Roderick Alleyn
36 books in seriesA Man Lay Dead Summary

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Book 1
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A Man Lay Dead
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Wealthy Sir Hubert Handesley's original and lively weekend house parties are deservedly famous. To amuse his guests, he has devised a new form of the fashionable Murder Game, in which a guest is secretly selected to commit a 'murder' in the dark, and everyone assembles to solve the crime. But when the lights go up this time, there is a real corpse....
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excellent as always
- By Michelle C on 05-04-17
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A Man Lay Dead
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Release date: 28-01-16
- Language: English
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Book 2
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Enter a Murderer
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The crime scene was the stage of the Unicorn Theatre, when a prop gun fired a very real bullet; the victim was an actor clawing his way to stardom using bribery instead of talent; and the suspects included two unwilling girlfriends and several relieved blackmail victims. The stage is set for one of Roderick Alleyn's most baffling cases.
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A great mystery
- By Keithj on 17-02-16
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Enter a Murderer
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 3
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The Nursing Home Murder
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Sir John Phillips, the Harley Street surgeon, and his beautiful nurse, Jane Harden, are almost too nervous to operate. The emergency case on the table before them is the Home Secretary - and they both have very good, personal reasons to wish him dead. Within hours he does die, although the operation itself was a complete success, and Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn must find out why....
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A great listen
- By Juanita Fogarty on 13-05-18
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The Nursing Home Murder
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Release date: 28-01-16
- Language: English
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Book 4
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Death in Ecstasy
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The poison was cyanide, slipped into the sacred wine of ecstasy just before it was presented to Miss Cara Quayne at the House of the Sacred Flame. The victim was a deeply religious initiate who had trained for a month for her last ceremony. She was also a very beautiful woman.... The suspects were the other initiates and the high priest. All claimed they were above earthly passions. But Cara Quayne had provoked lust, jealousy - and murder.
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Good plot ruined by an awful narrator
- By Gen S on 08-07-20
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Death in Ecstasy
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Release date: 09-11-15
- Language: English
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Book 5
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Vintage Murder
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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A touring theatre company in New Zealand forms the basis of one of Marsh’s most ambitious and innovative novels. New Zealand theatrical manager Alfred Meyer wanted to celebrate his wife’s birthday in style. The piece de résistance would be the jeroboam of champagne which would descend gently into a nest of fern and coloured lights on the table, set up on stage after the performance. But something went horribly wrong. Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn witnessed it himself.
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Love the books but this didn't work for me
- By Cat on 18-09-20
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Vintage Murder
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 6
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Artists in Crime
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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One of Ngaio Marsh’s most famous murder mysteries, which introduces Inspector Alleyn to his future wife, the irrepressible Agatha Troy. It started as a student exercise, the knife under the drape, the model’s pose chalked in place. But before Agatha Troy, artist and instructor, returns to the class, the pose has been reenacted in earnest: the model is dead, fixed forever in one of the most dramatic poses Troy has ever seen. It’s a difficult case for Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn.
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Brilliantly read
- By Ms Jane E. Knight on 02-12-15
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Artists in Crime
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 7
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Death in a White Tie
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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A body in the back of a taxi begins an elegantly constructed mystery, perhaps the finest of Marsh’s 1930s novels. The season had begun. Débutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas, dinners, balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that something was up. He had already planted his friend, Lord Robert Gospell, at the scene. But someone else got there first....
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Terrible recording
- By Arthur on 15-12-15
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Death in a White Tie
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 8
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Overture to Death
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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It was planned as an act of charity: a new piano for the parish hall, an amusing play to finance the gift. But its execution was doomed when Miss Campanula sat down to play. A chord was struck, a shot rang out and Miss Campanula was dead. A case of sinister infatuation for the brilliant Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn.
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Charming period piece
- By MS P WILSON on 01-07-16
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Overture to Death
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 9
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Death at the Bar
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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A classic Ngaio Marsh novel in which a game of darts in an English pub has gruesome consequences. At the Plume of Feathers in south Devon one midsummer evening, eight people are gathered together in the taproom. They are in the habit of playing darts, but on this occasion an experiment takes the place of the usual game - a fatal experiment which calls for investigation.
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Another great Marsh story.
- By iiiio on 30-10-19
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Death at the Bar
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 10
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Surfeit of Lampreys
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Ngaio Marsh’s most popular novel begins when a young New Zealander’s first contact with the English gentry is the body of Lord Wutherford - with a meat skewer through the eye.... The Lampreys had plenty of charm - but no cash. They all knew they were peculiar - and rather gloried in it. The double and triple charades, for instance, with which they would entertain their guests - like rich but awful Uncle Gabriel, who was always such a bore.
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Marsh joy
- By Jean the Bean on 11-12-16
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Surfeit of Lampreys
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Release date: 15-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 11
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Death and the Dancing Footman
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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A winter weekend ends in snowbound disaster in a novel which remains a favourite among Marsh readers. It began as an entertainment: eight people, many of them enemies, gathered for a winter weekend by a host with a love for theatre. They would be the characters in a drama that he would devise. It ended in snowbound disaster. Everyone had an alibi - and most had motives as well. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn, when he finally arrived, knew it all hung on Thomas, the dancing footman....
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Not much Alleyn in it.
- By Keithj on 26-06-16
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Death and the Dancing Footman
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 12
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Colour Scheme
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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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. But who actually did?
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Good old fashioned crime!
- By M. Hands on 06-01-15
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Colour Scheme
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Release date: 15-08-01
- Language: English
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Colour Scheme
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Maurice Questing was left to die in a pool of boiling mud. Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that any number of people could have killed him: the English exiles he'd hated, the New Zealanders he'd despised or the Maoris he'd insulted. Even the spies he'd thwarted - if he wasn't a spy himself.
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Not Sure How To Rate This!
- By Carôle on 22-06-16
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Colour Scheme
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 13
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Died in the Wool
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Ngaio Marsh returns to her New Zealand roots to transplant the classic country house murder mystery to an upland sheep station on South Island - and produces one of her most exotic and intriguing novels. One summer evening in 1942, Flossie Rubrick, MP, one of the most formidable women in New Zealand, goes to her husband’s wool shed to rehearse a patriotic speech - and disappears.
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Ruined by the narration
- By LH, England on 01-04-18
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Died in the Wool
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 14
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Final Curtain
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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A country house murder, artistic insight and the postwar reunion of Alleyn and Troy combine in Ngaio Marsh’s wittiest and most readable novel. Agatha Troy, world-famous portrait painter, is inveigled into accepting a commission to paint the 70-year-old Sir Henry Ancred, Bart., the Grand Old Man of the stage. But just as she has completed her portrait, the old actor dies.
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Reader thinks it a pantomime.
- By EGR on 02-02-16
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Final Curtain
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 15
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Swing, Brother, Swing
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Lord Pastern fired his revolver. The figure in the spotlight fell, and the coup-de-theatre had become murder. Could Inspector Alleyn believe Pastern had let hatred of his future son-in-law go too far? Or would the tangle of jealousies and blackmail among the guests reveal another murderer?
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Swing Brother Swing
- By Barbara Hembling on 17-04-16
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Swing, Brother, Swing
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 16
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Opening Night
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Dreams of stardom had lured Martyn Tarne from faraway New Zealand to make the dreary, soul-destroying round of West End agents and managers in search of work. The Vulcan Theatre had been her last forlorn hope, and now, driven by sheer necessity, she was glad to accept the humble job of dresser to its leading lady. And then came the eagerly awaited opening night.
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Well performed - an excellent tale.
- By F. Baker on 06-11-21
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Opening Night
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 17
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Spinsters in Jeopardy
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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A classic Ngaio Marsh mystery thriller combining drugs and sacrifice. High in the mountains stands the magnificent Saracen fortress, home of the mysterious Mr. Oberon, leader of a coven of witches. It is not the historic castle, however, that intrigues Roderick Alleyn, on holiday with his family, but the suspicion that a huge drugs ring operates from within its ancient portals. But before the holiday is over, someone else has stumbled upon the secret.
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poor
- By Brenda on 22-03-16
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Spinsters in Jeopardy
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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Book 18
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Scales of Justice
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The lives of the inhabitants of Swevenings are disrupted only by a fierce competition to catch the Old Un, a monster trout known to dwell in a beautiful stream which winds past their homes. Then one of their small community is found brutally murdered; beside him is the freshly killed trout. Both died by violence - but Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn's murder investigation seems to be much more interested in the fish.... Scales of Justice was first published in 1955.
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Good story
- By Sybil on 28-02-16
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Scales of Justice
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Release date: 28-01-16
- Language: English
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Book 19
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Off with His Head
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Pagan revelry and morris dancing in the middle of a very cold winter set the scene for one of Ngaio Marsh’s most fascinating murder mysteries. When the pesky Anna Bünz arrives at Mardian to investigate the rare survival of folk dancing still practised there, she quickly antagonizes the villagers. But Mrs Bünz is not the only source of friction - two of the other enthusiasts are also spoiling for a fight.
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Not the best
- By Ruth on 30-01-22
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Off with His Head
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Release date: 01-10-15
- Language: English
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