Line #1 YMMV/NgaioMarsh

Context YMMV / NgaioMarsh

Go To


1	* MarketBasedTitle: Several of the novels were renamed for the American market. Sometimes the reasoning behind the changes isn't apparent.
2	** ''A Surfeit of Lampreys'', which was a play on the surname of a family at the center of the case, was retitled ''Death of a Peer'', which was also accurate, since the central crime of the tale was the murder of the head of the family, who was a marquis.
3	** ''Swing Brother Swing'' became ''A Wreath for Rivera'', perhaps over the central word "Brother"?
4	** ''Opening Night'' was renamed ''Night at the Vulcan'', possibly because so many of her works were set in theatres, making the original title too general.
5	** ''Off With His Head'' became ''Death of a Fool''.
6	** ''Death at the Dolphin'' became ''Killer Dolphin'', scrapping alliteration for a more active word "Killer".
7	** Curiously, the idiomatic title ''Black as He's Painted'' wasn't changed for the U.S. market, though the expression is more British than American.
8	* ValuesDissonance:
9	** Even the purest young girls smoke like chimneys. Hell, everyone smokes like chimneys.
10	** Averted and played straight in ''Opening Night''. On one hand, an actress is raped by her husband; all consider it rape, something the average person wouldn't have done in that time period. On the other hand, the love story involves a 20-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man who, it is revealed later, is her distant cousin. (They share a remarkable resemblance despite their distant relationship, so much so that she's hired to play his daughter.)
11	** The overt homophobia of some of her novels, especially ''Death in Ecstasy'' and ''Singing in the Shrouds''.

Context YMMV / NgaioMarsh