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It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Murdered. At Sir Hubert Handesley's country house party, five guests have gathered for the uproarious parlor game of "Murder." Yet no one is laughing when the lights come up on an actual corpse, the good-looking and mysterious Charles Rankin. Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives to find a complete collection of alibis, a missing butler, and an intricate puzzle of betrayal and sedition in the search for the key player in this deadly game.
A lovingly crafted biography of New Zealand Crimewriting Queen, Ngaio Marsh who, like Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie, wrote detective fiction during mystery's goldn age. Ngaio Marsh wrote more than thirty polished English detective novels between 1934 and her death in 1982. How did she do it? To say would give away the story of her life, but those who have already met her elegant sleuth Roderick Alleyn know he, too, kept his footing in diverse plots, managing the local idiom whether crime cracking in Britain, on the continent, or in New Zealand. Marsh's talent was as varied as her heritage. A gifted artist, a spirited dramatist, actress, and producer, her crime fiction embraces her triple interests. May are set in the worlds of art and theater.
This tale of murder at a snowed-in country house is a “constant puzzle to the end . . . alive with wit” (The New York Times). The unspeakably wealthy (and generally unspeakable) Jonathan Royal has decided to throw a party and, just for fun, has studded the guest list with people who loathe one another. When a blizzard imprisons them all in Royal’s country house, murder ensues, and there are nearly as many suspects as there are potential victims. Eventually, Inspector Alleyn makes his way through the snow to put things right, in this classic whodunit by the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. “A smooth yarn.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Roderick Alleyn is back in this unique crime novel begun by Ngaio Marsh during the Second World War and now completed by Stella Duffy in a way that has delighted reviewers and critics alike.
Part of a publishing program that creates a brand new look for Marsh's 32 mystery novels, this book finds Inspector Roderick Alleyn going backstage at a theater company to find out why a bottle of champagne crashed down on the head of the famous producer and killed him.
A model is murdered in this “first-rate” detective story by the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master (Kirkus Reviews). On a ship traveling back to England, Miss Agatha Troy finds Inspector Roderick Alleyn tedious and dull; he thinks she’s a bohemian cliché. They may be destined for romance, but there’s a murder in the way: No sooner has Alleyn settled in to his mother’s house, eager for a relaxing end to his vacation, than he gets a call that a model has been stabbed at the artists’ community down the road. And the talented Miss Troy is one of the community’s most prominent and outspoken members . . . “The doyenne of traditional mystery writers.” —The New York Times
This is a revealing biography of one of the celebrated 1930s and 1940s 'queens of crime', Ngaio Marsh.
A high-society homicide is the talk of the London season . . .“Marsh’s writing is a pleasure.” —The Seattle Times It’s debutante season in London, and that means giggles and tea-dances, white dresses and inappropriate romances . . ..and much too much champagne. And, apparently, a blackmailer, which is where Inspector Roderick Alleyn comes in. The social whirl is decidedly not Alleyn’s environment, so he brings in an assistant in the form of Lord “Bunchy” Gospell, everybody’s favorite uncle. Bunchy is more than lovable; he’s also got some serious sleuthing skills. But before he can unmask the blackmailer, a murder is announced. And everyone suddenly stops giggling . . . “It’s time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around.” —New York Magazine “[Her] writing style and vivid characters and settings made her a mystery novelist of world renown.” —The New York Times
The Ritual Wine Taste of Evil When lovely Cara Quayne dropped dead to the floor after drinking the ritual wine at the House of the Sacred Flame, she was having a religious experience of a sort unsuspected by the other initiates. Discovering how the fatal prussic acid got into the bizarre group's wine is but one of the perplexing riddles that confronts Scotland Yard's Inspector Rocerick Alleyn when he's called to discover who sent this wealthy cult member to her untimely death.
A classic Ngaio Marsh novel reissued in B-format. Dreams of stardom had lured Martyn Tarne from faraway New Zealand to make the dreary, soul-destroying round of West End agents and managers in search of work. The Vulcan Theatre had been her last forlorn hope, and now, driven by sheer necessity, she was glad to accept the humble job of dresser to its leading lady. And then came the eagerly awaited Opening Night. To Martyn the night brought a strange turn of the wheel of fortune - but to one distinguished member of the cast it was to bring sudden and unforeseen death...