Ngaio Marsh has 37 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 15 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 60 ratings. The most-rated is Artists in Crime.
Artists in Crime
Summary
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. How can he believe that the woman he loves is a murderess? And yet no one can be above suspicion....
©1938 Original Text of 1938 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
A Man Lay Dead
Summary
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....
©1934 Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Overture to Death
Summary
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.
©1939 Original Text of 1939 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Tied Up in Tinsel
Summary
Christmastime in an isolated country house and, following a flaming row in the kitchen, there’s murder inside. When a much disliked visiting servant disappears without trace after playing Santa Claus, foul play is at once suspected - and foul play it proves to be. Only suspicion falls not on the staff but on the guests, all so unimpeachably respectable that the very thought of murder in connection with any of them seems almost heresy. When Superintendent Roderick Alleyn returns unexpectedly from a trip to Australia, it is to find his beloved wife in the thick of an intriguing mystery....
©1972 Original Text of 1972 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
The Nursing Home Murder
Summary
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....
©1935 Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Death in a White Tie
Summary
The London season has begun. But while debutantes and chaperones plan their luncheons and balls a deadly blackmailer is stalking the highest echelons of society. Naturally, it falls to charming, aloof Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn - son of Lady Alleyn - to investigate the case. He has already planted his close friend Lord Robert at the scene. But someone else got to him first.... Death in a White Tie was first published in 1938 and is perhaps the finest of Marsh's 1930s novels - elegantly constructed, witty and marvellously entertaining. Please note: This is a vintage recording. The audio quality may not be up to modern day standards.
©1938 Original Text of 1938 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Vintage Murder
Summary
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 onstage after the performance. But something went horribly wrong. Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn witnessed it himself. Was Meyer’s death the product of Maori superstitions? Or something much more down to earth?
©1937 Original Text of 1937 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Surfeit of Lampreys
Summary
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. The Lampreys thought if they jollied him up he would bail them out - yet again. Instead Uncle Gabriel met a violent end. And Chief Inspector Alleyn had to work our which of them killed him....
©1941 Original Text of 1941 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Grave Mistake
Summary
A spa stay turns into a homicidal holiday.... A bit snobbish and a trifle high strung, Sybil Foster prides herself on owning the finest estate in Upper Quintern and hiring the best gardener. In fact she is rapturous over the new asparagus beds when a visit from her unwelcome stepson sends her scurrying to a chic spa for a rest cure, a liaison with the spa's director...and an apparent suicide. Her autopsy holds one surprise, a secret drawer a second. And Inspector Roderick Alleyn, CID, digging about Upper Quintern, may unearth still a third...deeply buried motive for murder.
©1978 Original Text of 1978 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Enter a Murderer
Summary
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....
©1935 Original Text of 1935 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Clutch of Constables
Summary
A classic Ngaio Marsh novel which features blood-curdling murders in the confines of a riverboat, the Zodiac, cruising through Constable country. 'He looks upon the murders that he did in fact perform as tiresome and regrettable necessities', reflected Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn on the international crook known as 'the Jampot'. But it was Alleyn’s wife, Troy, who knew 'the Jampot' best: she had shared close quarters with him on the tiny pleasure steamer Zodiac, on a cruise along the peaceful rivers of 'Constable country'. And it was she who knew something was badly wrong even before Alleyn was called in to solve the two murders onboard....
©1968 Original Text of 1968 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Died in the Wool
Summary
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. Three weeks later she turns up at an auction – packed inside one of her own bales of wool and very, very dead....
©1945 Original Text of 1945 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Death and the Dancing Footman
Summary
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....
©1942 Original Text of 1942 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Spinsters in Jeopardy
Summary
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. And Mr. Oberon decides his strange and terrible rituals require a human sacrifice....
©1954 Original Text of 1954 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Opening Night
Summary
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. To Martyn the night brought a strange turn of the wheel of fortune - but to one distinguished member of the cast it was to bring sudden and unforeseen death....
©1951 Original Text of 1951 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Last Ditch
Summary
Rickie Alleyn, son of the famed detective Roderick Alleyn, had taken to the peaceful Channel Island village of Deep Cove to write his book. However, soon enough the tedium of provincial life threatens to send him packing - until, that is, he finds a dead stablehand, and the sleepy community's world is upturned. His father is called to take proceedings into hand, but as a darker side to island life emerges, one of illegal drugs and smuggling, Rickie goes missing. Will Ngaio Marsh's stalwart detective be able to find his son in time?
©1977 Original Text of 1977 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Murder for Christmas
Summary
Ah, the pleasures of Christmas...the hanging of greens, the traditional feast, the gathering families, a few secrets in the air...and a bit of murder, conspiracy, and theft. The holiday season seems to inspire the imagination of the best mystery writers, and their talents shine here in these delightful tales of Yuletide crime. So seize a few quiet hours in this busiest of seasons to enjoy their sleigh full of mysterious treasures, here with the finest of flair. "Death on Christmas" by Stanley Ellin - A lawyer visits his reclusive clients on Christmas Eve. "The Necklace of Pearls" by Dorothy L. Sayers - Traditional party games in a fine old manor house are interrupted by the disappearance of family treasures. "The Case is Altered" by Margery Allingham - In the shadows of a country estate aquiver with Christmas bustle, Mr. Albert Campion discerns activity that could be young love...or blackmail. "Cambric Tea" by Marjorie Bowen - An unpleasant aristocrat swears that his wife is poisoning him, and demands the intervention of a young doctor. "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The game is afoot! And the world's greatest consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, is on the trail of the diamond thief who's hidden his booty in a Christmas goose. "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" by Agatha Christie - Persuaded against his will to enjoy the pleasures of an old-fashioned English country Christmas, Hercule Poirot is on the trail of a rare and priceless ruby which has disappeared under circumstances embarrassing to its princely owner. "Death on Air" by Ngaio Marsh - Septimus Tonks has been found dead of electrocution on Christmas morning; Chief Detective, Inspector Roderick Alleyn, must determine whether it's an accident, a suicide...or murder. "Back for Christmas" by John Collier - Hermione Carpenter manages everything beautifully, and has promised to bring her husband, the doctor, back to England for Christmas, but he has other plans....
©1982 The Mysterious Press (P)1989, 2017 Dove Books-On-Tape / Phoenix Books
Final Curtain
Summary
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. The dramatic circumstances of his death are such that Scotland Yard is called in - in the person of Troy’s long-absent husband, Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn....
©1947 Original Text of 1947 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Scales of Justice
Summary
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.
©1955 Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Colour Scheme
Summary
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...
©1943 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks