"For one unlucky Member of Parliament, a simple visit to the hospital (the 'nursing home' of the title) proves fatal. But as Inspector Alleyn will discover, any number of people had reason to help the gentleman to his just reward, including the sour surgeon, his besotted nurse, a resentful wife, and a cabinet full of political rivals."--P. [4] of cover.

The village of South Mardian likes the old ways. The very old ways. This may be 1957, but South Mardian still features a blacksmith, a village idiot, and an elaborate fertility ritual performed at the winter solstice. There's squabbling, of course, and worse-like when one of the ritual's main players is found beheaded, everything north of his neck having been neatly lopped off by a ritual sword. Inspector Alleyn does have to contain a certain incredulous...

In Vintage Murder, Ngaio Marsh transports readers to the lush vineyards and scenic landscapes of New Zealand, where Inspector Roderick Alleyn finds himself entangled in a murder investigation while on holiday. The story takes a dark turn during a celebratory theatrical party, when a bottle of champagne is rigged to cause a deadly accident. What starts as an evening of joy and laughter for the theater troupe ends in tragedy when one of their own is...

A high-society homicide is the talk of the London season . . ."Marsh's writing is a pleasure." —The Seattle Times
It's debutante season in London, and that means giggles and tea-dances, white dresses and inappropriate romances . . ..and much too much champagne. And, apparently, a blackmailer, which is where Inspector Roderick Alleyn comes in. The social whirl is decidedly not Alleyn's environment, so he brings in an assistant...

Agatha Troy (the artist wife of Inspector Alleyn) has a special fondness for Constable s work, so she jumps at the chance to take a river-cruise through Constable country in the east of England. Her enthusiasm dims a little when it becomes clear that the ticket became available at the last minute only because a previous passenger was murdered, it seems, by a notorious international criminal known as the Jampot. The murder's don't stop there - and...

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...

Ng'ombwana is a (fictional) African nation to have emerged in the wake of colonialism; as it happens, its President is Inspector Alleyn's old school chum, the "Boomer."

Ricky Alleyn perhaps you know his father, Roderick? first appeared in Spinsters in Jeopardy, as a child. He s now 21, and has taken himself off to a secluded island to write a novel. Or think about writing a novel. Or look for distractions so he can avoid writing a novel. The distractions abound, mostly in the form of colorful local characters (and a rather dishy one), so all is beer and skittles (well, except for the novel) until Ricky stumbles across...

London's chattering about a new playhouse and spreading theater gossip until a murder takes center-stage.

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 or the Maoris he'd insulted. Even the spies he'd thwarted-- if he wasn't a spy himself.