I meant to write about When In Rome back when I read it in September, and I'm not quite sure why I didn't.
In this one we have Alleyn taking a holiday tour of Rome, and like Clutch of Constables before it you can feel that time has passed, but not at the same pace for the Alleyns themselves as for the rest of the world. In particular there is an aunt and nephew combo who clearly think they're very vicious and 'with it' (we're in the late 60s) but who are just rather pathetic in a way, and perhaps even realise it. Others on or around the tour are: a decently famous author, enveigled into being a guide against his better judgement, a young and slightly star struck young woman from his publishing house (they're not together, she just happens to be there, but they provide the romance that is so often a prerequisite of murder mysteries) a deeply unpleasant blackmailer, his ex wife who is now reduced to begging, and a married couple from, I think, Holland (whose accents were thankfully not too overused as light relief). I'm sure I've missed some people, but those are the main ones that I remember.
The ending is slightly cinematic - it would film better than it reads and I do wonder whether (and I've wondered the same about some Agatha Christies from the same sort of period - Hallowe'en Party in particular) the dramatic but tidy ending was just how it was done in the 60s.
But the ending is a minor point in a book I really enjoyed. Right from the first, with our author's panic when he realises he's lost his manuscript and doesn't even know how to tell anyone, then his creeping realisation of what's really going on, it drew me in. It all felt very real.
So all in all, loved this one. More so than the first time I read it actually, and I really want to go back to Rome.
Maybe next year.
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