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Roderick Alleyn
Death at the Dolphin / Hand in Glove / Dead Water
Commemorating 75 years since the Empress of Crime’s first book, the eighth volume in a set of omnibus editions presenting the complete run of 32 Inspector Alleyn mysteries.
HAND IN GLOVE
The April Fool's Day was a roaring success for all, it seemed - except for poor Mr Cartell who ended up in the ditch - for ever. Then there was the case of Mr Percival Pyke Period's letter of condolence, sent before the body was found - not to mention the family squabbles. It's all a puzzling crime for Superintendent Alleyn…
DEAD WATER
Times are good in the Cornish village of Portcarrow, as hundreds flock to taste the healing waters of Pixie Falls. When Miss Emily Pride inherits this celebrated land, she wants to put an end to the villagers' exploitation of miracle cures, especially Miss Elspeth Costs's gift shop. But someone puts an end to Miss Cost, and Roderick Alleyn finds himself literally on the spot…
DEATH AT THE DOLPHIN
The bombed-out Dolphin Theatre is given to Peregrine Jay by a mysterious oil millionaire, who also gives him a glove that belonged to Shakespeare to display in the dockside theatre. But then a murder takes place, a boy is attacked, and the glove is stolen. Inspector Roderick Alleyn doesn't think oil and water are a good mix…
HAND IN GLOVE
The April Fool's Day was a roaring success for all, it seemed - except for poor Mr Cartell who ended up in the ditch - for ever. Then there was the case of Mr Percival Pyke Period's letter of condolence, sent before the body was found - not to mention the family squabbles. It's all a puzzling crime for Superintendent Alleyn…
DEAD WATER
Times are good in the Cornish village of Portcarrow, as hundreds flock to taste the healing waters of Pixie Falls. When Miss Emily Pride inherits this celebrated land, she wants to put an end to the villagers' exploitation of miracle cures, especially Miss Elspeth Costs's gift shop. But someone puts an end to Miss Cost, and Roderick Alleyn finds himself literally on the spot…
DEATH AT THE DOLPHIN
The bombed-out Dolphin Theatre is given to Peregrine Jay by a mysterious oil millionaire, who also gives him a glove that belonged to Shakespeare to display in the dockside theatre. But then a murder takes place, a boy is attacked, and the glove is stolen. Inspector Roderick Alleyn doesn't think oil and water are a good mix…
640 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
26 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Ngaio Marsh
198 books823 followersDame Ngaio Marsh, born Edith Ngaio Marsh, was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900, but she was born in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand.
Of all the "Great Ladies" of the English mystery's golden age, including Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh alone survived to publish in the 1980s. Over a fifty-year span, from 1932 to 1982, Marsh wrote thirty-two classic English detective novels, which gained international acclaim. She did not always see herself as a writer, but first planned a career as a painter.
Marsh's first novel, A MAN LAY DEAD (1934), which she wrote in London in 1931-32, introduced the detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn: a combination of Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey and a realistically depicted police official at work. Throughout the 1930s Marsh painted occasionally, wrote plays for local repertory societies in New Zealand, and published detective novels. In 1937 Marsh went to England for a period. Before going back to her home country, she spent six months travelling about Europe.
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.
Series:
* Roderick Alleyn
Of all the "Great Ladies" of the English mystery's golden age, including Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh alone survived to publish in the 1980s. Over a fifty-year span, from 1932 to 1982, Marsh wrote thirty-two classic English detective novels, which gained international acclaim. She did not always see herself as a writer, but first planned a career as a painter.
Marsh's first novel, A MAN LAY DEAD (1934), which she wrote in London in 1931-32, introduced the detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn: a combination of Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey and a realistically depicted police official at work. Throughout the 1930s Marsh painted occasionally, wrote plays for local repertory societies in New Zealand, and published detective novels. In 1937 Marsh went to England for a period. Before going back to her home country, she spent six months travelling about Europe.
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.
Series:
* Roderick Alleyn
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 7, 2012
Very agreeable book for a wet weekend. Good antidote to Henning Mankell.
May 8, 2019
Only read "Dead Water" but have been reading her books since the 60s. I love her detective and when PBS brought him to life on Masterpiece I loved her books even more. Simple and like Agatha keeps you guessing til the end.
May 23, 2020
Two of the three books, Hand in Glove and Dead Water, in this omnibus were made into episodes of the television series. The third, Death at the Dolphin is set in a London theatre, one of Ngaio Marsh's favourite settings.
All three books are very well written, though for those of us who have seen the tv series, there can be no suspense about who is going to be killed, or who the killer is. But they are worth reading for the way Ngaio Marsh sets the scene and introduces the characters. I think over the course of the novels the writing gets better and better. Perhaps it was too easy to work out who the killer was in Death at the Dolphin but a I said, I don't think that's the point anymore.
24 down just 8 to go!
All three books are very well written, though for those of us who have seen the tv series, there can be no suspense about who is going to be killed, or who the killer is. But they are worth reading for the way Ngaio Marsh sets the scene and introduces the characters. I think over the course of the novels the writing gets better and better. Perhaps it was too easy to work out who the killer was in Death at the Dolphin but a I said, I don't think that's the point anymore.
24 down just 8 to go!
March 12, 2017
I gave up on this. It will probably be my last Ngaio Marsh.
March 18, 2013
I have heard other readers call Ngaio Marsh a trifle "classist", in that the accused in her books are often not from the privileged classes of society in her times. I don't have an opinion on that. Where these three mysteries are concerned, they are extremely well written and have strong plots with great characters. She doesn't do red herrings with the same drama as Agatha Christie does, and I like that.
February 9, 2015
I always enjoy Ngaio Marsh ...very intelligent writer ...especially enjoyed Death at the Dolphin ..so evocative of London
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews