DOMINION WRITER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22971, 24 February 1938, Page 6

DOMINION WRITER

NGAIO MARSH'S SUCCESS LEADING MYSTERY NOVELIST RETURN TO NEW ZEALAND [from ouh own courkspoxdknt] LONDON, Feb. 5 Returning to New Zealand by tho Rangitane next month, Miss Ngaio Marsh, of Christchurch, u'lio has won a prominent place among writers of dotective fiction, will arrive with not only the laurels gained for her by her en-thusiastically-reviewed new novel, "Artists in Crime," but also, she hopes, tho draft of still another book, "Death Goes Dancing," which she has already begun in collaboration with Mrs. Tahu Rhodes. The latter novel will deal with tho London season and all the technicalities and ceremonial which surround tho coming-out of a debutante. Mrs. llhodes, whoso elder ! daughter recently came out, has been j able to supply invaluable detail on the subject. "Artists in Crimo" is tho sixth of the well-known series which has shown steadily-increasing sales, and onco again features that favourite of mystery fiction, Detective-Inspector Alleyn. Scotland Yard Character "I thought people had grown a little tired of private sleuths who were always scoring over Scotland Yard," said Miss Marsh, when asked how she had como to choose her chief character, "and that it would bo better to choose a real policeman, a thoroughly normal person, and make him tho central figure of all tho stories." Most of Miss Marsh's books have been written in New Zealand, and she has found the isolation from groat libraries somewhat inconvenient and expensive. "I like to study thoroughly the topics with which I deal," she said, "and, indeed, it is essential to do so, for detective stories demand exact knowledge. But works 011 forensic medicine anclothor similar subjects are very dear, and I have had to make a library of my own. I had written a good deal in newspapers before I began the novels, and the two .years I spent 011 the stage have also stood me in good stead. I prefer writing about tho stage to any other topic, but one must have a variety of settings." Discipline of Writing Miss Marsh considers that the discipline of detective story writing, which must bo kept strictly to a definite pattern, is good for tho writer. "I might some day tacklo a serious novel of New Zealand life," sho said, "but I am inclined to think that New Zealanders have become solf-conscictus on this subject. To got the true perspective for a story of New Zoaland, one would almost certainly have to write it abroad." Miss Marsh is not certain how long sho will spend in Now Zealand, or when sho will bo able to return to London, which, sho declares, is tho most comfortable place in the world in which to work. During her year's visit, she has spent some time in Germany and tho South of France.