Colour Scheme

By: Ngaio Marsh

Narrated by: Ric Jerrom

Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

Maurice Questing was left to die in a pool of boiling mud. Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that any number of people could have killed him: the English exiles he'd hated, the New Zealanders he'd despised or the Maoris he'd insulted. Even the spies he'd thwarted - if he wasn't a spy himself.

©1943 Original Text of 1943 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

"The brilliant Ngaio Marsh ranks with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers." ( Times Literary Supplement)

"Nobody begins to touch Ngaio Marsh’s skill at creating corpses and suspects...her dialogue is a continuous delight." ( New York Herald Tribune)

"The queen of the straight crime novel - long may she reign!" ( Sunday Times)

Love, love, love this story

I thoroughly enjoyed this story with many twists. The author seemed to me to be exceptionally creatively inspired.

Not the best

The characters & situation were drawn out as if a certain number of words were needed. Not in the same interest as other Inspector Allen stories. I didn’t care about any of them. Performance was hood.

Not Sure How To Rate This!

I have mixed feelings about writing a review on this novel. It is not necessarily typical Alleyne fayre. He doesn't really feature in it and because of your expectation of him doing so, you wonder why you are getting so much backstory! Also you are involved in the daily running and events of the characters and left wondering when anything is going to happen and when it does, when is it going to be resolved or how!

The narration was fine, although I did not enjoy the over frequent shouting and raising of voices, however it was on occasion difficult to discern who was speaking!

Not my most enjoyed Ngaio Marsh book, but it was interesting for all that. I shall probably have to re-listen to it, now that I do not expect Inspector Alleyne to show up after chapter 3!

I t came across as a very 'worthy' piece.

Good but not one of her best.

While Marsh's prose is as wonderful as ever, the story is not up to her usual standard nor is the mystery which struck me as pretty obvious quite early on. Ric Jerrom is absolutely superb in his narration throughout. He's like a one man Shakespearian play with the perfect degree of pluminess in each character's enunciation, especially the great Shakespearian ac-TOR character, Gaunt. l look forward to more of his portrayals of the Marsh novels. l note that some don't like his pronunciation of Inspector Alleyn's (Allen's) name which he pronounces as "A-lane" but l found it quite insignificant relative to his superbly consistent narration.

Not my favourite...

I really didn’t enjoy this book at all. I’ve loved listening to the books in this series so far but found this really difficult to finish. The story is so slow & gets bogged down by mundane details. Ric Jerom was excellent as a narrator but was let down by the story itself. You’re two thirds through the book before the death happens which might not be too bad except the characters are irritating & difficult to like or care about. I doubt I’ll ever listen to this one again. Disappointing after the other books have been so good but hopefully the next in the series will be better.

Fantastic!

I love the narration on this, he brought all the characters to vivid life! Next download will be another by him!