Ngaio Marsh: 36 books

The bad news: This is the last in Ngaio Marsh’s marvelous “Inspector Alleyn” series. The good: It’s one of her very best. The secret to Light Thickens’ success may lie in its combination of some of Marsh’s greatest passions, including her native New Zealand –in the person of, unusually,...

In 1968 Ngaio Marsh took her own Roman holiday (in part to research Italian police procedures) and the change seems to have done her good: Both her British and U.S. agents believed When in Rome to be the finest novel in her “Inspector Alleyn” series. As is so often (and so satisfyingly) the case,...

Familiarity doesn’t always breed contempt. If it did, none of us would read series fiction. “Noooo,” we’d whine. “Not another book about Inspector Alleyn!” When it comes to Ngaio Marsh – and in truth, one or two other writers we could mention – familiarity has tended mostly to breed delight.And...

England, New Zealand, a theatrical milieu, and a roster of clues…readers will recognize the hallmarks of Ngaio Marsh’s classic series. And they won’t find any of them here. Instead, Inspector Alleyn has decamped for the South of France for a vacation en famille. Well, the famille will be vay-caying...

Inspector Roderick Alleyn has to date confined his investigations to England, but Vintage Murder finds him journeying to New Zealand (Ngaio Marsh’s homeland). Traveling with Alleyn are the members of the Carolyn Dacres English Comedy Company. The actors' operatic intrigues offer an amusing diversion...

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. This 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 murder...

Photo Finish’s dead diva, the soprano Isabella Sommita, was widely loathed, so much so 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...

Ngaio Marsh was, among other things, a well-respected theatrical producer (having started out as an actress), and her passion for and knowledge of the theater was displayed in many of Alleyn’s adventures. In Enter a Murderer, the Inspector has been invited to an opening night, a new play in which...

Ngaio Marsh, quien además de como novelista obtuvo también un merecido reconocimiento por su labor como directora escénica, fusionó de manera magistral ambas pasiones en Un asesino en escena, una de sus más logradas creaciones. Ya desde el propio título, el escenario de la acción queda perfectamente...

«Tutti siete sospettati. E tutti mentite e recitate» L’ispettore capo di Scotland Yard, Roderick Alleyn accetta volentieri l’invito a teatro fattogli dall’amico giornalista Nigel Bathgate, aspettandosi di passare una bella serata. Lo spettacolo scorre piacevolmente fino all’ultimo atto,...

Ngaio Marsh fue junto a Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers y Margery Allingham una de las cuatro reinas de la era dorada de la novela de misterio en lengua inglesa. Y, como no podía ser de otra manera, su primera obra transcurre durante un fin de semana en una casa de campo durante el periodo de...

The elderly Emily Pride is perfectly pleased to have inherited an island, even if her starchy pragmatism is ever-so-faintly appalled by the “Pixie Falls” spring and its reported miraculous healing properties. But really, the locals’ attempts to capitalize on the “miracles” are entirely too...

One has to admit that the timing was peculiar. No one could doubt that Mr. Percival Pyke Period was genuinely distraught to hear that his neighbor, Harry Cartell, had turned up dead in a ditch. But how is it that Mr. Percival Pyke came to write the letter of condolence before the body was found? And...

Ah, the London Debutante Season: 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...