A review by jlmb
Black as He's Painted by Ngaio Marsh

2.0

My least favorite Marsh that I've read. Written in 1981, there are a lot of prejudicial remarks about black people and about overweight people. Just as I would get engrossed in the story, I would be pulled out of it be reading some creepy comment about how black people smell different than "normal" or about how grotesque one of the suspected bad guys is because of his weight. The weight thing was a constant. Every time that character appeared, without fail Marsh would describe him as lumbering or lard fat or monstrous. At one point Marsh describes the character and his equally overweight sister thus - " They moved slowly, like two huge vessels shoved from behind by tugs." Wow. Eventually the reader learns the weight of the character. Get this....it's 229 lbs. The way she was describing him, I thought he was supposed to be as heavy as one of people on those lurid reality shows about losing weight that weigh 600 lbs. Have times changed that much that a 6 foot tall, 2229 lb guy used to be considered grotesquely obese?