Good Ngaio Marsh Couple: Emily and Peregrine

Generally speaking, I don't find Marsh's couples particularly engaging.

Marsh and other contemporaries of Sayers could be rather snooty about her: poor Sayers with her perfect Lord Peter Wimsey, embarrassing herself with her girlish crush...

The truth is, Peter Wimsey is a much more rounded character than other detectives of the era, including Marsh's Alleyn. I like Alleyn, but Marsh is a little too focused on making sure everybody admires and likes him. He is the "popular" boy on campus. In contrast, Wimsey is disliked by a large number of characters and often uncertain and self-doubting despite all the stuff he does well. 

Sayers was, simply put, more perceptive about human nature than Marsh.

And Marsh was willing to risk less. Consequently, her "bright young things" who litter the pages of her mysteries tend to be a tad samey. 

I don't mind, much, because I go to Marsh for the plot and the scoobies and the fun read, not the romance. 

However, one of my favorites, Death at the Dolphin, has an excellent young couple: Peregrine, a director and playwright, and Emily, an actress. They reappear in other books, specifically in Light Thickens, alongside their young boys. 

Possibly because Marsh worked in the theater and could use her own history to present the milieu, Peregrine is a very believable young man with a great deal of diffidence but a certain amount of chutzpah. He resembles Jamie from Blue Bloods in personality: moral, kindly, devoted to his "calling" (the theater in Peregrine's case), not a man who seeks leadership positions yet has an inherent amount of natural authority. 

Emily is a little less emphatically drawn. Her personality--sensitive yet reasonable with an innate steadiness--grows clearer in Light Thickens where she and Peregrine, now married, function together as believable parents. Imperfect yet normal. Allies. 

They are strong subordinate characters.