Ngaio Marsh

""The theatre plays backdrop to romance and murder... Good reading." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Newly arrived from New Zealand and in need of funds, Martyn Tarne takes a job as a dresser to the Vulcan Theater's leading lady. Along with a paycheck, this also provides her with a ringside seat to the backstage circus-and the eventual murder that occurs on opening night. Inspector Alleyn is soon called to solve the case and put a stop to all the...

"A diva is dead in New Zealand... "A neat little puzzle, sparkling writing...a book that should make all readers happy." -- The New York Times The soprano Isabella Sommita was widely loathed, so much so that the problem with solving her murder is less a lack of plausible suspects than an embarrassment of options. On a lavish island estate, cut off from the mainland by a sudden storm, Roderick Alleyn is among the guests, and fortunately can take charge...

"It's foul play on a freighter: "Enthralling...keeps the reader on tenterhooks until the dramatic finale." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) The good ship Cape Farewell is steaming out to sea, with a passenger-list and crew fairly littered with the shifty, the twitchy, the peculiar, and the up-to-no-good. Arguably the up-to-no-goodest is a strangler with a romantic streak: He likes to leave his ladies with a flower and a charming little song. The...

Among theater folk, "the Scottish play" is considered unlucky, so much so that tradition requires anyone who utters its proper name backstage to leave the building, spin around, spit, curse, and then request permission to re-enter. As director Peregrine Jay directs a production of Shakespeare's great work at the Dolphin Theater, misfortune does indeed abound, including some ugly practical jokes-and a grisly death for the leading man. It's up to Roderick...

"Three witty novels by "the finest writer in the English language of the pure, classical puzzle whodunnit" ( The Sun ) This volume includes three books in the Golden Age detective series from the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master: Death in a White Tie : A high-society homicide is the talk of the London season: "Marsh's writing is a pleasure." -- The Seattle Times Overture to Death : In a Dorset village, a snobby local busybody is silenced for...

A spring may have healing properties--but the controversy over it may have harmful results--in a witty mystery by a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. The elderly Emily Pride is perfectly pleased to have inherited an island, even if her starchy pragmatism is ever-so-faintly appalled by the island's "Pixie Falls" spring and its reported miraculous healing properties. Really, the locals' attempts to capitalize on the "miracles" are entirely too...

"For one unfortunate British politician, murder is the worst medicine: "An ingenious, logical, and sparkling tale." -- The New York Times For Member of Parliament Sir Derek O'Callaghan, a simple visit to the hospital proves fatal. But as Inspector Alleyn will discover, any number of people had reason to help the gentleman to his just reward, including a sour surgeon, a besotted nurse, a resentful wife, and a cabinet full of political rivals, in this...

"A visiting dignitary in London asks for security -- and gets extra help from a clever feline -- in a novel starring "the nonpareil among criminal investigators" ( The New York Times ). Superintendent Alleyn's old school chum, nicknamed the "Boomer," has become the president of the newly emerged African nation of Ng'ombwana, newly emerged in the wake of colonialism. Old school ties being what they are, his friend -- making an official visit to London...

"Crime comes to a country house: "Any Ngaio Marsh story is certain to be Grade A, and this one is no exception." - The New York Times This classic from the Golden Age of British mystery opens during a country-house party between the two world wars-servants bustling, gin flowing, the gentlemen in dinner jackets, the ladies all slink and smolder. Even more delicious: The host, Sir Hubert Handesley, has invented a new and especially exciting version...

"A policeman in the audience sees an all-too-real death scene on a London stage: "Good enough to satisfy the most critical reader of detective stories." -- The New York Times Inspector Roderick Alleyn has been invited to an opening night, a new play in which two characters quarrel and then struggle for a gun, with predictably sad results. Even sadder, the gun was not, in fact, loaded with blanks. And when it comes to interviewing witnesses, actors...