A pillar of Golden Age Crime Fiction, Dame Ngaio Marsh is one of New Zealand’s most prolific authors, and her Roderick Alleyn crime fiction series is extensive and widely popular. So, after taking so long to finally pick up one of her books, I grabbed A Man Lay Dead to dig into this crime fiction series. I thought I had it so many times, but alas my amateur sleuthing needs some polishing up because I did not see who the perpetrator was until the reveal!

At Sir Hubert Handesley’s country house party, five guests have gathered for the uproarious parlour game of “Murder.” Yet no one is laughing when the lights come up on an actual corpse, the good-looking and mysterious Charles Rankin. Scotland Yard’s Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives to find a complete collection of alibis, a missing butler, and an intricate puzzle of betrayal and sedition in the search for the key player in this deadly game.

Let’s start with the setting. A Man Lay Dead was published in 1934, so the narrative voice and style very strongly sits with that historical taste, dialogue, and framework. It almost reads like a historical fiction mystery novel, but this classic fiction novel is feels so elegant and sophisticated, it can’t be mistaken as anything but a classic crime mystery novel. Dame Ngaio Marsh was quoted saying she would “cringe at the thought of her first novel with its barely plausible story line, shallow characterisation and confined setting, but it was her entrée to crime fiction writing”, which I think is both admirable and relatable. I don’t think anyone could look back at the origins of their writing and not find holes or issues with it, even if the readers don’t mind so much. I have faith that the series picks up and delivers bangers after bangers once she found her rhythm with these novels.

And on that note, we have the plot of A Man Lay Dead. In retrospect, it is a little shallow, but the fact the characters aren’t all likeable, trustworthy, nor particularly outstanding makes the mystery element to it all the more intriguing. The Russian side plot in question was a fun and exciting change of pace to the otherwise slow-going revelations of the country house, but I think an important thing to note is that this novel doesn’t focus on Roderick Alleyn, instead focusing on one of the party guests, and as such the learnings of the investigations can’t be told to the reader in the same way given the character difference. I think it was a well executed story, but there were parts that felt a little dull or slow, but in all honesty it also kind of just came across as rich privileged people having a dinner party and trying to play detective, but suddenly there is actually a death and these people soon discover they know nothing of police work. It was a little funny, but I’m glad we will be getting different characters in the next one.

I quite enjoyed this crime mystery novel, and I love to see how Dame Ngaio Marsh plotted her stories. I have Enter a Murderer in my library requests and I am eagerly anticipating the rest of the series. I do know that at some point there will be a few novels set in New Zealand which will be an interesting twist. It will also be interesting to see how this series fairs to Agatha Christie’s Poirot series. If you are a fan of Agatha Christie’s work, I highly suggest you give Dame Ngaio Marsh’s books a look.