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At a major reception in the London
Embassy, an attempt is made on the President's life, but it is the Ambassador, standing beside him, who is fatally skewered by an African spear. The investigation, headed by Alleyn and his Scotland Yard support team of Fox, Bailey and Thompson and his Special Branch
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expert on the country. Mr
Whipplestone buys the property from Mr Sheridan, who remains as tenant of the basement flat, and acquires the services of Mr & Mrs Chubb, resident on the top floor, to cook and clean for him. He adopts an abused stray black cat he names Lucy Lockett, who plays a key role
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Capricorn Mews is home to a deeply unpleasant cast of suspects with colonial Ng'ombwanan connections, all of whom attended the
Embassy reception and have been meeting in Sheridan's basement flat, to work for régime change. The motley conspirators include Colonel Cockburn-Montfort, former head of the
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Sam
Whipplestone retires from the Foreign Office and buys a charming house at No 1 Capricorn Mews, not far from Palace Park Gardens where a palatial Georgian mansion now houses the Embassy of Ng'ombwana, a newly independent African republic. Sam Whipplestone had lived in Ng'ombwana for some years,
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colleague Fred Gibson, is hampered by the diplomatic complications of a murder committed on "foreign soil" in an embassy, and it doesn't help that Alleyn's wife Agatha Troy is painting a portrait of The Boomer at his request, which she senses will be the magnum opus of her illustrious career.
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Marsh's first biographer
Margaret Lewis quotes a letter Marsh wrote in March 1973: "I've gone into purdah with a new book. It's always a huge effort to get back into harness after an interval in the theatre and this time it's been uphill all the way... I've saddled myself this time with a
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and am just crossing the halfway mark, full of black forebodings laced with pale streaks of hope." Dr Lewis quotes Marsh's editor at
Collins, Robert Knittel, writing in September 1973: "I have just finished reading your latest novel and I think it is splendid. A real vintage Ngaio Marsh."
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The Ng'ombwanan president, Bartholomew Opala, is an intelligent and formidable former barrister. He was educated at "an illustrious public school", where his best friend was
Roderick Alleyn and his nickname was 'The Boomer'. As president, he is making a state visit to London. The
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The cat in this novel has the same name as one owned by Marsh, per her biographers. “In this colorful remnant of traditional
England, Marsh, a cat person as you might expect, adopted a stray feline, whom she named Lucy Lockett after a character in John Gay's
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referred to Dame Marsh as “perdurable”, in choosing the title. The brief review seems to say the novel is an acquired taste, closing with “As indispensable as that anchovy toast which appears at teatime if it's the taste you once acquired.”
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in London. The fictional places also reference the nearby
Montpeliers where Marsh had rented homes during her frequent London stays. It is an unusual setting and plot for a classic whodunit of the kind Ngaio Marsh wrote.
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is alarmed about the security of this president; they send Alleyn out to Ng'ombwana beforehand to use the "old school tie" to persuade the president to comply with necessary security arrangements. Alleyn succeeds.
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Ng'ombwanan Army, and his wife, both alcoholics, and an obese brother and sister, formerly wealthy business owners in Ng'ombwana, now running a small pottery in
Capricorn Mews, "K & X Sanskrit: Pigs".
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The fictional Baronsgate and Capricorns (Place, Square, Mews, etc), designated variously as SW3 or SW7, are clearly based on
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nation of Ng'ombwana, whose president and Alleyn went to school together, and a series of murders connected to its
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The novel was written in New Zealand in the late Spring and Summer of 1973, and a year later was on the
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The novel is set in the 'Embassy quarter' of London's Knightsbridge and South Kensington.
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Alleyn admits it is unusual that the new republic having an embassy rather than a
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392:"Out of Africa I : Black as He's Painted (1974), by Ngaio Marsh, Part 1"
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Samuel Witherspoon, retired from the Foreign Office, lives in Capricorn Mews
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best-seller list in the UK, as well as proving a best-seller in the USA.
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The Ambassador in London for the new republic of Ng'ombwana
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President of Ng'ombwana, the Boomer, Bartholomew Opala
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290:Colonel and Mrs Cockburn-Monfort, retired military
163:The plot concerns the newly independent fictional
318:Detective-Sergeant Thompson, police photographer
315:Detective-Sergeant Bailey, finger-print expert
306:Agatha Troy, his wife and a well-known painter
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312:Superintendent Gibson, Special Branch, CID
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369:. Chatto & Windus. pp. 219–226.
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417:"BLACK AS HE'S PAINTED by Ngaio Marsh"
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187:complicated and hideously exacting
27:1974 detective novel by Ngaio Marsh
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275:Mr Sheridan, in the basement flat
731:The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries
390:Evans, Curtis (1 April 2018).
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559:Death and the Dancing Footman
296:Xenoclea Sanskrit, his sister
239:, while remaining within the
227:speaks the language and is a
202:and an English nursery rhyme
209:Lucy Lockett lost her pocket
272:Lucy Lockett, his black cat
213:Not a penny was there in it
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293:Kenneth Sanskrit, merchant
18:Black As He's Painted
474:Inspector Roderick Alleyn
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768:Collins Crime Club books
365:Lewis, Margaret (1991).
503:The Nursing Home Murder
335:Allusion to real places
753:Roderick Alleyn novels
622:Singing in the Shrouds
215:Only ribbon round it”
156:, the 28th to feature
33:Black As He's Painted
678:Black as He's Painted
601:Spinsters in Jeopardy
299:Chief Superintendent
211:Kitty Fisher found it
145:Black As He's Painted
763:Novels set in London
657:Clutch of Constables
650:Death at the Dolphin
531:Death in a White Tie
278:Chubb, house servant
241:British Commonwealth
758:1974 British novels
724:Ngaio Marsh Theatre
587:Swing Brother Swing
552:Surfeit of Lampreys
367:Ngaio Marsh: A Life
281:Mrs Chubb, his wife
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309:Inspector Fox, CID
199:The Beggar's Opera
92:Collins Crime Club
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671:Tied Up in Tinsel
615:Off With His Head
608:Scales of Justice
538:Overture to Death
396:The Passing Tramp
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121:Tied Up in Tinsel
82:Detective fiction
16:(Redirected from
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573:Died in the Wool
545:Death at the Bar
524:Artists in Crime
510:Death in Ecstasy
496:Enter a Murderer
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158:Roderick Alleyn
150:detective novel
108:Media type
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72:Roderick Alleyn
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566:Colour Scheme
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423:. 1 June 1974
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44:First edition
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699:Photo Finish
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664:When in Rome
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425:. Retrieved
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399:. Retrieved
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345:Queen's Gate
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219:Plot summary
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181:Sunday Times
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171:in London.
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148:(1974) is a
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629:False Scent
470:Ngaio Marsh
376:07012 09852
204:Lucy Locket
175:Development
154:Ngaio Marsh
54:Ngaio Marsh
747:Categories
685:Last Ditch
643:Dead Water
352:References
264:Characters
134:Last Ditch
323:Reception
88:Publisher
716:See also
60:Language
427:6 April
401:6 April
169:embassy
165:African
63:English
481:Novels
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136:
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68:Series
50:Author
303:, CID
111:Print
78:Genre
429:2024
403:2024
371:ISBN
343:and
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103:1974
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152:by
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
