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A review by book_concierge
A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh
2.0
2.5**
The first mystery novel by Marsh introduces Inspector Detective Roderick Alleyn. At Sir Hubert Handesley’s country house party, five guests have gathered for a parlor game of “Murder.” It’s all in fun, until the lights come back on and there is an actual corpse. Given the prominence of the household, Scotland Yard is called in. By the time Alleyn arrives from London the victim’s body has been moved, everyone has an alibi, and the butler has gone missing.
I can clearly see how Marsh became known as one of the “Queens of Crime” alongside Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie. However, I found this to be slow-moving and unnecessarily complicated. There are a few nods to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, which I did appreciate, and a budding romance which I did not.
I’m glad I finally read something by Marsh; not sure if I’ll read another.
The first mystery novel by Marsh introduces Inspector Detective Roderick Alleyn. At Sir Hubert Handesley’s country house party, five guests have gathered for a parlor game of “Murder.” It’s all in fun, until the lights come back on and there is an actual corpse. Given the prominence of the household, Scotland Yard is called in. By the time Alleyn arrives from London the victim’s body has been moved, everyone has an alibi, and the butler has gone missing.
I can clearly see how Marsh became known as one of the “Queens of Crime” alongside Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie. However, I found this to be slow-moving and unnecessarily complicated
Spoiler
by a side plot involving sedition and Russian spiesI’m glad I finally read something by Marsh; not sure if I’ll read another.