Artists in Crime

On my lazy day today, I finished Dame Ngaio Marsh's mystery--the 6th in a series of 32 books featuring Inspector Roderick Alleyn--a fairly early one as this is where he meets the woman who later becomes his significant other, Agatha Troy. Alleyn has apparently been on extended leave from Scotland Yard's CID, having spent a year in New Zealand. He meets the well known artist, Agatha Troy, on board ship as he is returning to England via Fiji and then Quebec. He is immediately taken with her, and she is--he believes--immediately put off by him.
Upon coming home to visit his mother prior to returning to work, he is called up to solve a murder at the home of none other than Agatha Troy, who happens to live in the same village as his mum. An artist's model, employed by Troy to support a class of resident art students at her ancestral home, has been murdered--right in front of the class. This will certainly complicate any hopes Alleyn had for pursing a romantic relationship with Ms. Troy.
The book has a great plot. You know the obvious suspect may not really be the murderer, but it takes a while to find out who indeed has plotted to kill the annoying Sonia, since any number of people seem to have had motive and at least a few had opportunity. A second murder--this time of the primary suspect--creates a more complicated picture, but through the solid detective work of Alleyn and colleague Fox, the crime is solved. Published in 1938, this book was fun to read because of the somewhat dated British phrases. One of the early characters, for example, is referred to as "the success" of the cruise ship, meaning she is wildly popular with the men and has a troop of them following her about.