Photo Finish's dead diva, the soprano Isabella Sommita, was so widely
loathed that the problem is less a lack of plausible suspects than an
embarrassment of options. Though the grand country-house - and with it,
the country-house murder - was history by 1980, when Photo Finish was
originally published, Dame Ngaio got around the problem by setting the
story on a lavish island estate, cut off from the mainland by a sudden
storm. Happily, Inspector Alleyn is among the guests, and can take
charge in the coppers' absence. The penultimate book in the series,
Photo Finish is also one of only four books set in Marsh's native New
Zealand.