Rating: 
Summary: A very well-done Golden-Age mystery
Review: "A Man Lay Dead" is a tight, well-written, and fun little murder mystery. It isn't a very long book, and reads quite fast, so it serves its purpose well as a quick and cozy get-a-way to 1930s England and the crime that seemed to run rampant there in the world of detective fiction. The set-up is deliciously wicked. A group of people gather at an old country estate for a game of Murder. Someone is secretly selected to play the murderer, and then at some point during the weekend has to pick a person to kill (not for real, of course). Well, someone takes the play-acting a little too far, and a man does, indeed, end up laying dead. The characters are delightful representations of 1930's stock murder suspects, and they are all well-drawn by the author. The protagonist, Detective-Inspector Alleyn, is quite an "all-business" kind of man, but his character develops remarkably, and naturally, well as the story unfolds. Some of the tedious things he does early-on make sense by book's end. This was a very enjoyable mystery. I only deduct one star due to its rather superfluous nature (it's not a classic of the genre, or anything), however, in my opinion, it does everything a detective story should, and in the best possible way. Short, sweet, and highly entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: The birth of a detective
Review: A Man Lay Dead is the first appearance of Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Alleyn is Ngaio Marsh's "handsome" creation who went on to star in over 30 novels and short stories. Marsh has often been overlooked in the mystery genre, but in my opinion she is one of the very best. Her wit, characters, and tight story-telling make all of her books very enjoyable to read. The murder may seem to be a little difficult to solve yourself, but as you get used to Marsh's tools and style, you quickly catch on and start to think like her hero. I highly recommend this book as a great introduction to Marsh's wonderful world.
Rating:
Summary: The birth of a detective
Review: A Man Lay Dead is the first appearance of Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Alleyn is Ngaio Marsh's "handsome" creation who went on to star in over 30 novels and short stories. Marsh has often been overlooked in the mystery genre, but in my opinion she is one of the very best. Her wit, characters, and tight story-telling make all of her books very enjoyable to read. The murder may seem to be a little difficult to solve yourself, but as you get used to Marsh's tools and style, you quickly catch on and start to think like her hero. I highly recommend this book as a great introduction to Marsh's wonderful world.
Rating:
Summary: The birth of a detective
Review: A Man Lay Dead is the first appearance of Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Alleyn is Ngaio Marsh's "handsome" creation who went on to star in over 30 novels and short stories. Marsh has often been overlooked in the mystery genre, but in my opinion she is one of the very best. Her wit, characters, and tight story-telling make all of her books very enjoyable to read. The murder may seem to be a little difficult to solve yourself, but as you get used to Marsh's tools and style, you quickly catch on and start to think like her hero. I highly recommend this book as a great introduction to Marsh's wonderful world.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Debut
Review: A preposterous tale that can only be excused by the fact that it was the author's apprentice work, obviously to Sayers and Christie. The situation is wholly generic: murder done under cover of `The Murder Game,' and all the suspects have cast-iron alibis. The murderer's is clever rather than convincing, but even this is undone by the complete absence of clues. It is not, however, the central murder that damns the novel, but the sheer badness of the extraneous elements. The facetiousness is embarrassing: Alleyn and Bathgate are at the nadir of their ingenuousness, giggling coyly like a pair of schoolgirls, while the passages with grubby brats are irritating in the extreme. The final straw is the intrusive and irrelevant "Russian element," which badly dates the tale; indeed, the preposterous bratsvo-torture scenes are reminiscent of Walling and Wallace at their worst. The previous owner showed his disappointment by scribbling Cyrillics in the margins.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Debut
Review: A preposterous tale that can only be excused by the fact that it was the author's apprentice work, obviously to Sayers and Christie. The situation is wholly generic: murder done under cover of 'The Murder Game,' and all the suspects have cast-iron alibis. The murderer's is clever rather than convincing, but even this is undone by the complete absence of clues. It is not, however, the central murder that damns the novel, but the sheer badness of the extraneous elements. The facetiousness is embarrassing: Alleyn and Bathgate are at the nadir of their ingenuousness, giggling coyly like a pair of schoolgirls, while the passages with grubby brats are irritating in the extreme. The final straw is the intrusive and irrelevant "Russian element," which badly dates the tale; indeed, the preposterous bratsvo-torture scenes are reminiscent of Walling and Wallace at their worst. The previous owner showed his disappointment by scribbling Cyrillics in the margins.
Rating:
Summary: What a wonderful start
Review: In 1934 Ngaio Marsh gave us the first of a series which for lovers of the English cozy deserves to be known better than I think it is. This, the first in the series gets things off to a great start. True, this may not be Ms. Marsh's best crafted pure mystery; she got better with time and the plot here is so much a paradigm for the genre that it is at least now a cliche. But Roderick Alleyn arrives on the scene as an interesting and believable centerpiece with enough of an enigma about him to make us want to know more. I have read a half dozen others before coming to this one but wish I had started here.
Rating:
Summary: What a wonderful start
Review: In 1934 Ngaio Marsh gave us the first of a series which for lovers of the English cozy deserves to be known better than I think it is. This, the first in the series gets things off to a great start. True, this may not be Ms. Marsh's best crafted pure mystery; she got better with time and the plot here is so much a paradigm for the genre that it is at least now a cliche. But Roderick Alleyn arrives on the scene as an interesting and believable centerpiece with enough of an enigma about him to make us want to know more. I have read a half dozen others before coming to this one but wish I had started here.
Rating:
Summary: Far superior to Christie.
Review: Ngaio (Nye-O) Marsh is by far the greatest mystery writer to grace this earth. In this, her first book, she introduces her detective, Roderick Alleyn. Her attention to detail, incredible ability to describe the minutae of her locales, and willingness to provide the reader with all necessary information to solve the mystery (and still make it very difficult to do so) are just a few of attributes. If you only read one Marsh, make it "A Man Lay Dead."
Rating:
Summary: A Matter of Taste
Review: This is not my favorite Ngaio Marsh novel. One of the things I like about her later books is where they break from the more classic chamber mystery form. This, her first book, (while still being very readable and enjoyable) is much more in the line of the tried and true formula. The characters are, as always, interesting and well-drawn; the red herrings are sufficiently misleading. Solid all the way around.
|
