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Night at the Vulcan

(Roderick Alleyn #16)

Ngaio Marsh

4.06 · Rating details · 2,696 ratings · 142 reviews

A London actor was dying for a star billing...

From the leading lady's liaison to the harassment of an aging juvenile lead-there's never a dull moment, darling, at the Vulcan Theatre. But vanity and hysterics, suspicion and superstition, brandy and jealousy, are upstaged by a death on opening night. Was it really suicide? Or a macabre encore to a long-ago murder in the same ...more

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Paperback, 256 pages

Published October 15th 1998 by St. Martin's Paperbacks (first published 1951)

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Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Golden Age Queens of Crime: Christie -- Sayers -- Marsh -- Allingham -- Wentworth (fiction)

156 books — 229 voters

Best Books of the Decade: 1950s

1,093 books — 1,488 voters

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Nov 01, 2018 Henry Avila rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Martyn Tarne is in need of help... make that a great need, just a couple of weeks in England arriving from her native New Zealand the poor, nineteen-year- old girl wants to be a star on the London stage, but first any job will do. Luck... she has none, all her money was stolen on the long, lonely ship voyage from home, the daughter of a sheep farmer with a small amount of acting experience. Get employment or sleep on the street...even in 1951 there are risks. However The Vulcan Theatre new play Martyn Tarne is in need of help... make that a great need, just a couple of weeks in England arriving from her native New Zealand the poor, nineteen-year- old girl wants to be a star on the London stage, but first any job will do. Luck... she has none, all her money was stolen on the long, lonely ship voyage from home, the daughter of a sheep farmer with a small amount of acting experience. Get employment or sleep on the street...even in 1951 there are risks. However The Vulcan Theatre new play is about to have its Opening Night... the original title of this novel... Ngaio Marsh is if I may say so the Agatha Christie of New Zealand ( not a put- down) , with a background in the theatre , a fine mystery writer, while this is my first book I have read of hers but not the last. Truth be told I never heard of the lady... until a gift changed all this to my great benefit...Now back to the subject...Miss Tarne has a hidden friend in the cast a distant relative a third cousin to be precise, she has never met and wants to stay incognito if possible, but what a relative, the actor- manager and owner of the refurbished The Vulcan, Adrian Poole who doesn't know she exists. The playhouse has a bad reputation though, a murder occurred there not long ago, in fact five years previously not good . Embarrassed by the connection Martyn is very uncomfortable when found out, the lowly dresser to star Helen Hamilton and happy to get the job through a fluke, any thing would have done. The cast is at first suspicious and uneasy, noticing the strikingly family resemblance, is this girl trying to steal Gay Gainsford role, the niece of Clark Bennington a legendary fading thespian with a little drinking problem, imagine an actor who indulges, husband of the lovely Helen Hamilton the much loved actress in films. Jacques Dore is an indispensable but very ugly man from France, assistant to Mr. Poole... can do it all , make clothes, makeup, design the settings on the stage, everyone's favorite confidant. He dominates the story yet one of many suspects. Another person the author of the play Dr. John James Rutherford, is hated by the whole group with his constant vicious verbal attacks on the actors, not professional. After an unfortunate "accident," Inspector Roderick Alleyn of the famous Scotland Yard comes in to solve the mystery, mishap, suicide or murder ? Mr. Alleyn is puzzled, seemingly such a routine case nothing special observed or felt, ... of an ..

unhappy man ending his miserable life, evolves into something deeply sinister. This will test the brilliant inspector... is he up to the challenge ? A well written story about plays and how they are put together...with much difficulty, anxiety and conflict an old- fashioned mystery to some not I, by a writer that knew both quite thoroughly. Fine entertainment for the mystery fan.... and the theatre lover. ...more

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Apr 06, 2014 Nandakishore Varma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Dame Ngaio Marsh has pulled it off big-time in this one. This mystery which moves at breakneck pace takes place over a period of four days, during the rehearsals and opening night of the play "Thus to Revisit". The author draws her knowledge of the stage enormously, and we are presented with the spectacle of the stirring human drama, taking place backstage in the dressing rooms.

Martyn Tarne is a young girl, not quite out of teenage, on the lookout to make it on the London stage. She hopes to use Dame Ngaio Marsh has pulled it off big-time in this one. This mystery which moves at breakneck pace takes place over a period of four days, during the rehearsals and opening night of the play "Thus to Revisit". The author draws her knowledge of the stage enormously, and we are presented with the spectacle of the stirring human drama, taking place backstage in the dressing rooms.

Martyn Tarne is a young girl, not quite out of teenage, on the lookout to make it on the London stage. She hopes to use her uncanny physical resemblance to Adam Poole, the leading man and the producer of the play in question, as there is a part which has exactly the same requirements. Unfortunately, however, she misses out on the casting but manages to land a job as the dresser to the leading lady, Helena Hamilton.

Once in, Martyn finds she has entered into a seething cauldron of human emotions. Poole is having an affair with Helena, who is married to Clark Bennington, an actor in the twilight of his career. Bennington is an alcoholic, partly due to the reason that he is being cuckolded - and he makes a life hell for all others involved with the play. The team has another unbearable character in the person of Dr John Rutherford, author of the play; he is harsh with everybody, especially with Gay Gainsford, Bennington's niece, who is the actress playing the part Martyn was hoping to get. J.G.Darcey, a character actor who is sweet on Gay, Parry Percival, another actor and Jacques Dore (Jacko), "general dogsbody to Poole" completes the cast of characters in this dressing room drama.

The setting is also not pleasant. Years before, an actor had been murdered at the Vulcan Theatre where the play is slated to open. It had been shutdown since then; recently Poole has purchased it, pooh-poohing the superstitious whispers. However, in the show business, superstition rarely goes away so easily.

The trouble starts when Martyn is given the job of understudy to Gay: it is not long before Dr John notices the resemblance to Poole and wants her to be given the role. However, Bennington would have none of it, and she is secretly relieved. But Gay goes to pieces and throws hysterics just before the start, and Martyn is forced to make her first stage appearance in inauspicious circumstances.

The play is a hit: however, just before the curtain call, Bennington commits suicide by inhaling gas exactly like the previous murder. The only problem is, Chief Inspector Alleyn of Scotland Yard knows it's murder...

***

This novel about a play is actually structured like a classic play: the setting is confined, the time frame compressed and the characters, limited. The action rises from the beginning up to the point of the murder, which is the first climax - then there is the resolution, ending with the second climax of the unmasking of the murderer. It is a very fast read.

Also, Dame Ngaio has succeeded in that particular sleight of hand where the readers are misdirected at the crucial moment from the actual clues. It is not as breathtaking as Agatha Christie does (IMO, at least) but pretty impressive all the same. And when you review it after the cat is out of the bag, it all holds up well. ...more

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Jun 20, 2019 Ed rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ed-s_cozy_mysteries_read

This is my first read of a mystery written by Ngaio Marsh. The New Zealand author has a distinctive writing style, which I grew to like. She postpones the murder and its subsequent investigation until late in her narrative. Again, it works successfully. The setting for this
mystery is a theater and its colorful players, some of whom don't like each other. Lots of details about the occupation are included. All in all, I enjoyed my reading experience and would tackle another title by her. ...more

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Mar 22, 2019 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the sixteenth Inspector Alleyn book and was first published in 1951. This instalment in the series, shows Ngaio Marsh turning to a world she knew extremely well – that of the theatre.

Martyn Tarne is nineteen, and has come from New Zealand to try her luck as an actress. Unfortunately, she had her money stolen on board ship and, when we meet her, she is tramping sadly from theatre, to theatre, attempting to find work. Exhausted, and hungry, she happens to be resting in the Vulcan theatre, ...more

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Nov 11, 2018 Ellie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Love Marsh. She's up there with Christie as a great mystery writer. ...more

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Oct 06, 2020 John rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ngaio-marsh

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 25, 2008 Maureen E rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery

I like detectives. Not all of them by any means, but I like them. Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Lord Peter Wimsey, Inspector Grant, and most recently, Inspector Alleyn. Any new-to-me Alleyn mystery is a cause for rejoicing, the donning of a smoking jacket and the putting up of an 'occupied' sign on my (non-existent) study door. Lord Peter is perhaps my favorite but Alleyn comes close.

I'm not sure how many Alleyns I've read so far; my wild guess is about ten. They have, at this point, started to g ...more

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Aug 30, 2016 Ape rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, england

First Ngaio Marsh book for me! Very well written, interesting murder story... I wonder if all her stories are set up like this. The story is 180 pages odd long, and the murder didn't happen till just past the 100 page mark. So it's as much a general fiction story that happens to have a murder in it as anything else.

Set in London in the 40s or 50s (I'm guessing), we see little New Zealander Martyn Tarne newly in London struggling to find acting work and getting really down on her luck. Desperate ...more

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Sep 09, 2009 Hannah rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, favourites

Pleasantly surprised at how entertaining "Night at the Vulcan" was. I was previously thoroughly underwelmed by "Light Thickens", my first of the Alleyn novels, but found myself quite enjoying this one.

Vulcan's strength partly lies in its protagonist, Martyn Tarne, who is interesting and sweet of nature, and therefore quite easy to like. It helps considerably when you can like and follow what the protagonist is saying and doing. The secondary characters, as well, are all very well fleshed out and ...more

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Sep 15, 2020 Calum Reed rated it really liked it · review of another edition

B+:

Pretty much perfect for 160 pages, up until the murder is committed. Marsh is far more concerned about telling a thoroughly engaging story about a young aspiring actress thrust into the limelight than she is about forging an intricate whodunit and, in this case, I'm absolutely fine with that. ...more

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Aug 11, 2008 Krista rated it it was amazing

Second Read
Now that I'm reading Marsh's books systematically in order, I find this one to be one of her best. She is at her strongest when dealing with people and situations of the theater, as she does in this novel. The mystery was fairly transparent but it didn't really matter. To me, the story was the inter-relations between all of the characters involved; all of a type. Marsh is not so great at giving us details of romance, which frustrates me, as I think she would be so good at it. She hint ...more

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May 01, 2019 Bicky rated it really liked it

After the disappointing Swing, Brother, Swing (or A wreath for Rivera), Marsh returns to the world of theatre. A world which she knew very well and it shows:

‘An encounter with a person hitherto only seen and heard on the cinema screen is often disconcerting.’

‘There was a kind of voluptuousness in Martyn’s fatigue. Only the chair she sat on and the desk that propped her arms and head prevented her, she felt, from slipping to the floor. Into this defencelessness Poole’s suggestions entered like th ...more

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Apr 04, 2019 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, vintage-mystery, mount-tbr-2019, mystery, marsh-challenge, bought-2017

Opening Night (aka Night at the Vulcan; 1951) finds Ngaio Marsh returning to the world of theatre--comfortable home turf for an author who claimed the theatre as her first passion. This time Marsh focuses on the back-stage antics going on as the players at the Vulcan Theater prepare for the opening of a new play by a brilliant, but difficult playwright. We see everything through the vantage point of Martyn Tarne, a young actress-in-waiting who has recently arrived from New Zealand with the hopes Opening Night (aka Night at the Vulcan; 1951) finds Ngaio Marsh returning to the world of theatre--comfortable home turf for an author who claimed the theatre as her first passion. This time Marsh focuses on the back-stage antics going on as the players at the Vulcan Theater prepare for the opening of a new play by a brilliant, but difficult playwright. We see everything through the vantage point of Martyn Tarne, a young actress-in-waiting who has recently arrived from New Zealand with the hopes of landing a part on a London stage. After making a discouraging round of the theater casting calls, she comes to the Vulcan just a tad too late to audition for a part. She's down to the last bit of her money and has no idea what do when she overhears Bob Grantley, the business manager, frantically calling round for a replacement dresser for Helen Hamilton--the play's leading lady.

Helen's dresser has been rushed to the hospital and Grantley needs a substitute quick. Martyn needs a job--at this point any job will do and she offers herself as dresser. She immediately finds herself in a seething cauldron of backstage emotions and interactions. Helen Hamilton is married to the leading man, Clark Bennington. Bennington is an aging, alcoholic actor who is thoroughly disliked by just about everyone...including his wife. Helen has been having an affair with Adam Poole, the Vulcan's actor-manager. Bennington's niece, Gay Gainsford, has been cast in a rather important role--as a blood relation to Pool's character who (supposedly) looks remarkably like him and is a somewhat depraved version of himself. She's been making a rather bad showing in the part (not helped by the fact that she really looks nothing like Poole) and is having a case of the nerves. Dr. John James Rutherford, the playwright and another thoroughly unpleasant man, is having fits over Gay's inability to play the part, making himself generally disagreeable to all and sundry, and is quoting Shakespeare at everyone. J. G. Darcy and Parry Percival, the remaining actors, add their nerves and emotional outbursts to the mix.

Martyn's arrival doesn't help matters. Because you see, she does look like Poole (they wind up being second cousins or some such) and could absolutely play the part. To Gay's dismay, Martyn is made her understudy in addition to the dresser's role and on opening night, Gay has a fit of hysterics and is unable to go on. Martyn, of course, steps in to save the day and winds up being a sensation. She barely has time to take in her good fortune (and all the applause) when Clark Bennington doesn't show up for his curtain calls and is discovered dead in his dressing room. To the actors, it has every appearance of suicide. But when Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives from the Yard, he is not convinced. And, of course, he and Inspector Fox will find all the clues and discover the culprit.

There were several things that I enjoyed about this one: The opening scenes with Martyn--learning of her journey round the theaters and her bad luck at the auditions; her interactions with the fellow-hard luck actress outside the Vulcan; and her conversations with Fred Badger, the nightwatchman. In fact, I liked Fred Badger so much that I kind of hoped that we'd see more of him. But, alas. Jacko, Adam Poole's right-hand man and jack of all trades is also an interesting character--again, particularly in his interactions with Martyn. Overall, I'd say that I enjoyed the characters' interactions with each other--barring a few jarring exceptions (Gay Gainsford gets on my last nerve, for instance). I really do think Marsh was in her element when writing about the theatre and the people of that world. She creates interesting and realistic characters and it's evident that she's writing from experience.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks. ...more

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Aug 31, 2020 Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: whodunit-howdunit-whydunit, for-the-easily-entertained, good-summer-read

I enjoyed the first third or so, but after that it was too similar to Swing, Brother, Swing, with everyone being held in the theatre for about 48 hrs, the women lying in armchairs and men sleeping hither and yon. We have of curse the obligatory ro-mance(s); I always wonder how long they would last after the pressure is off. Knowing actors, not very long!

There are many misused question marks in the text, which may be due to reading the ebook edition, but opened several sentences to varying interp ...more

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Feb 12, 2018 FangirlNation rated it really liked it

Martyne Tarne has been in England from New Zealand for two weeks, and her money is about to run out when she happens upon the Vulcan Theater in Night at the Vulcan, also published as Opening Night, by Ngaio Marsh. Overhearing that the lead actress, Helena Hamilton, has just lost her dresser to illness, Martyne jumps at the opportunity for any job in the theater, where she has long wanted to work. The play features a role by the famous actor, Adam Poole, in which a young woman plays his daughter. ...more

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Jun 26, 2017 Eryn rated it really liked it

I rather miss the age of actually describing things in books. Halfway through I had to check to see if it was a mystery, but it was an engaging enough book to keep my interest. By the time the murder had happened, I was engaged with the characters and wanted to know what would happen to them. We simply don't get that type of set-up anymore. Typically we get a murder that's orbited by the characters, but Marsh wrote it as characters who are eventually orbited by a murder. Frankly, it's something ...more

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Sep 20, 2020 Adam Carson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Marsh had a masterly skill of writing a whodunnit where the murder didn’t occur until at least halfway through, as is the case here. You’d think that would making the pacing slow, but the build up really makes you invest in the characters.

I enjoyed this book a lot - another theatre based mystery, but certainly not a repeat of her past work. By the 40s and 50s Marsh really was at her best!

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Mar 30, 2019 Sandy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-classic, mystery-detective-grp, ngaio-challenge-2019

Excellent entry in the series with an interesting and sympathetic cast of characters. Marsh is at her best when she uses theatre settings. This book heavy references an earlier short story, 'I Can Find My Way Out', and I recommend reading that first if convenient. ...more

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Aug 15, 2019 Francine rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery

Great story. Excellent writing. One of her best work.

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May 25, 2017 Nell rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery

Such an engrossing story that it was almost a surprise when Alleyn & Co. made their appearance about two-thirds of the way in. Clever how bits from earlier books in the series are woven in.

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Oct 02, 2019 Tom rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

So this was an enjoyable book, but it was not what the summary and back covered promised. I was expecting something along the lines of Agatha Christie, where the murder is right up front and then you spend the story uncovering the awful secrets of the characters and the detective wraps it up by confronting the group. Well the detective - Roderick Alleyn - did confront the group, but he didn't show up before page 147 (on my copy). The first 146 pages follow the story of a girl who shows up in Lon ...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Nila rated it it was amazing

I love this book. Ngaio Marsh is a favorite mystery/detective writer, and this story has been my most appreciated of her books since I first read it half a lifetime ago.

Ms. Marsh loved the theater, and used it as a setting quite often. As with many female detective writers of her day, she hankers after a gentleman from the upper classes. Roderick Alleyn is one of those well-bred Englishmen who have perfect manners, perfect clothes and just the right behavior in any circumstance. He is also a pol ...more

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May 08, 2017 Barbara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

There is something so enjoyable in picking up and tearing through these vintage British crime/detective novels, though it is not till over half way through that either crime or the detectives enter this story set in the theatre.

The writing is descriptive and evocative, but at the same time tight, so that reading it for me was a pleasurable indulgence that kept me engaged for a lovely couple of hours in a single sitting.

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May 29, 2020 Silvia rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I read other books from Ngaio Marsh and I liked them but this one... I can't seem to find anything to like.
It is too slow-paced, it doesn't really seem like a mystery. I find a large part of the story to be quite boring and useless to the essence of the murder. ...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Bettie rated it liked it

Shelves: published-1951, winter-20102011, play-dramatisation

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 26, 2021 Flex and Herds from Death of the Reader rated it liked it · review of another edition

On Death of the Reader's 2020 recommendations this Review Season, we placed Opening Night/Night at the Vulcan in fifteenth. This novel, amongst her other contributions to revitalising theatre in New Zealand led to Ngaio Marsh's Damehood in 1966, and as such makes a fascinating look into the theatre culture she loved so much.

The Vulcan begins by following the frantic thoughts of our heroine, Martyn Tarne, a young woman who acts as our point of view and as our humanising Watson throughout the stor On Death of the Reader's 2020 recommendations this Review Season, we placed Opening Night/Night at the Vulcan in fifteenth. This novel, amongst her other contributions to revitalising theatre in New Zealand led to Ngaio Marsh's Damehood in 1966, and as such makes a fascinating look into the theatre culture she loved so much.

The Vulcan begins by following the frantic thoughts of our heroine, Martyn Tarne, a young woman who acts as our point of view and as our humanising Watson throughout the story, she is desperate for work and ends up having greatness thrust open her as she finds an important part in the grand re-opening night of the Vulcan theatre. She begins as the makeup lady of the lead actor but ends up on stage for the titular opening night. This leads to various promises and threats kicking off in the background as the characters squabble both openly and quietly over how the play should be handled, and this is one of the great strengths of the work. The book spends the bulk of its time exploring the character dynamics within this theatre and Marsh really works to capture the atmosphere in the final week before a big play is opened. As a student of drama myself I felt recollections of my own experiences bubbling beneath the surface of my memory, both positive and negative, from the well-meaning stagehand Jacque to the overbearing lead actors and actresses giving Miss Tarne all the trouble that they’re worth. Without telling all the plot is full of flavour and intrigue, right up until the final moments.

The Vulcan theatre is the true star of our story with its dim passageways and claustrophobic actors quarters, its ostentatious stage and the shifty characters found within. The murder of the story doesn’t occur until nearly the end of the tale, and as such we don’t spend a lot of time actually looking for clues, but rather stumbling across them as Tarne travels from person to person and explores the ins and outs of the creaky building, brought to life once more and seeking to forget its tragic past. And this is the hook, of course, when the murder finally does occur it echoes the murderous tragedy that closed it down years ago, and Roderick Alleyn is brought in to put a stop on the case and to close the theatre’s bloody history once and for all.

This is where the wheels start to fall off the proverbial theatre. The characters on the stage and the stage’s character are the stars of the show, but the mystery suffers from being obtuse at best. The clues are laid out in such a manner that figuring out this mystery is only feasibly if you are well studied on the ins and outs of murder mystery tropes, and a little lucky. As I mentioned before the mystery only really comes to the forefront in the last couple of chapters and so the story doesn’t lend itself enough stagetime in the final act to properly wrap things up. A half-hearted attempt is made to justify our murder and then everybody goes home. For our detective Alleyn this is no doubt an internally cathartic mystery, as he was involved in the previous murderous disaster at the Vulcan theatre years prior, but for the reader you’re left with some solid character arcs but a lacking conclusion to the tumultuous tale.

Opening Night at the Vulcan occupies a respectable position at 15th place being an interesting read with a genuine insight into the theatre and the chaos that is the opening week, I myself have a theatre background and I have to say that the feelings Martyn Tarne expresses and the strange cocktail of dread tension and excitement that all of the members of the production proclaim are true to life. For me personally I felt a wave of nostalgia and can tell you that though I’ve never had a murder at one of the plays I’ve been a part of, there’s always at least one moment where murder is considered among the cast. For striking a personal chord I recommend this one to any theatre buffs and fans of Ngaio Marsh’s work, getting to see one of the four great queens of crime in action at the height of her majesty was fascinating but perhaps it would be worth getting to know her detective for more than two and a half chapters.

You can hear our full thoughts on Opening Night at the Vulcan on Death of the Reader's podcast, featuring three weeks of solving, misdirection and discussion.
...more

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Mar 19, 2018 Jj Li rated it it was ok

You can always tell which character you're supposed to like, and for me, it spoils it when I don't like them. Martyn was supposed to be this down to earth girl who trips into riches, and usually that's am enjoyable story line for me. But this one... no. I really didn't like any of them, including the other half of the young lovers who really isn't quite so young (and also a relations, and also instalove, and also huge age difference = it's a no from me), and while the rest of the cast might not ...more

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May 13, 2019 Theo rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ngaio-marsh

This has been my favorite Marsh novelette so far. It's really not a mystery story at all. It's a rather fantastical coming of age romance set in the theater world. While normally I dislike Marsh's mysteries where Alleyn comes in late, here it's was a rather a disruption at first but it kept the brisk pace and melodrama that had preceded it. Unlike many Marsh mysteries where the characters are all quite broad and unsympathetic, these characters had a bit more depth than the tropes they represente ...more

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Jun 09, 2018 Matthew Talamini rated it really liked it

I think she wanted to write a novel about a play much more than one about solving a mystery. Or, maybe I'll say it this way: She seems to have enjoyed tying the knot much more than loosing it. Even just judging by page numbers, the detective doesn't show up until very late in the book.

It's about these characters getting into terrible trouble with each other and burying it, everybody hiding what's really going on beneath layer and layer of camouflage until the whole little tribe of the play is li ...more

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Dec 26, 2018 Karen rated it really liked it

I thought I had read all Ngaio Marsh's books, but didn't remember this one at all. Its original title was Opening Night, & it's not in my collection, so either it's one of the ones that has gone missing over the last 40 years & many moves, or I never bought it - probably the latter, as nothing about the plot was familiar to me, & usually I remember who the villain was even after so long. (I still enjoy re-reading them, though, along with Dorothy Sayers & Margery Allingham.) This was published in ...more

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About Ngaio Marsh

Ngaio Marsh

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Dame 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 ...more

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Quotes from Night at the Vulcan

“clock in a jeweller’s window gave the time as twenty-three minutes to five. She knew, by the consequential scurry of its second-hand, that it was alive. It was surrounded by other clocks that made mad dead statements of divergent times as if, she thought, to set before her the stages of that day’s fruitless pilgrimage.” — 0 likes

“in spite of all her misgivings, she glowed and thought to herself. ‘This is my place. This is where I belong.” — 0 likes

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