Black As He's Painted

 Black As He's Painted (1974) Ngaio Marsh
[own the cover pictured, but listened to the audio novel narrated by Wanda McCaddon]

The story opens with Mr. Samuel Whipplestone, recently retired from the Foreign Office. He had told himself that "he was tuned in to retirement and now realized he was in no such condition." He was dissatisfied. He was at loose ends. He felt like he had nothing to look forward to. So he takes a walk in the Capricorn area of London and before he knows it he has acquired a new living space at No. 1, Capricorn Walk as well as new cat. The little cat adopts him and though he tells himself he doesn't want a cat he soon has named her Lucy Locket, bought her a fancy cat bed and a new walking harness, and she's taking over the house. After he's settled in, he takes another walk and runs into an acquaintance form his working days--the Ambassador from Ng'ombwana, a fictional emergent African nation--who invites him to a reception for their president. 

Meanwhile...Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn has been roped into the Ng'ombwanan President situation. Alleyn and "the Boomer" (as the President was colloquially known) were at school together. And the Special Branch would like Alleyn's help in keeping the President in check. There are all sorts of factions who would like nothing better than to see the President assassinated--and there have been several attempts on his state visits to various places. The powers that be do not want an attempt to succeed while he is on British soil. It doesn't help that the Boomer believes he is invincible and thinks he ought to be able to flit hither and yon as the fancy takes him or change plans at the last minute so the special guards assigned to him have trouble keeping up. Alleyn is supposed to rely on the "old school tie" to get his friend to behave himself.

After much back and forth, the Boomer agrees, but even though he sticks to plans (mostly) tragedy still strikes. In what looks to be another attempt--at the reception and under Alleyn's and Special Branch's noses--a killer strikes. But it isn't the Boomer he lies dead from a spear thrust...it is the Ambassador. Did the killer miss his mark or are there even deeper political machinations afoot. Alleyn and Gibson (his Special Branch counterpart) have their hands full--dancing around international protocol, working with the Boomer, and sorting out all the folks who might have it in for either the President or the Ambassador. There are people who just don't like blacks, there are people with personal hatred for one or both of the men, and there are those who are disgruntled with Ng'ombwana in general because they were tossed out of the country when the new regime took over. And Sam Whipplestone will come in handy as well--he knew Ng'omwana well at one time, he knows the language, and...he seems to have a large number of the suspects swirling around his neighborhood in Capricorn.

This story has an absolutely delightful beginning. Sam Whipplestone is a treat and I'm so glad that he (unlike another delightful side character in another novel) makes it through the whole plot unscathed. I love how his two sides blend--on the one hand, he's a slightly whimsical man who takes possession of No. 1, Capricorn Walk without a moment's thought and allows Lucy Locket to steal his heart despite his determination that he's not a cat man. On the other hand, he's a very shrewd ex-Foreign Office man who has great insight into the characters milling about the President. His observations are of great value to Alleyn. I also took great delight in Troy and her sessions of painting the Boomer's portrait. She longed to do so and was beside herself when he suggested it. Marsh captures the intensity of the artist at work so well. And the mystery is an interesting one--not terribly complex; one knows the suspects who are at the heart of things right away. But Marsh does manage to give things a bit of a twist to spice things up a bit.

Marsh attempts to address the race question--a topic that was (and still is, to be honest) very prominent at the time. Her success is uneven. I think she does pretty well with Alleyn. I think she manages to show him as unprejudiced as it was possible to be the early 70s, but there are still a few cringy things that are attributed to him. She also manages to show that race relations are more complex than just hating the "other." That various factors can work into a person's reasoning--from hating all of a particular race based on one particular horrifying incident to blaming them for job loss or loss of prestige to just plain greed and the need to be superior to some group of people. There definitely are going to be viewpoints represented here that modern readers will have issue with--but modern readers should keep in mind when this was written.

A good, solid mystery from the latter portion of Marsh's writing career. ★★★ and 1/2

First line: The year was at the spring and the day of the morn and God may have been in His Heaven, but so far as Mr. Samuel Whipplestone was concerned the evidence was negligible.

Last lines: "What have you got there?" he asked. He inserted his eyeglass and bent down to see. It was a white pottery fish.
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Deaths = 4 (one stabbed; one strangled; two hit on head)