Colour Scheme

By: Ngaio Marsh

Narrated by: Ric Jerrom

Maurice Questing was left to die in a pool of boiling mud. Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that any number of people could have killed him: the English exiles he'd hated, the New Zealanders he'd despised or the Maoris he'd insulted. Even the spies he'd thwarted - if he wasn't a spy himself.

©1943 Original Text of 1943 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The brilliant Ngaio Marsh ranks with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers." ( Times Literary Supplement)

"Nobody begins to touch Ngaio Marsh’s skill at creating corpses and suspects...her dialogue is a continuous delight." ( New York Herald Tribune)

"The queen of the straight crime novel - long may she reign!" ( Sunday Times)

Plot and Setting

The setting at the hot springs and mud baths was a great place for murder and the characters are delightful-vintage Naigo Marsh. I would have liked a bit more of the Inspector but he played an interesting and integral part as usual. A very enjoyable listen!

Love, love, love this story

I thoroughly enjoyed this story with many twists. The author seemed to me to be exceptionally creatively inspired.

Good story, but mispronounced Detective Chief Inspector Alleyn's name!

It's a bugaboo of mine when words and names get mispronounced by the audiobook narrator. Granted, the pronunciation of Alleyn's name isn't explained in this book of the series, but if the narrator had prepared by reading earlier books on the series such as "Vintage Murder" and at least one or two even earlier, the narrator would have known that Alleyn is pronounced the same as Allen or Alan. The "y" doesn't make it like Alayne.
But good story -- and good narration aside from Alleyn's name.

Not the best

The characters & situation were drawn out as if a certain number of words were needed. Not in the same interest as other Inspector Allen stories. I didn’t care about any of them. Performance was hood.

Weak

Not sure this one should have been included in the series. I can’t say more without it becoming a spoiler alert. You can figure out what is going on in the late chapters but I didn’t find the story line clever.