Saturday Night Theatre

SNT

Author : Ngaio Marsh

Play : Artists in Crime

One of Ngaio Marsh's most famous murder mysteries, which introduces Inspector Alleyn to his future wife, the irrepressible Agatha Troy. It started as a student exercise, the knife under the drape, the model's pose chalked in place. But before Agatha Troy, artist and instructor, returns to the class, the pose has been re-enacted in earnest: the model is dead, fixed for ever in one of the most dramatic poses Troy has ever seen. It's a difficult case for Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn. How can he believe that the woman he loves is a murderess? And yet no one can be above suspicion...

As always with Ngaio Marsh's stories death is never too far away in the real world most of us don't need an Inspector Allen to keep death at bay, but nevertheless death is a serious issue we all need to consider. Most of us will buy life insurance to protect our families and mortgages, but want if you have something called a pre-existing condition. Is is possible to get life insurance for diabetes for example? The good news is yes, although you may need to use a specialist company who can offer diabetic life insurance. Typically Nagio Marsh deal with the more grotesque forms of death and when we sit back and listen to excellent radio dramatisations of her work on programs such as Saturday Night Theatre, we can sometimes forget that death is a serious matter which you should ensure you are properly prepared for.

There is sometimes a macabre pleasure in planning a murder, in going into every detail as to how the victim can be killed beyond any possible doubt. It can even be rather amusing to try to prove - theoretically at least - that such a violent deed can be perpetrated without the criminal being found out.
The group of art students gathered in Agatha Troy's studio spent just such a morning discussing how a model could be killed by the simple expedient of placing her in a certain pose in which she would certainly be stabbed, quickly, and one might almost say unobtrusively. The rub that detracts from such ghoulish enjoyment is of course the fact that unless you are prepared to run grave risks, the foolproof murder remains simply an idea. In this case, however, it gave someone the very idea that was wanted, for this person decided that it would be the best way of eliminating little Sonia Gluck - the model herself - who, although exceedingly good to behold, was vastly provoking to live with. Whoever planned the murder would, with a little judicious manipulation, not actively have to carry it out. The `props' and an unfortunate third party would do the rest.

Will anybody in a Ngaio Marsh

Such is the situation that in fact develops; such is the problem, at once neat and complex, that confronts Inspector Alleyn. The mystery is further complicated by the students themselves, who exploit this dramatic situation to indulge in histrionics that are as baffling as they are amusing.