Photo Finish (novel)

Photo Finish (novel) is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the thirty-first, and penultimate, novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1980. Set in a millionaire's island mansion on a lake in New Zealand's South Island, it is the last of Ngaio Marsh's four New Zealand set novels - the others being Vintage Murder (1937), Colour Scheme (1943) and Died In The Wool (1945).

Photo Finish
First edition
AuthorNgaio Marsh
LanguageEnglish
SeriesRoderick Alleyn
GenreDetective fiction
PublisherCollins Crime Club
Publication date
1980
Media typePrint ()
Pages262
ISBN0-00-231857-1
Preceded byGrave Mistake 
Followed byLight Thickens 

Plot summary

Inspector Alleyn and his wife, the painter Agatha Troy, are invited to the luxury home of millionaire Montague V Reece, newly-built on a lake in New Zealand's South Island for his mistress, the international opera star Isabella Sommita. Alleyn's commission is to investigate and stop the activities of a masked paparazzo who has been persecuting Sommita with unauthorised, unflattering photos published under the name of 'Strix'. Troy is commissioned to paint the diva's portrait. An extended house party gathers for the world premiere of a new opera 'The Alien Corn' (based on the biblical Ruth story and featuring La Sommita's famous high note A 'in alt'), composed by a Byronically handsome young composer scooped up as her latest lover by the formidable Sommita, who lacks the judgement and taste to see that the opera is no good. "Corn is right", as her longtime vocal coach Signor Lattienzo comments. The premiere is an embarrassing fiasco and La Sommita is found dead in her bedroom, stabbed through the heart with a photo of herself impaled on the dagger.

The theme of artistic integrity, the abusive behaviour of a temperamental but talented star performer and her devoted but long-suffering entourage echoes Marsh's 1960 novel False Scent.

Marsh biographer Joanne Drayton [1] quotes TV presenter Max Cryer reporting that Marsh told him in an interview at the time of the novel's publication, that the character of Isabella Sommita was inspired by Maria Callas, an identification that is readily understood.

References
  1. Drayton, Joanne, Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime, Harper Collins 2008, ISBN 978 000 732868 0, page 403


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