Ngaio Marsh: A Contemporary of Agatha Christie

Every fan of vintage mysteries has heard of Agatha Christie. Most have also heard of Josephine Tey and Dorothy Sayers. For some reason, few have heard of another contemporary of Christie’s, Ngaio Marsh. Although Ngaio Marsh’s novels were incredibly popular during her lifetime, Marsh has not gotten the recognition that Christie has. New York magazine wrote about Ngaio Marsh:  “It’s time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around.”  I decided to read Ngaio Marsh’s first three books to see for myself.

A Man Lay Dead: Inspector Roderick Alleyn 1 This is Ngaio Marsh’s debut novel. It opens with journalist Nigel Bathgate attending a quintessential English country-house party. By the end of the weekend, as the book title suggests, a man lay dead. Enter detective inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard to find out whodunnit. He must sort through an array of interesting characters to find the guilty party.

This is very much a first novel. It’s definitely entertaining, but the characters are not very deep and in some cases feel two-dimensional. It’s not yet at the Agatha Christie level of excellence. However, I can recommend it for a fun, fast read with a dive into England in the 1930s.

Enter a Murderer: Inspector Roderick Alleyn 2 Marsh’s second novel begins with Inspector Alleyn attending a play with his friend Nigel Bathgate. As you may recall, Nigel Bathgate was in the first novel. While Nigel and Inspector Alleyn are at the theater, one of the actors is killed and the list of suspects is long and varied. In Marsh’s second novel, there is a marked improvement in her writing. Her characters are more fleshed out than in her debut novel and the murder mystery that Inspector Alleyn must solve is clever.

The Nursing Home Murder: Inspector Roderick Alleyn 3 Marsh’s third novel involves the suspicious death of an important public official. It is alleged the official was killed in a private hospital, or as it was known in the 1930’s England, a “nursing home.” As with all of Marsh’s mysteries,  Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard is the main character.  He has to sort through the many suspects from the spurned girlfriend to the communist nurse who disagreed vehemently with the victim’s politics. I enjoyed another clever mystery, but even more it was an interesting look at England in the mid-1930s. I’d heartily recommend all three of these books, but none of them were quite as good as Agatha Christie’s novels in my opinion. However, Marsh wrote over 30 novels and if her first three are any gauge, she only kept getting better.

I have already purchased the fourth in the series, and plan to continue my very enjoyable research.