Roderick Alleyn mysteries
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 1
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English
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"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...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 2
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English
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"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...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 3
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English
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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 classic of detection by the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master.
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 4
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English
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"Tainted wine sends a member of a religious sect to meet her maker in a witty mystery marked by "quiet, intelligent deduction" ( Kirkus Reviews ). Did lovely Cara Quoyne get a whiff of the bitter almonds as she raised the goblet to her lips? We'll never know: With a single sip of prussic acid she transported herself to the Hereafter. Now Inspector Alleyn must investigate a murder at the House of the Sacred Flame, a rather quirky little religious...
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"A police inspector finds trouble during a trip to New Zealand: "It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." -- New York Magazine Inspector Roderick Alleyn has taken a break from England and journeyed to New Zealand, and traveling along with him are the members of the Carolyn Dacres English Comedy Company. The actors' operatic intrigues offer an amusing diversion--until, unexpectedly, they turn deadly. And Alleyn...
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"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...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 7
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English
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"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"...
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"A local busybody is silenced for good in this tale by "a peerless practitioner of the slightly surreal, English-village comedy-mystery" ( Kirkus Reviews ). In their Dorset village, neither Miss Campanula nor her friend Miss Prentice are known as lovable little old ladies. They're waspish, gossiping snobby little old ladies, passionate only about their amateur theatrical productions, their narrowly defined opinions about how everyone else should behave...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 9
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English
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A game of darts does involve some danger, but it's rarely lethal. There are exceptions, however, like the famous barrister who was enjoying a pint at the Plume of Feathers pub, and is now residing at the morgue. But Inspector Roderick Alleyn has a growing hunch that this peculiar "accident" can be traced to an old legal case ...
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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...
12) Colour scheme
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 12
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English
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During World War II, Colonel Claire-a tremendously nice fellow and a disastrously bad businessman-runs a mud-baths resort in rural New Zealand. But the place is on the brink of being taken over by a local blowhard who may be a Nazi spy. Inspector Alleyn has been sent in to sort things out-and don a disguise in order to blend in the resort's motley cast of characters-in this classic tale of detection from the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master....
13) Died in the wool
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 13
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English
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World War II rages on, and Inspector Alleyn continues as the Special Branch's eyes and ears in New Zealand. While his primary brief is spy catching, he's also happy to help with old fashioned policing. Flossie Rubrick, an influential Member of Parliament and the wife of a sheep farmer, is murdered. Had she made political enemies? Had a mysterious legacy prompted her death? Or could the shadowy world of international espionage have intruded on this...
14) Final curtain
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"A delicious and classic country-house mystery. Well, country-castle. The lord of the manor is Sir Henry Ancred, a celebrated Shakespearian actor (and pompous bore), who has arranged to have his portrait painted by none other than Agatha Troy, wife of Inspector Roderick Alleyn. She's rather glad to be stepping out of Alleyn's shadow, so much so that when Ancred is killed at his own birthday party, Troy at first tries sleuthing on her own. But she's...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 15
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English
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Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn and his wife Troy are relaxing at a night club. At the table next to theirs is the party of George Settinger, marquis of Pastern and Bagott. All are waiting for the feature of the floor show. Part of the performance calls for Lord Pastern to fire a gun full of blanks at a band member and for the latter to slump and fall and be borne out by waiters, a wreath over his heart, playing dead. But something goes terribly wrong....
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 16
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English
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"A shabby, fourth-rate theater, the Vulcan is not where Martyn Tarne hoped to work, when she moved from New Zealand to London in hope of a glittering acting career. But a girl has to eat, so Martyn takes a job as dresser to the Vulcan's leading lady. This provides her with a ringside seat to the backstage circus: the aging alcoholic actor, the waspish playwright, the ingénue on the make, the surprisingly gracious grande dame. There is, of course,...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 17
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English
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"A British police detective looks into sinister doings in the South of France in a crime thriller with "more than a little excitement" ( Kirkus Reviews ). Inspector Roderick Alleyn has decamped for the South of France on a family vacation-though for him, the vacation will involve some official poking around. Unfortunately, the object of his poking-the cultish denizens of a sinister and luxurious chateau-are not fond of being poked, and they have...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 18
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English
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"An aristocrat dies under fishy circumstances in this tale by "the finest writer in the English language of the pure, classical puzzle whodunnit" ( The Sun ). In an almost unspeakably charming little English village, one of the local aristocrats turns up dead next to the local trout-stream with, in fact, a trout at his side. Everyone is dreadfully upset, of course, but really, just a tad irritated as well-murder is so awfully messy. Inspector Alleyn...
19) Death of a fool
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 19
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English
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Folkways turn fatal in a very old-fashioned English village, in this witty mystery filled with "ingenious" detective work ( Kirkus Reviews , starred review). The village of South Mardian likes the old ways. The very old ways. This may be 1957, but South Mardian still features a blacksmith, a village idiot, and an elaborate fertility ritual performed at the winter solstice. There's squabbling, of course, and worse--like when one of the ritual's main...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 20
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English
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"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...
21) False scent
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Mary Bellamy is the sweetheart of the London stage, fluffy as only an elderly lady of 50(!) can be. Her fans and friends-- and who didn't adore, positively adore darling Mary?-- are heartbroken when somehow Mary manages to spritz herself not with her favorite perfume but with the deadly insecticide meant to be sprayed on the azaleas. Inspector Alleyn begins by smelling something fishy (everything he learns about lovely, fragile Mary suggests that...
22) Hand in glove
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 22
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English
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A deadly dull man is now just plain dead in this novel by "a peerless practitioner of the slightly surreal, English-village comedy-mystery." -- Kirkus Reviews 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?...
23) Dead water
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 23
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English
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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...
24) Killer Dolphin
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 24
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English
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"Miss Marsh works her characteristic storyteller's magic with the elements of theater and suspense." -- Kirkus Reviews The impresario Peregrine Jay has fulfilled a long-cherished dream: Thanks to a very generous gift, he now owns the Dolphin Theatre, and has restored it to its former glory. To celebrate the reopening, a no-expenses-spared production of The Glove , a new play about the discovery of a true Shakespearean accessory, is performed. London's...
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Agatha Troy (the artist wife of Inspector Alleyn) has a special fondness for Constable s work, so she jumps at the chance to take a river-cruise through Constable country in the east of England. Her enthusiasm dims a little when it becomes clear that the ticket became available at the last minute only because a previous passenger was murdered, it seems, by a notorious international criminal known as the Jampot. The murder's don't stop there - and...
26) When in Rome
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A group of well-to-do tourists is visiting Italy's magnificent churches, but they've found themselves stumbling into an unholy web of blackmail and drug-smuggling-and, in the depths of a Roman basilica, murder. Fortunately Inspector Roderick Alleyn is among the group as part of an undercover assignment, and prepared to extract a confession ...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 27
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English
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The acclaimed author brings us crime at a country-house Christmas party in "one of her best and most baffling mysteries" (Daily Express).
It's the Christmas season in 1972, and Agatha Troy is at a house party, enjoying the local holiday pageant and also painting the host's portrait. The painting's coming along fine, but the pageant goes a little pear-shaped when one of the players disappears. Could one of the eccentric guests have been involved?...
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"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...
29) Last ditch
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 29
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English
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"Detection becomes a father-and-son activity in the Channel Islands: "A mystery novelist of world renown." -- The New York Times Ricky Alleyn, son of the renowned police detective Roderick Alleyn, has taken himself to a secluded island to write a novel. Or think about writing a novel. Or look for distractions so he can avoid writing a novel. The distractions abound, mostly in the form of colorful local characters, so all is beer and skittles until...
30) Grave mistake
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Sybil Foster lives the sort of little English village that is home mostly to the very rich and the servants who make their lives delightful. But Sybil Foster's life is not delightful, even if she does have an extremely talented gardener. Exhausted from her various family stresses-a daughter, for instance, who wants to marry a man without a title!-Sybil takes herself off to a local hotel that specializes in soothing shattered nerves. When she's killed,...
31) Photo finish
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 31
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English
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"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...
32) Light thickens
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 32
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English
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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...
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"This novel of murder and espionage in World War II New Zealand is "an exquisite reminder of the brilliance of Marsh's London detective" ( The Guardian ). Inspector Roderick Alleyn just wants to write a letter to his wife, but World War II, for one, keeps intruding. It's war-work, after all, that has brought Alleyn to this seedy hospital in New Zealand's hinterlands, and it's the war that has left the hospital swimming in convalescing soldiers-noisy,...