From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

A Man Lay Dead (Roderick Alleyn, #1)

Ngaio Marsh

Start date: January 1, 2018

Finish date: January 31, 2018

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: The first book in our Ngaio Marsh/ Inspector Alleyn challenge
[close] The first book in our Ngaio Marsh/ Inspector Alleyn challenge

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Group Challenges

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
By Susan · 16 posts · 18 views

last updated Sep 12, 2025 08:12PM

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - SPOILER Thread
By Susan · 13 posts · 22 views

last updated Sep 16, 2025 12:58PM

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What Members Thought

Mar 06, 2013 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the first of Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn mysteries and it contains everything that a great Golden Age mystery should. First, the house party, complete with varying guests - an adulterous wife, jealous girlfriend, mysterious Russian, etc. In this case, the country house in question is Frantock and Nigel Bathgate (a journalist) is accompanying his cousin Charles on one of the much coveted entertaining weekends, for which invitations are hard to obtain. The host, avid collector, Sir Huber ...more

34 likes · Like · see review

Nov 15, 2017 Susan rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-series-to-start

This is the first of Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn mysteries and it contains everything that you expect from a Golden Age mystery. First, the house party, complete with varying guests - an adulterous wife, jealous girlfriend, mysterious Russian, and more. In this case, the country house in question is Frantock and Nigel Bathgate (a journalist) is accompanying his cousin Charles on one of the much coveted entertaining weekends, for which invitations are hard to obtain. The host intends to hold a ...more

20 likes · Like · see review

Jun 12, 2021 Lady Wesley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-golden-age-or-similar, listened, chirpbooks

Review of the audiobook narrated by Philip Franks

This first volume of the Roderick Alleyn series was everything I wanted from a Golden Age mystery: country house, spoiled rich people, murder, and a cool Scotland Yard detective. It kept me guessing until the end, and yet the solution seemed obvious once Inspector Alleyn explained it. Alleyn is an aristocrat who turned down a Foreign Service career for Scotland Yard. His loyal sidekick, Br'er Fox, is rough, cynical, and dogged. What a great pair.

T ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2016 Damaskcat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I thought I had read all this series but realised recently that I had for some reason missed the first one. This is a typical Golden Age mystery with a group of suspects in a country house. Sir Hubert Handesley's country house weekends are noted for their murder game. Unfortunately on this particular weekend there is a real corpse with a dagger in its back.

Roderick Alleyn, ably assisted by Nigel Bathurst, a journalist who appears in many of the Roderick Alleyn mysteries, has to try and break a c ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 07, 2017 Neer rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: reads-17, downloads, mysteries, women-writers, libraries, vintage-mystery, 1930s, aus-nz-authors

I have fond memories of Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn, so I picked up this book, in which he makes his debut, with a great deal of eager anticipation. The image I had of Alleyn was that of a sophisticate, well-mannered sleuth from Scotland Yard. I don't know whether my memory is all-wrong or whether he changes in the course of the series but in this he is pretty facetious, even over-bearing and rude at times.

The novel itself is a mish-mash. It begins well in a country house where guests assemb ...more

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Apr 20, 2018 ShanDizzy rated it liked it · review of another edition

I had only watched the tv series not realizing that it was based on a book series. I enjoyed this introduction to the 'well-to-do-gentleman-sleuth' Inspector Alleyn. I also really liked the journalist Nigel Bathgate. I hope he will be featured in other stories. I am on the next in the series. ...more

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