We do love a man in a uniform, but the "Constables" in question are not policemen but paintings the landscapes, specifically, of the 19th-century painter John Constable. Agatha Troy (the artist wife, you ll remember, of Inspector Alleyn) has a special fondness for Constable s work, so she jumps at the chance to take a river-cruise through "Constable Country" in the east of England. Her enthusiasm dims a little when it becomes clear that the ticket became available at the last minute only because a previous passenger was murdered in his cabin and murdered, it seems, by a notorious...

In 1968 Ngaio Marsh took her own Roman holiday (in part to research Italian police procedures) and the change seems to have done her good: Both her British and U.S. agents believed When in Rome to be the finest novel in her "Inspector Alleyn" series. As is so often (and so satisfyingly) the case, the tale concerns a murder within a closed group in this case, a group of tourists visiting what Marsh calls the "Basilica di San Tommaso," who find themselves fumbling into a complex web of blackmail and drug-smuggling. Adding some irresistible color are depictions of both La Dolce Vita (of which...

It s 1972, and whileElton John and Alice Cooper may be topping the charts, Inspector Alleyn s latest case is set in that most gloriously retro environment: The country-house party. A Christmas party, as it happens, where Agatha Troy is enjoying the local holiday pageant and also painting the host s portrait. The painting s coming along fine, but the pageant goes a little pear-shaped when one of the players disappears. Could one of the party s eccentric guests (are there any other kind?) have been involved? Or perhaps more likely could the finger of blame come to rest on one of the manor-house...