a shot at him, and they are afraid someone will try to kill him in England, breaking its record as an assassination- free zone. So Special Branch sends Detective Superintendent Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard to Ng'ombwana to meet with his old school friend, known to his friends as "The Boomer."

The president greets Alleyn with joy, constantly referencing Davidson's, the house where the pair lived in college and were best friends. Alleyn tries to reason with the Boomer to avoid pulling any tricks like he has pulled elsewhere in sneaking off away from his security. But the Boomer has a strong belief in his own invincibility. However, he tacitly agrees not to go off on his own without protection while in London.

The evening of the president's reception for all people with any connection to Ng'ombwana arrives, and Agatha Troy Alleyn, the greatest painter known to England and the wife of Det. Superintendent Alleyn, gets excited upon meeting the president's great presence and begs Rory to arrange for her to paint him. Other guests at the reception involve Mr. Whipplestone, a recent retiree from the diplomatic office who spent his early years in Ng'ombwana; Colonel Cockburn-Montfort, the man who started up the Ng'ombwanan military and is unhappy that he was not kept to run the military despite his being a drunk; the Sanskit brother and sister, the ugly, fat, and noxious pair who make pottery pigs; and Chubb, the man who "does for" Mr. Whipplestone and who is filling in as ab extra server at the function. All live within a couple blocks of each other in the Capricorn neighborhood, where Mr. Whipplestone has recently lived and is horrified to see the odious people related to Ng'ombwana meeting with his basement neighbor. But what does Chubb have to do with the other members?

The main activities take place, and the president has attended arranged for himself and 10 of his most important guests, including the Alleyns and Rory's older brother, who has worked as an ambassador in several countries, to be seated with him in a fancy well-lit gazebo while everyone else sits in the dark. Then Ng'ombwana's great opera singer, Carbo, lets out an amazing long note when they all hear a gunshot and the lights go off everywhere. Alleyn grabs the president abd keeps him down to safety. By the time the lights go on, the Boomer sits straight up in his chair, but the ambassador has been run through with the spear of the Boomer's Mlingi, his native bodyguard, who lies in the corner clutching his arm as if attacked himself.

The rest of <strong>Black as He's Painted</strong> continues with the investigation, which poses challenges because anything that happens in the Ng'ombwanan embassy takes place on Ng'ombwanan soil, and thus is out of the jurisdiction of Scotland Yard and Special Branch, led by the poor, exhausted Fred Gibson. And the president insists that his Mlinsi is without reproach so couldn't have committed the crime. But Alleyn doesn't expect to get his greatest help from a special little cat with a white tail rescued by Mr. Whipplestone and which he named Lucy Locket.

<strong>Black as He's Painted</strong> has a strong, unique plot and creative characters, especially the Boomer and Lucy Locket. The action of the murder is performed with creativity, and the solution came as a surprise to me. I enjoyed seeing the process by which Alleyn solved the case and especially the way Lucy Locket Audrey's assists him.

The characters in this book come across very uniquely. It is great fun to see Troy appear throughout, as the president commissioned her to paint his official portrait, which his country was sponsoring. Alleyn doesn't prevent her from doing so even when he thinks there is a safety risk to both of them because of continuing death threats against the Boomer. But Alleyn realizes that it would be a crime against art for him to put a stop to the greatest painting she has ever made. The other characters in the book add a lot to the fun flavor of the book.

The book is sometimes criticized for its depiction of the Africans as primitive. It is true that the language to describe the Africans is sometimes very negative, but most of those slurs are performed by white supremacists, in particular ones who hate people from Ng'ombwana. Marsh shows that such attitudes are inappropriate and ridiculous in showing such language.

Nadia May performs the audio edition of <strong>Black as He's Painted</strong> in her usually effective manner. I love her clever portrayal of the book, with tremendous expression that makes the book all the more fun and enjoyable. Her voices for all the characters, especially the Boomer, adds to the joy of listening to this great book.

<strong>Black as He's Painted</strong> is one of my very favorite Ngaio Marsh books, being a fun, clever book with a unique ending and fun characters, both good and bad. I highly recommend this book to anyone and give it five stars.

always charming

is Miss Marsh. Good character development... sure it's full of stero types but this is lush 1930's who done it stuff and pure entertainment.

1970s African and English Murder Mystery

This is an embarrassing book but I found some entertaining parts in the Alleyn story. I remembered what I learned in the US in school and other events. Listening to this story did not make it as bad as it could be to consider ambassadoral characters. Ngaio Marsh seems to have some early work about the protection of these African politicians.

Nadia May does it again

Ngaio Marsh is my favorite mystery writer and Nadia May the best reader I’ve heard. Thanks to both of them for a series of wonderful adventures!

At the very end..You understand!

Love the Author, she never disappoints! Fabulous reader, just a nuance of change and walla a different person speaks. The story is moving toward the climax with never a bump, and...what was not clearly understood... is a marvelous play on words!! Loved it!

Long time fan of Ngaio Marsh

Love the mystery, however narrator made everyone sound the same. Couldn't see the characters in my mind. Have read all the books and own the DVD 's so I have a picture in my head what they look like and how they sound.

Loved it!

Excellent plot. Superior character development. Inviting and realistic setting. Loved the cat. Very clearly and well read!

Interesting storyline

Very interesting storyline of that time period

The narration was very good. I enjoyed this book.

Extremely Dated Content

This book could be triggering and upsetting. There is a lot of racial prejudice in it. I'm re-listening to a lot of Ngaio Marsh work that I read decades ago.

In addition, there is fat phobic nastiness. I don't really recommend the book.

The reader was great.

Featuring lots of colonialism - as well as both casual and virulent racism -

I wish audible had chosen a different book from this series to include in the plus catalog. I guessed that a story about an African ambassador set in this time period would be problematic but I (foolishly) wasn’t expecting it to be so relentlessly cringe inducing. I had a higher opinion of the author before sitting through this story