Roderick Alleyn mysteries
This classic from the Golden Age of British mystery opens during a country-house party between the two world wars—servants bustling, gin flowing, the gentlemen in dinner jackets, the ladies all slink and smolder. Even more delicious: The host, Sir Hubert Handesley, has invented...
In this thrilling yarn, the art of detection gets clouded by desire.
It was a bizarre pose for beautiful model Sonia Gluck—and her last. For in the draperies of her couch lay a fatal dagger, and behind her murder lies all the intrigue and acid-etched temperament of an artist's colony. Called in to investigate, Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn thinks this is just another routine case...for now. The model was killed in full view
...After an evening of friendly darts and vintage brandy, a distinguished, although amorous, barrister is in no condition to drive—or walk. The poor fellow's expired, leaving one less lawyer in the world.
Called in to investigate the alleged accident, Inspector Roderick Alleyn wonders about the rules of this friendly bar game. While the barflies swear that the untimely death was caused by a dart that punctured the victim's finger, Alleyn
...11) Colour Scheme
Even down in New Zealand, war-fueled spy fever is running wild. Near the decaying sulphur springs of Colonel and Mrs. Claire, the strange lights and signals being sent to foreign ships at sea indicate that there's a spy in their midst.
Soon an even darker sign appears: a health-seeker with untoward intentions meets his demise in the boiling mud baths. Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, far from home on a wartime quest for German
...12) Died in the Wool
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.
Parliament member Florence Rubrick has the wool pulled over her eyes—quite literally. She's been found dead, her body pressed into a bale of wool.
When Inspector Roderick Alleyn pays a visit to her New Zealand country home, he
...18) Death of a Fool
A ritual dance becomes a murderous mambo...
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 that includes
...When the President of Ng'ombwana proposes to dispense with the usual security arrangements on an official visit to London, his old school mate, Chief Superintendent Alleyn, is called in to try to persuade him otherwise.
Alleyn performs his mission so successfully...