Tied Up in Tinsel

Tied Up in Tinsel is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the twenty-seventh novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1972. The novel takes place at a country house in England over the course of a few days during the Christmas season.

Reception
Edmund Crispin wrote a mixed review for The Sunday Times: "the killer’s identity comes as a nice surprise, and the writing flows as gracefully as ever. Indeterminacy of mood, however, combines with the implausibility of the domestic set-up to leave a slight but definite feeling of ungrateful dissatisfaction." Despite Crispin’s review, The Sunday Times listed the book in an end-of-year "selection of the year’s outstanding titles".

Maurice Richardson wrote in The Observer, "One of her more fantastic house-party whodunits... She doesn’t seem to have lost much of her zest." Matthew Coady in The Guardian was more mixed: "Agreeably effortless telling compensates for mystery’s dullness." H.R.F. Keating concluded a capsule review for The Times, "Buy every copy and, come December, give all your uncles a Marsh for Mistletide."

The New York Times reviewer called the ex-convict servants "so flagrantly suspect that no reader out of the cradle will believe in their guilt", but added, "I must say that Dame Ngaio had me honestly fooled as to the true murderer and to the way it was done. The solution though was no trouble to Roderick Alleyn, one of the house guests, who proves once again to be a handy man to have around when things get gory."