Death and the Dancing Footman

Author: Ngaio Marsh
Publisher: Felony & Mayhem Press
ISBN: 1937384268
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
This tale of murder at a snowed-in country house is a “constant puzzle to the end . . . alive with wit” (The New York Times). The unspeakably wealthy (and generally unspeakable) Jonathan Royal has decided to throw a party and, just for fun, has studded the guest list with people who loathe one another. When a blizzard imprisons them all in Royal’s country house, murder ensues, and there are nearly as many suspects as there are potential victims. Eventually, Inspector Alleyn makes his way through the snow to put things right, in this classic whodunit by the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. “A smooth yarn.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Surfeit of Lampreys

Author: Ngaio Marsh
Publisher: Inspector Roderick Alleyn
ISBN: 9781937384531
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The Lampreys had plenty of charm - but no cash. They all knew they were peculiar, the charades with which they entertained their guests became quite complicated. And when Uncle Gabriel Lamprey dies, Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called in.

The Roderick Alleyn Mysteries

Author: Ngaio Marsh
Publisher: FelonyandMayhem+ORM
ISBN: 1631943057
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 982

Book Description
Three witty murder mysteries featuring British Inspector Roderick Alleyn, from a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. Surfeit of Lampreys: The upper-crust Lamprey family exemplifies charm, wit, and a chronic lack of funds. Their only source of hope is the wealthy but unpleasant Lord Wutherwood. When his Lordship is killed and the Lampreys receive a sizeable inheritance, Inspector Roderick Alleyn wouldn’t dream of judging the Lampreys’ joy. But he would like to figure out whether they murdered their benefactor . . . Also published as Death of a Peer in the United States. “Entertaining and devious . . . Plenty of red herrings.” —Kirkus Reviews Death and the Dancing Footman: The unspeakably wealthy (and generally unspeakable) Jonathan Royal throws a party and, just for fun, has studded the guest list with people who loathe one another. When a blizzard imprisons them all in Royal’s country house, murder ensues, and there are nearly as many suspects as there are potential victims. Eventually, Inspector Alleyn makes his way through the snow to put things right . . .. “[A] constant puzzle to the end . . . alive with wit.”—The New York Times Colour Scheme: During World War II, Colonel Claire runs a mud-baths resort in rural New Zealand. But the place is on the brink of being taken over by a local blowhard who may be a Nazi spy. Inspector Alleyn has been sent in to sort things out—and don a disguise in order to blend in the resort’s motley cast of characters—in this classic tale of detection . . . “Atmosphere, humor . . .and a group of characters, English, Maori, and New Zealander, who are fascinating and completely credible.” —The New York Times

Colour Scheme

Author: Ngaio Marsh
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312966034
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
England is at war--this means "spy fever" for a quarrelsome collection of patriots at a shabby New Zealand resort, and a macabre murder that shocks even Scotland Yard!

Queering Agatha Christie

Author: J.C Bernthal
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319335332
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
This book is the first fully theorized queer reading of a Golden Age British crime writer. Agatha Christie was the most commercially successful novelist of the twentieth century, and her fiction remains popular. She created such memorable characters as Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, and has become synonymous with a nostalgic, conservative tradition of crime fiction. J.C. Bernthal reads Christie through the lens of queer theory, uncovering a playful, alert, and subversive social commentary. After considering Christie’s emergence in a commercial market hostile to her sex, in Queering Agatha Christie Bernthal explores homophobic stereotypes, gender performativity, queer children, and masquerade in key texts published between 1920 and 1952. Christie engaged with debates around human identity in a unique historical period affected by two world wars. The final chapter considers twenty-first century Poirot and Marple adaptations, with visible LGBT characters, and poses the question: might the books be queerer?

Surfeit of Lampreys

Author: Ngaio Marsh
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007328729
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 858

Book Description
Surfeit of Lampreys: The Lampreys had plenty of charm - but no cash. They all knew they were peculiar, the charades with which they entertained their guests became quite complicated. And when Uncle Gabriel Lamprey dies, Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called in.

Women of Mystery

Author: Martha Hailey DuBose
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0312209428
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 486

Book Description
And though she laments, "So many mysteries, so little time," she makes a good effort at mentioning "some of the best of the rest.""--BOOK JACKET.

Shakespearean Allusion in Crime Fiction

Author: Lisa Hopkins
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137538759
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
This book explores why crime fiction so often alludes to Shakespeare. It ranges widely over a variety of authors including classic golden age crime writers such as the four ‘queens of crime’ (Allingham, Christie, Marsh, Sayers), Nicholas Blake and Edmund Crispin, as well as more recent authors such as Reginald Hill, Kate Atkinson and Val McDermid. It also looks at the fondness for Shakespearean allusion in a number of television crime series, most notably Midsomer Murders, Inspector Morse and Lewis, and considers the special sub-genre of detective stories in which a lost Shakespeare play is found. It shows how Shakespeare facilitates discussions about what constitutes justice, what authorises the detective to track down the villain, who owns the countryside, national and social identities, and the question of how we measure cultural value.

Ngaio Marsh

Author: Bruce Harding
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786460326
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Book Description
Considered one of the "Queens of Crime"--along with such greats as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham--Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982) was a gifted writer and a celebrated author of classic British detective fiction, as well as a successful theater director. Best known for the 32 detective novels she published between 1934 and 1982, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 1966. Based on years of original research by the curator of the Ngaio Marsh House in Christchurch, New Zealand, this book explores the fascinating literary world of Dame Ngaio.

Ocular Proof and the Spectacled Detective in British Crime Fiction

Author: Lisa Hopkins
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031298497
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
From Sherlock Holmes onwards, fictional detectives use lenses: Ocular Proof and the Spectacled Detective in British Crime Fiction argues that these visual aids are metaphors for ways of seeing, and that they help us to understand not only individual detectives’ methods but also the kinds of cultural work detective fiction may do. It is sometimes regarded as a socially conservative form, and certainly the enduring popularity of ‘Golden Age’ writers such as Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh implies a strong element of nostalgia in the appeal of the genre. The emphasis on visual aids, however, suggests that solving crime is not a simple matter of uncovering truth but a complex, sophisticated and inherently subjective process, and thus challenges any sense of comforting certainties. Moreover, the value of eye-witness testimony is often troubled in detective fiction by use of the phrase ‘the ocular proof’, whose origin in Shakespeare’s Othello reminds us that Othello is manipulated by Iago into misinterpreting what he sees. The act of seeing thus comes to seem ideological and provisional, and Lisa Hopkins argues that the kind of visual aid selected by each detective is an index of his particular propensities and biases.