Dame Ngaio Marsh DBE (23 April 1895 – 18 February 1982), was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966.
Internationally she is best known for her 32 detective novels published between 1934 and 1982. Along with Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie, she has been classed as one of the four original "Queens of Crime"—female writers who dominated the crime fiction genre in the Golden Age of the 1920s and 1930s.
All her novels feature British CID detective Roderick Alleyn. Several novels feature Marsh's other loves, the theatre and painting. A number are set around theatrical productions (Enter a Murderer, Vintage Murder, Overture to Death, Opening Night, Death at the Dolphin, and Light Thickens), and two others are about actors off stage (Final Curtain and False Scent). Her short story "'I Can Find My Way Out" is also set around a theatrical production and is the earlier "Jupiter case" referred to in Opening Night. Alleyn marries a painter, Agatha Troy, whom he meets during an investigation (Artists in Crime), and who features in several later novels.
Most of the novels are set in England, but four are set in New Zealand, with Alleyn either on secondment to the New Zealand police (Vintage Murder, Colour Scheme, and Died in the Wool), or on holiday (Photo Finish); Surfeit of Lampreys begins in New Zealand but continues in London.
Chronology:
•A Man Lay Dead (1934)
•Enter a Murderer (1935)
•The Nursing Home Murder (1935)
•Death in Ecstasy (1936)
•Vintage Murder (1937)
•Artists in Crime (1938)
•Death in a White Tie (1938)
•Overture to Death (1939)
•Death at the Bar (1940)
•Surfeit of Lampreys (1941); Death of a Peer (U.S.)
•Death and the Dancing Footman (1942)
•Colour Scheme (1943)
•Died in the Wool (1945)
•Final Curtain (1947)
•Swing Brother Swing (1949); A Wreath for Rivera (U.S.)
•Opening Night (1951); Night at the Vulcan (U.S.)
•Spinsters in Jeopardy (1954); later in the U.S., The Bride of Death (1955)
•Scales of Justice (1955)
•Off With His Head (1957); Death of a Fool (U.S.)
•Singing in the Shrouds (1959)
•False Scent (1960)
•Hand in Glove (1962)
•Dead Water (1964)
•Death at the Dolphin (1967); Killer Dolphin (U.S.)
•Clutch of Constables (1968)
•When in Rome (1970)
•Tied Up in Tinsel (1972)
•Black As He's Painted (1974)
•Last Ditch (1977)
•Grave Mistake (1978)
•Photo Finish (1980)
•Light Thickens (1982)
Short fiction
Death on the Air and Other Stories, first published in 1995 (U.K.), includes five short fictions in the Alleyn series, three previously published stories and two original biographical essays.
All books in EPUB format.
Replies
Thank you.
Okay ... okay ... my Kindle is now overflowing with great (UNREAD) mysteries.
It's all your fault! :>)
Thanks.
Yet another great series of books. Thanks for sharing.