Inspector Alleyn 3-Book Collection 10: Last Ditch, Black As He’s Painted, Grave Mistake
The tenth volume in a set of omnibus editions presenting the complete run of 32 Inspector Alleyn mysteries.BLACK AS HE'S PAINTEDCalled in to help with security arrangements for a presidential reception at a London embassy, Chief Superintendent Alleyn ensures the house and grounds are stiff with police. Nevertheless, an assassin strikes, and Alleyn finds no shortage of help, from Special Branch to a tribal court - and a small black cat named Lucy Lockett…LAST DITCHYoung Rickie Alleyn has come to the Channel Islands to write, but village life seems tedious - until he finds the stablehand in a ditch, dead from an unlucky jump. But Rickie notices something strange and his father, Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn, is discreetly summoned to the scene, when Rickie disappears…GRAVE MISTAKEWith two husbands dead, a daughter marrying the wrong man and a debilitating disease, it is no wonder that Sybil Foster took her own life. But Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn doesn't believe she was the type to kill herself - and he thinks someone else has made a very grave mistake…
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NGAIO MARSH
INSPECTOR ALLEYN 3-BOOK COLLECTION 10:
Black As He’s Painted, Last Ditch, Grave Mistake
These novels are entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Harper
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Black As He’s Painted first published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1974 Last Ditch first published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1977 Grave Mistake first published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1978 Evil Liver first published in Great Britain in Death on the Air and Other Stories by HarperCollinsPublishers 1995
Copyright © Ngaio Marsh Ltd 1974, 1977, 1978
Evil Liver copyright © Ngaio Marsh (Jersey) Ltd 1989
Ngaio Marsh asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of these works
Cover design © crushed.co.uk
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBNs: 9780007344833, 9780007344840, 9780007344857
Ebook Edition © MARCH 2014 ISBN: 9780007531448
Version: 2018-08-23
Contents
For Roses and Mike with love
Contents
| Mr Samuel Whipplestone | Foreign Office (retired) | |
| Lucy Lockett | A cat | |
| The Ambassador in London for Ng’ombwana | ||
| A Lady |  | |
| A Young Gentleman | Of Messrs Able & Virtue | |
| A Youth | Land & Estate Agents | |
| Chubb | House Servant | |
| Mrs Chubb | His wife | |
| A Veterinary Surgeon | ||
| Mr Sheridan | No.1a Capricorn Walk (basement flat) | |
| His Excellency | The Boomer, President of Ng’ombwana | |
| Bartholomew Opala, CBE | ||
| An ADC | ||
| Mr and Mrs Pirelli | Of the Napoli, shop-keepers | |
| Colonel Cockburn-Montfort | Late of the Ng’ombwanan Army (retired) | |
| Mrs Cockburn-Montfort | His wife | |
| Kenneth Sanskrit | Late of Ng’ombwana. Merchant | |
| Xenoclea Sanskrit | His sister. Of the Piggie Pottery, Capricorn Mews, SW3 | |
| A mlinzi | Spear Carrier to The Boomer | |
| Sir George Alleyn, KCMG, etc. etc. | ||
| Superintendent Roderick Alleyn | CID | |
| Troy Alleyn | Painter. His wife | |
| Inspector Fox | CID | |
| Superintendent Gibson | Special Branch, CID | |
| Jacks | A talented sergeant | |
| Detective-Sergeant Bailey | A finger-print expert | |
| Detective-Sergeant Thompson | A photographer | |
| Sundry police, Ng’ombwanan servants and frequenters of the Capricorns, SW3 |
The year was at the spring and the day at the morn and God may have been in his Heaven but as far as Mr Samuel Whipplestone was concerned the evidence was negligible. He was, in a dull, muddled sort of way, miserable. He had become possessed, with valedictory accompaniments, of two solid silver Georgian gravy-boats. He had taken his leave of Her Majesty’s Foreign Service in the manner to which his colleagues were accustomed. He had even prepared himself for the non-necessity of getting up at 7.30, bathing, shaving, breakfasting at 8.00 – but there is no need to prolong the Podsnappian recital. In a word he had fancied himself tuned in to retirement and now realized that he was in no such condition. He was a man without propulsion. He had no object in life. He was finished.
By ten o’clock he found himself unable to endure the complacent familiarity of his ‘service’ flat. It was in fact at that hour being ‘serviced’, a ritual which normally he avoided and now hindered by his presence.
