Death in a White Tie

 

Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh 336 pp.

This is the seventh book in the Inspector Roderick Alleyn series. What starts out as a investigation of blackmail among the elite circles that Alleyn was born to, soon expands to include murder. It's debutante season and the young women are in the midst of the whirl of balls and social events designed to display them to the "marriage market." Lord Robert "Bunchy" Gospell is assisting Alleyn in the search for the blackmailer. During one of the balls Bunchy finds the blackmailer and calls Scotland Yard to meet with Alleyn after the ball. But Bunchy is delivered to the Yard in the form of a corpse. It's obvious that the perpetrator was present at the ball. Alleyn and his assistant, Inspector Fox, have to interview a large number of possible suspects before finally fingering the culprit. In a side story, Alleyn's romance with the artist, Agatha Troy, is heating up much to the pleasure of his mother, Lady Alleyn. This is a complicated and ultimately satisfying mystery.

A Gentleman in Moscow / Amor Towles, 462 pp.

It was a perfect pleasure to read this, Amor Towles' second novel following Rules of Civility, which I will request as soon as I have finished typing.

Count Alexander Rostov, with a long list of goofily elaborate honorifics after his name, becomes a Former Person (what a phrase!) following the Revolution and is placed under permanent house arrest in the lavish and sophisticated Metropol hotel.  There, like a hearty plant, he adapts and thrives in the rich soil of the hotel, among foreign diplomats, movie stars, Kremlin officials, and the hotel's humble but no less distinguished staff.  It is his relationships with Nina and Sofia, women born a generation apart, that set the course for the Count's life, and form the core of the story. 

A bit of spycraft, plenty of history, exquisite cuisine, charming banter, and loving friendships combine in a novel that displays a remarkable amount of erudition without ever losing its sense of fun.

A Gentleman in Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles  462 pp.

Count Alexander Rostov, a Russian aristocrat, runs afoul of the Bolsheviks and, in 1922, is sentenced to lifetime house arrest in his home at the grand Hotel Metropol across from the Kremlin in Moscow. He is removed from his lavish suite and moved to a small attic room with only the few belongings he can managed to fit there. There, he manages to make his life and retain much of his dignity through ingenuity, his hidden stash of gold coins, and the help of his friends on the staff. In spite of being watched over by the ever suspicious hotel manager, aka "The Bishop", Over thirty-plus years, Rostov's confined life grows into that of a lover, a father, a confidante, and much more. Towles has written an elaborate and richly detailed story where the minute details slowly combine to reveal more and more about Rostov and his life and the real reason for his imprisonment. The ending could be a sign of a sequel but I don't think the author will take it there because he doesn't need to. I hope Mr. Towles doesn't take another five years to write his next book.