Roderick Alleyn mysteries
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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...
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...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 2
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English
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The crime was committed on stage at the theatre, when an unloaded gun fired a very real bullet; the victim was 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.
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"For one unlucky Member of Parliament, a simple visit to the hospital (the 'nursing home' of the title) proves fatal. But as Inspector Alleyn will discover, any number of people had reason to help the gentleman to his just reward, including the sour surgeon, his besotted nurse, a resentful wife, and a cabinet full of political rivals."--P. [4] of cover.
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 4
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English
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When a member of a wealthy cult, the House of the Sacred Flame, dies "accidentally" after drinking the ritual wine during a ceremony, Inspector Roderick Alleyn must discover who dosed the wine with the fatal prussic acid.
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 5
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English
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When Inspector Roderick Alleyn travels to New Zealand with members of an English comedy company, he stumbles upon a deadly diversion among the company's operatic intrigues, and must investigate.
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In the movies, it's known as a "meet cute." But for Inspector Alleyn and Miss Agatha Troy, it's more like irritation: On the ship back to England, she finds him 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, then he gets a call that a model has been stabbed at the artists' community...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 7
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English
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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" Gospell, everybody's favorite uncle. Bunchy is more than lovable; he's also got some serious sleuthing skills....
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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 ...and, perhaps, about the local vicar. But could one of them have been sufficiently unpleasant to provoke a murderer? For Miss Campanula has perished...
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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 ...
10)
Death of a peer , Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 10
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Author
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 11
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English
Description
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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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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English
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Flossie Rubrick, a highly opinionated and influential member of the New Zealand Parliament, was last seen heading off to one of the storage sheds on her sheep farm. Three weeks later, she turned up dead and packed in a bale of her own wool. What happened on the night of her long-ago disappearance? In the country on counterespionage duty, Inspector Roderick Alleyn is happy to lend a hand.
14) Final Curtain
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English
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A Shakespearean actor shuffles off his mortal coil in this "skillfully wrought" country-house mystery (The New York Times).
Sir Henry Ancred, a celebrated Shakespearean actor, has arranged to have his portrait painted by Agatha Troy, wife of Inspector Roderick Alleyn. But when Ancred is killed at his own birthday party, leaving behind a family full of suspects, Troy's work ends and Inspector Alleyn's begins ...
15)
A wreath for Rivera , Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 15
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16) Opening night
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Series
Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 16
Publisher
Hachette Digital
Pub. Date
p2009, c1951
Physical Desc
3 sound discs (CD) : ill., digital ; 4 3/4in
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English
Description
CRIME & MYSTERY. Dreams of stardom had lured Martyn Tarne from faraway New Zealand to make the dreary, soul-destroying round of West End agents and managers in search of work. The Vulcan Theatre had been her last forlorn hope, and now, driven by sheer necessity, she was glad to accept the humble job of dresser to its leading lady. And then came the eagerly awaited Opening Night. To Martyn the night brought a strange turn of the wheel of fortune -...
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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 a particularly unpleasant way of getting their point across ...
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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 doesn't quite fit in among the inbred gentry, but they'll allow him to do his work and clear the matter up-though they do wish he didn't feel compelled to ask...
19) Death of a fool
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The village of South Mardian likes the old ways. This may be 1957, but South M. still features a blacksmith, a village idiot, and an elaborate fertility ritual performed at the winter solstice. There's squabbling, of course, and things come to a head when one of the ritual's main players is found be-headed, everything north of his neck having been neatly lopped off by a ritual sword. Inspector Alleyn does have to contain a certain incredulous amusement...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 20
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English
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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 latest of the ladies is currently lying on a fogbound London dock, mute witness to the fact that Inspector Alleyn-long on the strangler's trail-has...
21) False scent
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English
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This tale of an actress’s dramatic demise, and a police detective trying to sniff out a killer, is “one of Ngaio Marsh's best yarns” (Kirkus Reviews).
Mary Bellamy is the sweetheart of the London stage—everyone simply adores darling Mary. So her fans and friends are heartbroken when somehow Mary manages to spritz herself not with her favorite perfume but with a deadly insecticide meant to be sprayed...
Mary Bellamy is the sweetheart of the London stage—everyone simply adores darling Mary. So her fans and friends are heartbroken when somehow Mary manages to spritz herself not with her favorite perfume but with a deadly insecticide meant to be sprayed...
22) Hand in Glove
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 22
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English
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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 how is it that Mr. Cartell came to inspire such violence? Yes he was boring, yes he was stuffy, but who would kill a man for the crime of being a bad...
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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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 chattering classes are abuzz with gossip about the theatre, rumors about Peregrine, critiques of the play. But when...
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 25
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English
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Inspector Alleyn's wife, the artist Agatha Troy, has a special fondness for Constables-the paintings, that is, not the policemen. So she jumps at the chance to take a river cruise through "Constable Country" in the east of England, in honor of the nineteenth-century master of landscapes. Her enthusiasm dims a little, though, when it becomes clear that the ticket became available at the last minute only because a previous passenger was murdered in...
26) When in Rome
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 26
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English
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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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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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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-insists that Alleyn handle his security, rather than Her Majesty's Special Branch. The Special Branch is not best pleased about this, as the Boomer is known to have some very deadly enemies,...
29) Last ditch
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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 Ricky stumbles across a murder and then gets himself kidnapped. Naturally his father rushes to the island to save the day ...
30) A Grave Mistake
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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 30
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English
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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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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 in the coppers' absence, in this delightful detective novel by the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master.
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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Roderick Alleyn mysteries volume 33
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English
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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,...