Ngaio Marsh

Better Than the Last Ones, With a Side of Homophobia

Death in Ecstasy by Ngaio Marsh

March 16, 2026 by esmemoria Leave a Comment

I pick up Ngaio Marsh’s books when I want an old fashioned mystery that isn’t an Agatha Christie (though no one beats Christie in this genre, period). However, they keep letting me down, though they are certainly inoffensive for the most part. The last two Marsh books I reviewed were rather dull. Marsh’s Death in Ecstasy was better, although still not Christie caliber. Nigel Bathgate, journalist and similarly dim Hastings to Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn’s Poirot, finds himself at a mysterious religious service at a place […]

Cozy Mysteries that Fall Flat

Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh

The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh

July 8, 2024 by esmemoria Leave a Comment

I am an Agatha Christie fanatic and have pretty much read all her books. In my search to read more books like Christie’s, I’ve come across Ngaio Marsh, a writer from New Zealand. Unfortunately, she is missing that special something that Christie has. Marsh’s books Enter a Murderer and The Nursing Home Murder are straight marches from murder to revelation. The former is set in a theater house, while the latter is in the mentioned nursing home. Each book is filled with so many characters […]

A Rather Odd Little Collection

Collected Short Mysteries by Ngaio Marsh

November 26, 2021 by esmemoria Leave a Comment

Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand mystery writer who is often compared to Agatha Christie. Her signature detective, Roderick Alleyn, is not as much a caricature as Hercule Poirot (whom I love, but is decidedly a comical figure). Alleyn is steady, mild-mannered, and modest. He is the best part of Marsh’s Collected Short Mysteries, a short book featuring a few mysteries, a teleplay and some oddities. I enjoyed this collection, but there isn’t an awful lot to say about it. There are some standard short […]

Black sheep and stage fright

December 4, 2014 by drmllz Leave a Comment

I can never decide whether Ngaio Marsh’s Died in the Wool (1945) has one of the silliest or best detective fiction titles I have ever seen, and there are a lot of bad ones out there (ahem, Charlaine Harris). The story seems to be constructed around the pun; the dead body of a lady sheep farmer and member of parliament in New Zealand is found rather mashed up in…a pack of wool. It’s like calling a book Bloody Mary and having the main character be […]

Malin
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
In my book club, when we have pretty much come to the agreement that if the protagonists are still teenagers...
katie71483
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
Like so many others here, I'm a sucker for Tamora Pierce. Is Robin McKinley YA? Because I love her books,...
Tracy
on Interesting From an Intellectual Standpoint
I didn’t find it funny, and I’m not sure if my sense of humor doesn’t mesh with his or if...
Jen K
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
Oh, see I definitely read it as, “give your teens this magic school book instead.” Maybe because I remember The...
wicherwill
on CBR Diversion – YAY for YA – Genre Discussion
Interesting with Scholomance, I very much read it as the adult book for former YA magic school book readers

Help Our Mission