Ngaio Marsh’s last mystery
Stella Duffy was uniquely qualified to bring crime writer Ngaio Marsh’s unfinished manuscript back to life, writes Stephen Jewell.
One of the so-called Queens of Crime alongside Agatha Christie, Dame Ngaio Marsh is no longer as widely remembered as Christie, the creator of iconic characters like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
But the Christchurch-born author – who produced 32 bestsellers starring Metropolitan Police detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn – is now enjoying a new lease on life with the publication of a novel, Money in the Morgue. Based on an unfinished manuscript, the book has been completed by London-based Kiwi, Stella Duffy.
‘‘I got an email out of the blue about two years ago from David Brawn from Harper Collins saying that they’d had these chapters for about 20 years, and more recently they’d found some notes,’’ recalls Duffy.
Having spent the past three decades writing novels, like Calendar Girl and The Room of Lost Things, with stage plays such as Breaststrokes and the recent Learning to Swim in the Abyss, she found herself uniquely qualified for the job.
‘‘They said that they were looking for a crime writer who could write literary fiction and who knew New Zealand and London, and who understood theatre. Well, there aren’t 10 of us!’’
With Marsh only having completed the first three-and-a-half chapters, Duffy definitely had her work cut out for her.
‘‘In fact, parts of the first few chapters are me as well because, in order to make things work later on, I had to put some things in there,’’ she says. ‘‘She hadn’t fleshed out the characters, so I thought the best way I could do that was to use what she wrote in [1965 autobiography] Black Beech and Honeydew, and to use her own sensibility when I could. We all write through ourselves and Ngaio Marsh was no exception, so when I could, I gave the characters things to say that I knew she had said in her own writing.’’
Insisting that, ‘‘I’m not a puzzle writer, and I’m certainly not a locked room puzzle writer’’, Duffy admits bringing the various plot threads together. Resolving the several crimes that are committed was the toughest part of the assignment.
Most likely taking place between Colour Scheme and Died In The Wool, the first and second of Alleyn’s three New Zealand-set adventures, Money in the Morgue finds the gentleman sleuth investigating a murder and robbery at a remote Canterbury hospital that may also be connected to a Japanese spy ring.
However, Duffy believes that one of the reasons Marsh never finished the novel was she had also found it too difficult.
‘‘It’s a locked room murder, and in the first paragraph, she establishes that the story takes place over a single night between sunset and sunrise,’’ explains Duffy. ‘‘It’s really hard to stick to that timeframe in that setting. I could have changed it, but I thought it was such a good challenge from Ngaio – a challenge from beyond the grave – so I thought I would give it a go.’’
But Duffy has updated some elements, making one of a trio of convalescing soldiers Ma¯ori.
‘‘I told David Brawn that I’m not writing a New Zealand book now without a Ma¯ori character, as that would feel so wrong to me,’’ she says. ‘‘It’s also a nice nod to the fact Ma¯ori and Pa¯keha¯ soldiers were working together. Looking back at Ngaio Marsh’s work, there were moments where you think, ‘oh God, she’s writing a noble savage’ but compared to other writers from the 30s and 40s, she was at least putting in characters of colour. If you look at books like Colour Scheme, there are several Ma¯ori characters. She was writing of her time but she was doing maybe not the best but a pretty good job.’’
Born in London but raised in Tokoroa, Duffy also drew on her own youth, growing up with many Ma¯ori and Polynesian friends.
‘‘I wanted those bits to be as truthful as possible in the hope that people will not just see this book as something set in aspic during World War II,’’ she says. ‘‘Maybe it will take people back to her other books, and maybe it will get them interested in New Zealand writing and New Zealand/Aotearoa now.’’
Having returned home for last year’s Word Festival in Christchurch, Duffy visited Marsh’s former Cashmere residence, where she met members of the Ngaio Marsh House and Heritage Trust.
‘‘They were incredibly helpful, so I hope I’ve done them justice because in many ways they’ve kept her flame going,’’ says Duffy, who has also praised the work done by Craig Sisterson, who founded New Zealand literary crime prize, the Ngaio Marsh Award.
‘‘It’s a shame that the house doesn’t have mainstream arts support. That’s absurd because she is one of the most successful writers that New Zealand has ever had, and her house needs to be fully funded to keep it accessible to the public. So if this book can help make that more likely, that would be great.’’