Roderick Alleyn

When murder upsets the creative tranquillity of an artists' colony, Scotland Yard sends in its most famous investigator. What begins as a routine case turns out most momentous for Roderick Alleyn, whose heart is captured by one of the suspects.

Who in the quiet village of Chipping would kill wealthy spinster Idris Campanula? Plenty of people—among them her fellow cast members from a troubled charity production. Miss Campanula was a spiteful gossip, gleefully destroying others' lives merely for her own excitement. But once Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives, he quickly realizes that the murderer might have killed the wrong woman—and may soon stage a repeat performance.

It was a horrible death. Maurice Questing was lured into a pool of boiling mud and left there to die. Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, far from home on a wartime quest for German agents, knows that any number of people could have killed him, the English exiles he'd hated, the New Zealanders he'd despised, the Maoris he'd insulted, or even the spies he'd thwarted—if he wasn't a spy himself.

Beautiful Troy Alleyn, artist wife of Inspector Alleyn, is suddenly star witness in one of her husband's most sensational cases to determine which of the flamboyant characters brought down the final curtain on a famed old Shakespearean actor, turning a drawing-room farce into tragedy.

Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn and his wife Troy are relaxing at a night club. At the table next to theirs is the party of George Settinger, marquis of Pastern and Bagott. All are waiting for the feature of the floor show. Part of the performance calls for Lord Pastern to fire a gun full of blanks at a band member and for the latter to slump and fall and be borne out by waiters, a wreath over his heart, playing dead. But something goes terribly wrong.

Inspector Roderick Alleyn glimpses from a train the shocking scene of a murder in progress. Thus begins his exploration of the Chateau of the Silver Goat, where death threatens a spinster—and even Alleyn's own son.

The village of South Mardian always observes the winter solstice with an ancient, mystical sword dance, complete with costumed performers. But for one of them, the excitement proves too heady, and his decapitation turns the fertility rite into a pageant of death. Now Inspector Roderick Alleyn must penetrate not only the mysteries of folklore, but the secrets and sins of an eccentric group which includes a surly blacksmith, a domineering dowager, and a not-so-simple village idiot.

An English manor house on the moors: an ideal setting for a murder—and for one of Ngaio Marsh's classic murder mysteries. The occasion is a Christmas party hosted by Mr. Hilary Bill-Tasman, landed proprietor of Halberds Manor and authority on antiques. Attending the festivities are a number of unusual characters, several of whom are perfectly logical candidates for murderer—and one of whom will elude the most prescient listener until tracked down by the indefatigable Inspector Roderick Alleyn, whose wife, Troy, innocently involved him in all these sinister goings-on in the first place.

When the president of Ng'ombwana proposes to dispense with the usual security arrangements on an official visit to London, his old schoolmate, Chief Superintendent Alleyn, is called in to try to persuade him otherwise. Alleyn does so. However, an assassin does strike, and Alleyn discovers a wealth of suspects residing in the very shadow of the embassy.

Young Ricky Alleyn has come to the picturesque fishing village of Deep Cove to write. Though the sleepy little town offers few diversions, Ricky manages to find the most distracting one of all: murder. For in a muddy ditch, he sees a dead equestrienne whose last leap was anything but an accident. And when Ricky himself disappears, the case becomes a horse of a different color for his father, Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Legendary novelist Ngaio Marsh was made a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America and was named Dame Commander, Order of the British Empire, during the course of her career. Pull up a chair and get swept away by her brilliant storytelling.

Death on the Air and Other Stories serves as the perfect introduction to Ngaio Marsh and her creation, Inspector Roderick Alleyn, or as a nostalgic journey for their many fans. The book concludes with a script written for the television series Crown Court.