Peregrine Jay, the owner of the Dolphin Theatre, the site of some murderous shenanigans over twenty years previously, is tempting fate a tad by staging the Scottish Play, namely Macbeth. Directing the play himself, Jay has clear ideas about the staging and performances, but the cast and crew seem completely on board with his ideas, even the strenuous fighting scenes with real claidheam-mors – claymores for most people.

But as you probably know, the play is cursed, and somebody seems to be forcing the curse to the surface by a series of increasingly bizarre practical jokes. But regardless, rehearsals are going well, and the show opens to rave reviews. And then one night, at the climax of the play, following their fight, Macduff raises the prop head of Macbeth into the air… it starts to drip real blood…

Yes, it’s been a while – six years – but I’m finally back to Ngaio Marsh. Her final book, in fact. Now long term readers will be expecting me have another moan about her work, but I will say this – it’s no Postern Of Fate.

The usual applies here, though. The first 60% of the story is great, but it’s basically a 150-page novella about a company putting on a successful production of Macbeth. Yes, the practical joke thing is going on in the background, but it’s basically just that. Superintendent Roderick Alleyn gets one mention, but there’s no whiff of murder. I found this all pretty interesting and well written. I like Jay as the focus, and his – and presumably Marsh’s – thoughts on how to deal with various aspects of the play are genuinely intriguing.

And then the seemingly-motiveless murder happens, and once something is established about the crime – I suppose you could call it a mildly impossible crime – the murderer is obvious (not to Alleyn, clearly) and the motive is too (and is lazy in the extreme).

But there is a lot of character stuff to like here – the young actor William, for example – and the various tensions and resolutions between the actors work well. Bonus points too for not included all the Foxy Fox and Handsome Alleyn names too. The back-story that explains the practical jokes is a little jarring and contains one stunning coincidence, but all in all, this is probably the book by Marsh that I’ve enjoyed the most. It’s just a shame she felt that she had to put a murder in it…