December 23, 2009
Arts and Entertainment - Ngaio Marsh - A True Example of a Great Mystery Author
MuslimFest 2005 Comedy Overview
He was just a boy of 10. It was 1933. He was sitting on a stone wall looking out at the wheat field of his family farm. All he knew up to this point in his life was living and working on the farm and he didn’t have a problem with that. His name was Tom. His full name was Thomas B. Fuller. The “B” stood for Bennett, his mother’s maiden name. Nobody called him Thomas except his mother and that was only when she wanted his attention or when he was in some kind of trouble, which wasn’t very often. He wasn’t called Tommy either, just Tom. Tom realized the country was in the depths of a depression but his family was getting by. The Fuller Family had lived on and ran this farm in Nebraska for over 80 years. Even though they would have been considered poor Tom didn’t think so. He had a family that loved him, had a roof over his head and clothes on his back. Since he lived on a farm, they had wheat, vegetables, cows, pigs, and chickens so he never wanted for food.
Early Life
Marsh was an only child and described herself as having been introverted. She was a great lover of books, and her family was very interested in the theater. She went to college to study painting but later found that she was more suited to writing.
She joined a theater troupe but had to resign when they went overseas. Ngaio’s mother didn’t think it would be fitting for a single woman to travel without a chaperon. It was then that Marsh focused on her painting, tutoring, and writing plays. She became a regular of high society. (Ngaio Marsh never married nor had children.)
Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn
In 1931 she took a stab at writing a mystery. Her first novel in the series “A Man Lay Dead” introduced the world to London’s Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn. Alleyn comes from the very upper crust of England’s society. His brother (obviously older brother) is a Lord.
Tom’s schooling was uneventful; his math skills could have been a little stronger. He was also a little on the shy side, not a social butterfly, but he was friendly. When he graduated from high school in 1941 he knew that his family didn’t have the money to send him to college but that didn’t matter to Tom. Then on that fateful day, in December when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the whole world and Tom’s life changed. The next day Tom went to town and signed up for the Army. After his basic training Tom was sent to San Antonio, Texas to start his training in the U.S. Army Air Corps. The training wasn’t easy. But his instructor told him he was one of the best stick-and-rudder men he had ever seen. Tom was sent to Europe. He flew the P-51 Mustang. It was a fast, stunningly beautiful airplane and he loved flying it. Even though flying provided Tom with much happiness the job he was assigned to do would not be considered a happy one. He was fully aware that Nazi Germany was evil and the allies were fighting on the side of good. He would escort bombers, because the P-51 fighters were known as ‘little friends’. He would shoot at German Fighters to protect the bombers. With the four 50 caliber machine guns, the enemy’s airplanes would sustain very heavy damage. Tom was also tasked with strafing ground positions such as troop trains, aircraft hangars, trucks, tanks, and columns of enemy troops. When they say war is hell, it is true.
Attention to the Reader
Chief Superintendent Alleyn and his sergeant (Detective Fox) discuss theories using facts that the reader is aware of, rather than hiding important facts from the reader. How many times can you recall when an author has action taking place outside of the mystery reader’s realm of facts? That is quite frustrating for the mystery reader. That does not happen in Ngaio Marsh’s mysteries. The reader is aware of all of the facts.
Inspector Alleyn’s love interest is Agatha Troy. Troy is a very modern-thinking woman who happens to be an artist. (No small coincidence that Marsh was also an artist!) Marsh used some of her favorite subjects in her novels: the theater and painting.
As the years went buy Charlie grew older and Tom and Mary’s marriage kept growing stronger. It was now 1969 and Tom had become a Professor of History at the University and he was working on writing a book. The year 1969 was a year of wonder with man landing on the moon and it also was a year of trouble and strife with the war in Vietnam and the protests at home. In 1973 Tom turned 50 and his book “Homeward Journey” was published. It was a story about war veterans coming home. Tom himself had close friends from two wars that did not make it home. Tom and Mary now had a little more disposable income and decided to take a vacation to Tahiti. It was now 1978 and they had been married for 20-years so they felt they deserved the vacation. The next year, 1979, when Charlie turned 18, he joined the Air Force. He applied to Officers Candidate School (OCS) and was accepted. After he became a 2nd Lieutenant he applied for Flight School. It wasn’t easy getting accepted even with his father’s service. But he eventually got accepted. The Flight School took a little over a year and it was hard work. Tom was so proud of him when he received his pilot’s wings. Charlie learned how to fly an F-15 Eagle and was stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Then in August of 1990 he was deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield. Tom thought that things had now come full circle
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