Cozy Mystery Corner discussion

The theme for March '18 is "Written Between 1900 and 1949." The featured series is Roderick Alleyn by Ngaio Marsh. The MC is a Scotland Yard police inspector with an upper-class background and education. Dame Ngaio Marsh, a native of New Zealand, wrote classic English detective novels for 50 years and is one of the grand dames of the first Golden Age of Mystery. The first book in the series is A Man Lay Dead.



Other books in the series are:



Enter a Murderer
The Nursing Home Murder
Death in Ecstasy
Vintage Murder
Artists in Crime
Death in a White Tie
Overture to Death
Death at the Bar
Death of a Peer
Death and the Dancing Footman
Colour Scheme
Died in the Wool
Final Curtain
A Wreath for Rivera
Night at the Vulcan
Spinsters in Jeopardy
Scales of Justice
Death of a Fool
Singing in the Shrouds
False Scent
Hand in Glove
Dead Water
Killer Dolphin
Clutch of Constables
When in Rome
Tied Up In Tinsel
Last Ditch
Black As He's Painted
A Grave Mistake
Photo Finish
Light Thickens

Discuss any books in the series in this thread.

This has been sitting on my to read list for so long! March is definitely the time to start it I guess. Thanks for choosing Ngaio Marsh.

Thanks go to Randa who picked the featured series for this month.

I read the first Roderick Alleyn mystery some time ago and have several others from this series in my TBR. No. 2 Enter a Murderer is at the top of the stack now.

I've read all the Roderick Alleyn mysteries at my state library when over 45 years ago. I know my library certainly didn't have as many as I see here. That was all they had.

Maybe one day I will start all over again in sequence as I don't remember which books I'd read.

In another group we are reading the first 12 over the year - we are up to The Nursing Home Murder so I will be reading that one :D

I have read some Ngaio Marsh out of order. It will be nice to start at the beginning. I have picked up a couple of three in a volume at my favourite second hand book store.

I started Enter a Murderer this weekend and am drawn in to the world of theater that is the setting for this book. I read in a bio of the author that she loved the theater - three of her books are set in that environ.

I found this blog post about the Golden Age of Detective Fiction interesting. Some of the reasons that traditional (aka cozy) mysteries became popular hold true for readers today - seeking order in the midst of disorder.

http://mysterypageturners.blogspot.co...

All of my appointments and events were cancelled yesterday - there were power outages and trees down after the snow storm. Had some extra time so I finished Enter a Murderer. Very good mystery with a twist at the end.

This Golden Age mystery focused on the puzzle - figuring out "whodunit". There was very little about the MC's personal life, something that has become a key feature in the modern cozies. The clues were there and I narrowed down the suspects but I wasn't sure who the culprit was until the big reveal... There is a classic scene at the end where Alleyn gathers all the suspects at the scene of the crime. You can just picture it. Definitely continuing with this series.

Just finished . Was a bit blasé about the book because I “knew” who dunnit, then changed my mind because it was so obvious, then found out I was right the first time. So all in all It turned out to be a good read.

Oh, I hope things get fixed again soon, Nell. Where I live it's only bleak; somewhat cold, not quite rainy and inconveniently windy.

Fortunately bleak, is excellent weather for mysteries and I really enjoyed A Man Lay Dead. While the actual solution was a bit far fetched in my opinion, I immensely enjoyed the book in general. Some of the descriptions are wonderfully vivid (take for example the car travel to the estate), the dialogues are fun and quippy, and the characters are quite elegantly fleshed out through their actions. For a Golden Age mystery there is also a surprising amount of action and unpleasantness. Keeping Ngaio Marsh's other occupation in mind, I'd probably describe it as: theatrical - which I mean in the best sense.

Just finished A Man Lay Dead. I enjoyed it but to be brutally honest, it wasn't up to my expectation. I might have been building up super high expectation, though, during the time I was thinking of reading this masterpiece series (?) by a legendary kiwi writer (*my husband is a kiwi so I might be a bit biased*). I still liked it, liked the characters, was a bit surprised at certain points, but finished with smile. I'm definitely reading a few more from this series and hope I get to love it more.

What is a "kiwi writer"?

I believe Kiwi it is another term for someone from New Zealand, so a kiwi writer is a New Zealander writer. If I am wrong, someone from New Zealand will inform me!

Nell wrote: "What is a "kiwi writer"?"

Emily is right, it means 'New Zealander'. It comes from this unique bird called 'Kiwi' inhabits only in New Zealand. It is a pretty common nickname used here in Australia!

A question to those who read this book (or the series):

(view spoiler)[So who do you think is the MC of this book/series? I felt toward Nigel more than Roderick Alleyn after reading this one book and not sure if Nigel appears in the whole series. I've just started the second one and Nigel appears from the very beginning though. (hide spoiler)]

Hey Jess,
(view spoiler)[If you translate MC to protagonist, Alleyn is, as he is the character who is driving the story forward. Even in the first part, when Alleyn has not yet appeared, Nigel doesn't do a thing to further or hinder the events. He is, however, the character from who's point of view most of the story is told - which makes Alleyn's quip about Nigel being his Watson amusing on two levels.

I'd venture a guess and say, that during the first part of the book, Rankin is actually the apparent protagonist, as he gets most of the events going; he introduces the dagger and his affair with Marjoirie as well as his continued bullying of Arthur provoke his subsequent murder. (hide spoiler)]

I will be honest with you all I wasn't thrilled with A Man Lay Dead. A lot of it was the older writing style of that time period. I know it a loved book by many but just didn't grab my interest. I wasn't interested in the characters or plot. Oh well I tried.

Anska wrote: "Hey Jess,
If you translate MC to protagonist, ..."

Thanks Anska, your explanation helps. I was simply thinking MC as someone who appears the most but probably taking it as 'protagonist' should be the right interpretation. Makes sense.

I read the second book of this series, Enter a Murderer. It was an interesting read, I couldn't figure out who dunnit till the end. However, I don't think this was the best read. There were some interesting scenes and plots but I feel like quite a bit was based on some luck / coincidence. Since I'm biased, I'm still going to try the books I own from this series and see if it gets better.