Blog friend Lucy Fisher, my consultant on Marsh, says this in one of her helpful lists: ‘A cabinet minister is operated on by his rival in love - fascinating on attitudes of the time’. Observations: I don’t think this book is anyone’s idea of Marsh’s best. Jane Harden sat down and clasped the knobs of the chair-arms with long fingers than even the exigencies of nursing had not reddened. “I beg your pardon,” said Alleyn “I did not hear you come in. The eyes themselves were a very dark grey, the nose absolutely straight, and the mouth, rather too small, with drooping corners, was at once sensuous and obstinate. The contour of the forehead and cheek-bones, the little hollows of the temples, and the fine-drawn arches of the eyes had the quality of a Holbein drawing.

She was beautiful, with that peculiar beauty that covers delicate bone. Now, with the white veil behind it, the extreme pallor of her face was less emphatic. He had thought at the inquest that she was very good-looking. There she stood, her fingers twisted together, staring at the inspector. Jane Harden had come in so quietly that he had not heard her.

He wrote busily, shut his little book, glanced up and gave a start of surprise.

The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh