Colour Scheme

MISS MARSH has chosen for the scene of her new mystery story the strange New Zealand outland where boiling mud springs, volcanic peaks, and Maori superstition form a background of prehistory. Here is situated a tatterdemalion spa run by the ineffectual Claires. Beyond the frontiers of the spa flourishes a Maori settlement under the command of the ancient and patrician chief, Rua. Mysterious lights flash from the Peak, a ship is torpedoed, certain taboo relies belonging to Rua are stolen, and a man is murdered. The characterization is so good and the setting so unusual that it seems a waste to devote them to the solution of an unimportant crime. But Ngaio Marsh’s mystery stories are among the best.