Death at the Dolphin
First editions (US & UK) | |
| Author | Ngaio Marsh |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Roderick Alleyn |
| Genre | Detective fiction, Theatre-fiction |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club (UK) Little, Brown (US) |
Publication date | 1966 |
| Media type | |
| Preceded by | Dead Water |
| Followed by | Clutch of Constables |
Death at the Dolphin is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh. It is the twenty-fourth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1966 as Killer Dolphin in the United States.[1][2][3] The plot centres on a glove once owned by Hamnet Shakespeare, on display at a newly renovated theatre called the Dolphin. Several characters from the novel return in Marsh's final book, Light Thickens.
Inspiration
Marsh's biographer Margaret Lewis notes that the renovation of the Dolphin Theatre echoes an incident during her 1949-51 sojourn in London, where she accompanied Tyrone Guthrie on a visit to a bomb-damaged theatre on the banks of the Thames, which Guthrie dreamed of renovating as a venue for Shakespeare performances during the Festival of Britain.[4]
Bruce Harding suggests that the character of Peregrine Jay, a New Zealander who achieves theatrical success on relocating to England, was based on three of Marsh's proteges, Jonathan Elsom, Elric Hooper and James Laurenson. Harding compares Jeremy Jones's co-running of a small shop in London to Marsh's own "experiment in shopkeeping" with her friend Nelly Rhodes.[5]
Awards and nominations
The book was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel of the Year in 1967, losing to Nicholas Freeling's The King of the Rainy Country.
Plot
On a whim, up-and-coming theatre director Peregrine Jay visits a derelict Victorian playhouse, the Dolphin Theatre on London's South Bank. He falls into a wartime bomb crater on the stage and is rescued from drowning by the theatre's owner, the enigmatic millionaire Vassily Conduits. Conduits listens to Jay's vision for restoring the Dolphin Theatre and agrees to finance it. The restored theatre opens with the premiere of Jay's play "The Glove", inspired by a cheveril glove owned by Conduits, which he has shown to Jay. The glove, accompanied by faded documents, is believed to have been made for Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, who died in childhood.
The glove becomes a public sensation and a publicity success for the newly restored theatre and its inaugural production. The play is a triumph, despite underlying tensions within Jay's talented yet divided company. During the sold-out run, the glove is stolen, and Harry Jobbins, the cheerful Cockney nightwatchman, is brutally beaten to death by one of the two dolphin statues in the theatre foyer, which were commissioned by Conduits. Additionally, the obnoxiously talented child actor playing Hamnet Shakespeare is attacked and nearly killed.
Inspector Roderick Alleyn, who was initially responsible for securing the glove, is assigned to investigate the murder. He discovers that the killer is a cast member, W. Hartley Grove, who has been blackmailing Conduits. Alleyn also uncovers the history of how Conduits acquired the Shakespearean glove.
The novel's murder plot unfolds against the backdrop of a historic London theatre being rescued from obscurity and a modern Shakespearean-themed play being produced and staged to great success in the West End. The story captures the accompanying backstage dramas and tensions.
Reception
Edmund Crispin wrote in The Sunday Times, "of the several excellent theatre stories she has written, I count this easily the best — a first-rate book, with an enticing opening, a fine whodunit plot and exceptional richness in characterisation, background and humour. Don't miss it on any account."[6]
Maurice Richardson reviewed for The Observer: "There are some ingenious manipulations of Shakespearean relics. The murder is nicely delayed, and we don't get too much of Superintendent Alleyn and Inspector Fox. Well up to her intelligent standard."[7]
Violet Grant summed up a capsule review for The Daily Telegraph, "Manna for bardophils [sic], with authentic stage background".[8]
The Illustrated London News published an enthusiastic review: "in Death at the Dolphin she returns to a milieu in which she particularly excels, that of the theatre... Ranged before Alleyn and Fox are the full cast amid the smell of size and grease-paint, the fuss and fume of rehearsal, the backstage bitchery, and the closed circle of theatre folk which make this a story to be remembered."[9]
References
- ^ McDorman, Kathryne Slate (1991). Ngaio Marsh. Boston: Twayne. pp. xiii–xiv. ISBN 0-8057-6999-4.
- ^ Harding 1998, pp. 675–676.
- ^ Lewis 1998, pp. 194, 264.
- ^ Lewis 1998, p. 195.
- ^ Harding, Bruce (2019). Ngaio Marsh: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 83–84. ISBN 978-0-7864-6032-8.
- ^ Crispin, Edmund (7 May 1967). "Criminal records". The Sunday Times. No. 7510. p. 50.
- ^ Richardson, Maurice (7 May 1967). "Crime Ration". The Observer. p. 27.
- ^ Grant, Violet (25 May 1967). "The Devil in Manhattan". The Daily Telegraph. No. 34860. p. 21.
- ^ Robertshaw, Ursula (3 June 1967). "Thrillers". The Illustrated London News. No. 6670. p. 54.
Bibliography
- Harding, Bruce (1998). "Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982)". In Winks, Robin W.; Corrigan, Maureen (eds.). Mystery and Suspense Writers: The Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage. Volume 2: Ross Macdonald to Women of Mystery. New York: Scribner's. pp. 665–677. ISBN 0-684-80520-0.
- Lewis, Margaret (1998). Ngaio Marsh: A Life. Scottsdale: Poisoned Pen Press. ISBN 1-890208-05-1.