Black As He's Painted

Description

One of Ngaio Marsh's most popular novels, this time featuring one of her best creations -- Lucy Lockett, the crime-solving cat. When the exuberant president of Ng'ombwana proposes to dispense with the usual security arrangements on an official visit to London, his old school mate, Chief Superintendent Alleyn, is called in to persuade him otherwise. Consequently, on the night of the embassy's reception the house and grounds are stiff with police. Nevertheless, an assassin does strike, and Alleyn finds he has no shortage of help, from Special Branch to a tribal court -- and a small black cat named Lucy Lockett who out-detects them all...

Dame Ngaio Marsh was born in New Zealand in 1895 and died in February 1982. She wrote over 30 detective novels and many of her stories have theatrical settings, for Ngaio Marsh's real passion was the theatre. She was both actress and producer and almost single-handedly revived the New Zealand public's interest in the theatre. It was for this work that the received what she called her 'damery' in 1966.

'A splendid, eccentric detective story in classic style.' Evening Standard 'She writes as beautifully as ever.' Sunday Times 'An elegant, disciplined writer, Marsh deserves to be read and re-read not just for her plots but for her characterisation, for her painter's eye view and for her outsider's insights into the heart of a vanished social world.' Susan Howatch '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