Roderick Alleyn Mysteries
32 primary works • 45 total works
Book 1
Book 2
A classic Ngaio Marsh novel reissued in B-format.
The Crime was committed on stage at the Unicorn Theatre, when an unloaded gun fired a very real bullet; the Victim was Arthur Surbonadier, an actor clawing his way to stardom using blackmail instead of talent; the Suspects included two unwilling girlfriends and several relieved blackmail victims.
The stage was set for one of Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn's most baffling cases...
Book 3
Ngaio Marsh’s bestselling and ingenious third novel remains one of the most popular pieces of crime fiction of all time.
I assure you that if the opportunity presented itself I should have no hesitation in putting you out of the way.’
The next day the Home Secretary dies during an emergency operation performed by the very man who had uttered this threat. But as Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn discovers, the victim had a lot of enemies – and the surgeon wasn’t the only person in the operating room with motives for murdering him . . .
Following her debuts A Man Lay Dead and Enter a Murderer, The Nursing Home Murder was widely considered to be the book with which Ngaio Marsh, said The Times, ‘transformed the detective story from a mere puzzle to a full-blown and fascinating novel’. It became her all-time bestseller and helped to cement Marsh’s reputation as one of the Golden Age ‘Crime Queens’ alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Marjorie Allingham.
This Detective Story Club classic is introduced by the New Zealand writer and theatremaker Stella Duffy, and includes a never-before-seen excerpt from the unfinished Inspector Alleyn novel Money in the Morgue.
Book 4
Book 5
The leading lady of a theater company touring New Zealand was stunningly beautiful. No one-including her lover-understood why she married the company's pudgy producer. But did she rig a huge jeroboam of champagne to kill her husband during a cast party?
Did her sweetheart? Or was another villain waiting in the wings? On a holiday down under, Inspector Roderick Alleyn must uncork this mystery and uncover a devious killer...
Book 6
One of Ngaio Marsh's most famous murder mysteries, which introduces Inspector Alleyn to his future wife, the irrepressible Agatha Troy.
It started as a student exercise, the knife under the drape, the model's pose chalked in place. But before Agatha Troy, artist and instructor, returns to the class, the pose has been re-enacted in earnest: the model is dead, fixed for ever in one of the most dramatic poses Troy has ever seen.
It's a difficult case for Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn. How can he believe that the woman he loves is a murderess? And yet no one can be above suspicion...
Book 7
A body in the back of a taxi begins an elegantly constructed mystery, perhaps the finest of Marsh's 1930s novels.
The season had begun. Debutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas, dinners, balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim.
But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that something was up. He had already planted his friend Lord Robert Gospell at the scene.
But someone else got there first...
Book 8
Book 9
Book 10
Ngaio Marsh’s most popular novel begins when a young New Zealander’s first contact with the English gentry is the body of Lord Wutherford – with a meat skewer through the eye…
The Lampreys had plenty of charm – but no cash. They all knew they were peculiar – and rather gloried in it. The double and triple charades, for instance, with which they would entertain their guests – like rich but awful Uncle Gabriel, who was always such a bore. The Lampreys thought if they jollied him up he would bail them out – yet again.
Instead, Uncle Gabriel met a violent end. And Chief Inspector Alleyn had to work our which of them killed him…
Book 11
Book 12
Even down in New Zealand, war-fueled spy fever is running wild. Near the decaying sulphur springs of Colonel and Mrs. Claire, the strange lights and signals being sent to foreign ships at sea mean there's a spy in their midst. Soon an even darker sign appears-a health-seeker with untoward intentions meets his demise in the mud baths. And when meets his demise in the mud baths. And when a new arrival appears, one who possesses the cunning of a criminal and the insight of a psychologist, can Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn be far behind?
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Book 13
Book 14
Book 15
Book 16
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Book 17
Book 18
Book 19
Pagan revelry and morris dancing in the middle of a very cold winter set the scene for one of Ngaio Marsh's most fascinating murder mysteries.
When the pesky Anna Bunz arrives at Mardian to investigate the rare survival of folk-dancing still practised there, she quickly antagonizes the villagers. But Mrs Bunz is not the only source of friction - two of the other enthusiasts are also spoiling for a fight.
When the sword dancers' traditional mock beheading of the Winter Solstice becomes horribly real, Superintendent Roderick Alleyn finds himself faced with a case of great complexity and of gruesome proportions...
Book 20
