Colour scheme

About “Colour scheme”

Ngaio Marsh's 1943 detective novel is set on New Zealand's North Island and is often considered her most interesting work. The story begins with the death of Maurice Questing, who was lured into a pool of boiling mud and left to die. Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, who is far from home on a wartime mission to find German agents, suspects that several people could have killed Questing. These include the English exiles he disliked, the New Zealanders he looked down on, the Maoris he insulted, and even the spies he had previously stopped—though it is also possible that Questing was a spy himself.