Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966.
Roderick Alleyn is a fictional character who first appeared in 1934. He is the policeman hero of the 32 detective novels of Ngaio Marsh. Marsh and her gentleman detective belong firmly in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, although the last Alleyn novel, Light Thickens, was published in 1982.
Death at the Bar is a crime novel by Ngaio Marsh, the ninth to feature her series detective Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard. Published in 1940 by Collins (UK) and Little, Brown (USA), it was adapted for television in 1993 as part of the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries. The episode was directed by Michael Winterbottom and starred Patrick Malahide as Roderick Alleyn. The novel's title is a pun on the legal term the bar, and the public house as the plot concerns the murder of a leading KC during a game of darts in the bar of a pub in a small South Devon village. The novel is (unusually) dated on its final page 'May 3, 1939, New Zealand'; so despite its publication after the start of World War Two, the story is clearly set before the war, in Spring 1939.
The Nursing Home Murder (1935) is a work of detective fiction by New Zealand author Ngaio Marsh and Henry Jellett. It is the only book Marsh co-authored.
A Man Lay Dead is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the first novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1934. The plot concerns a murder committed during a detective game of murder at a weekend party in a country house. Although there is a side-plot focused on Russians, ancient weapons, and secret societies, the murder itself concerns a small group of guests at Sir Hubert Handesley's estate. The guests include Angela North, Charles Rankin, Nigel Bathgate, Rosamund Grant, and Mr and Mrs Arthur Wilde. Also in attendance are an art expert and a Russian butler. Unlike later novels, this novel is more focused on Nigel Bathgate and less so on Alleyn.
Enter a Murderer is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh. This is her second novel to feature Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1935. The novel is the first of the theatrical novels for which Marsh was to become famous, taking its title from a line of stage direction in Macbeth. The plot concerns the on-stage murder of an actor who has managed to antagonize nearly every member of the cast and crew. By chance, Inspector Alleyn is in the audience.
Death in Ecstasy is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh, the fourth to feature her series detective, Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard. It was first published in 1936.
Vintage Murder is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the fifth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1937. Based in New Zealand, the plot centres on a travelling theatrical troupe and prominently features Doctor Rangi Te Pokiha, a Māori, and a "tiki" (hei-tiki) a Māori fertility pendant.
Artists in Crime is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the sixth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1938. The plot concerns the murder of an artists' model; Alleyn's love interest Agatha Troy is introduced.
Overture to Death is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the eighth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1939. The plot concerns a murder during an amateur theatrical performance in a Dorset village, which Alleyn and his colleague Fox are dispatched from Scotland Yard to investigate and duly solve.
Death and the Dancing Footman is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh, the eleventh of her Roderick Alleyn books and a classic example of the Country house mystery. Written in New Zealand, but set in a Dorset (England) country house, it was first published in 1941 (America) and 1942 (Britain), receiving rave reviews from The New York Times, and Britain's The Observer and The Tatler and hailed by the New Zealand Listener as "Miss Marsh's favourite among her own books".
Colour Scheme is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the twelfth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1943. The novel takes place in New Zealand during World War II; the plot involves suspected espionage activity at a hot springs resort on the coast of New Zealand's Northland region and a gruesome murder whose solution exposes the spy. Alleyn himself is working for military intelligence in their counterespionage division. Marsh's next novel Died in the Wool also concerns Alleyn's counterespionage work in New Zealand.
Swing, Brother, Swing is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the fifteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1949. The plot concerns the murder of a big band accordionist in London; the novel was published as A Wreath for Rivera in the United States.
Opening Night is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the sixteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1951. It was published in the United States as Night at the Vulcan.
Scales of Justice is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh. it is the eighteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1955. With a classic 'Golden Age' crime novel's setting, in the idyllic, self-contained, rural English community of Swevenings, the suspects are all members of a tight-knit social group revolving around the local baronet and his family. The plot concerns the brutal murder of Colonel Carterette, an enthusiastic fisherman, who is preparing for publication the deceased baronet's memoirs, which include the admission that, as a high-ranking diplomat before World War Two, the baronet had treasonably put class before country in what has been called the Herrenvolk heresy, and knowingly let a young member of the embassy staff take the blame. The young man in question, who idolised the Lacklander ambassador, had committed suicide and his eccentric father is now the murdered colonel's neighbour.
Off with His Head is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the nineteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn. It was first published in the USA in 1956, under the title Death of a Fool, and in the UK in 1957.
Singing in the Shrouds is a detective novel by New Zealand writer Ngaio Marsh; it is the twentieth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1959. The plot concerns a serial killer who is on a voyage from London to South Africa.
Black As He's Painted (1974) is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh, the 28th to feature Roderick Alleyn. The plot concerns the newly independent fictional African nation of Ng'ombwana, whose president and Alleyn went to school together, and a series of murders connected to its embassy in London. The novel was written in New Zealand in the late Spring and Summer of 1973, and a year later was on the Sunday Times best-seller list in the UK, as well as proving a best-seller in the USA. Marsh's first biographer Margaret Lewis quotes a letter Marsh wrote in March 1973: "I've gone into purdah with a new book. It's always a huge effort to get back into harness after an interval in the theatre and this time it's been uphill all the way... I've saddled myself this time with a complicated and hideously exacting mise-en-scene and am just crossing the halfway mark, full of black forebodings laced with pale streaks of hope." Dr Lewis quotes Marsh's editor at Collins, Robert Knittel, writing in September 1973: "I have just finished reading your latest novel and I think it is splendid. A real vintage Ngaio Marsh."
Photo Finish (novel) is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the thirty-first, and penultimate, novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1980. Set in a millionaire's island mansion on a lake in New Zealand's South Island, it is the last of Ngaio Marsh's four New Zealand set novels - the others being Vintage Murder (1937), Colour Scheme (1943) and Died in the Wool (1945).
Light Thickens is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the thirty-second, and final, novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1982. The plot concerns the murder of the lead actor in a production of Macbeth in London, and the novel takes its title from a line in the play. A number of characters in the book appeared previously in Marsh's novel Death at the Dolphin. The novel is dedicated to the actors James Laurenson and Helen Thomas who had played Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, respectively, in the author's 1962 production of the play, which she had previously directed, also for The Canterbury University Players, in 1946.
