 First UK edition | |
| Author | Ngaio Marsh |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Roderick Alleyn |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Collins (UK) Little, Brown (US) |
Publication date | 1947 |
| Media type | |
| Preceded by | Died in the Wool |
| Followed by | Swing Brother Swing |
Final Curtain is a 1947 crime novel by the New Zealand author Ngaio Marsh, the fourteenth in her series of mysteries featuring Scotland Yard detective Roderick Alleyn. It was published in Britain by Collins and in the USA by Little, Brown. Although set in a large English country house, immediately after the 2nd World War, it is effectively one of Ngaio Marsh's crime stories with a theatrical setting, given that it concerns Alleyn's wife Agatha Troy accepting a commission to paint a portrait of the great actor Sir Henry Ancred in the role of Macbeth, onstage at the theatre of his ancestral home, Ancreton Manor, to be unveiled at his 70th birthday party, amongst his family, most of whom are actively involved in the London theatre, one way or another. The novel was well received and reviewed.
Plot
In 1946 England, with World War Two finally ended, the painter Agatha Troy awaits (not without trepidation, after a lengthy wartime separation) the return of her husband Roderick Alleyn, who has been chasing spies in New Zealand (as in the preceding two books in the series, Colour Scheme and Died in the Wool), while 'Troy' (as she is invariably called) has been making maps and 'pictorial surveys for the army'. She reluctantly accepts a commission to paint the celebrated actor Sir Henry Ancred at his ancestral home Ancreton Manor, where she meets his adult children and grandchildren, and witnesses the tensions and dynamics of a family of theatricals, all with temperaments to match. The main cause of trouble is the bitterly resented presence in the household of Sonia Orrincourt, a brassy young actress Sir Henry has made his mistress and then fiancée. A series of practical jokes are generally felt to be the work of Sir Henry's youngest granddaughter, Patricia (known as Panty), a precocious, outspoken, mischievous child currently attending a school evacuated to Ancreton during the war, where an outbreak of ringworm has happened. Soon after the portrait is finished, Sir Henry, who has been in poor health, dies, apparently of natural causes, and his will (which he has recently changed) creates a furore of suspicion and accusation among the Ancred family. Troy returns home and is reunited with her husband. Alleyn is soon assigned to investigate Sir Henry's death, which proves to have been a case of poisoning by thallium (a depilatory used in those days as a preparatory to the treatment of ringworm). Soon, another murder occurs, and Alleyn duly identifies the killer.
Background
Ngaio Marsh, as her biographers Margaret Lewis[1] and Joanne Drayton[2] describe, spent World War Two in her native New Zealand, living with her father at their home outside Christchurch, continuing to write her increasingly popular crime novels, two of which (Colour Scheme and Died in the Wool) are set in New Zealand, and devoting much energy and creativity to directing and touring the Canterbury University Players in memorable productions, revitalising the New Zealand theatre in the process.
Television adaptation
Final Curtain was adapted in 1993 for the BBC TV series The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, starring Patrick Malahide as Roderick Alleyn, Belinda Lang as Agatha Troy and a cast including Eleanor Bron and Jonathan Cullen.