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Rating: 
Summary: Top of the genre.
Review: An example of Marsh at her best (although not in the top 5, hence the 4 star rating) it contains every element that's wonderful about the Inspector Alleyn series. Originally published in 1939, OTD is set in a town run roughshod over by a pair of bloody-minded spinsters. When one of them is killed in a particularly fitting way, it's all to easy to find someone who'd be willing to kill both. Alleyn has to sort the prejudice from the truth to catch a killer in this remarkable classic mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: Deadly Rachmaninov
Review: Death by a Rachmaninov Prelude is surely one of Marsh's most inspired murder methods. In addition, we have a great village setting, a good mystery plot and Marsh's typical wit. For Christie fans unfamiliar with Marsh, this one is a great introduction.
Rating:
Summary: Deadly Rachmaninov
Review: Death by a Rachmaninov Prelude is surely one of Marsh's most inspired murder methods. In addition, we have a great village setting, a good mystery plot and Marsh's typical wit. For Christie fans unfamiliar with Marsh, this one is a great introduction.
Rating:
Summary: howlingly funny - marsh at her best
Review: For Ngaio Marsh fans, this book is a must. The usual deft and scathing descriptions of small-town characters had me rolling on the floor. I can never play the Rachmaninoff opening bars again without collapsing in laughter. Tight plot, smoothly balanced progression to a classic Marsh finish. The book includes a sweet romantic sub-plot, handled nicely. Beware, if you are particularly sensitive about remarks that make fun of spinsters, you may not find this book as funny as I did.
Rating:
Summary: No One writes a puzzle mystery like Ms. Marsh.
Review: Ms. Marsh is definitely one of the top writers of the classic English puzzle mystery, and this book bears that out. I thought that I had read all Ngaio Marsh books years ago, and I was going to reread some of them, but when I looked I found that there were actually a few that I missed. This book was one of those. I couldn't believe how quickly I fell back into Roderick Alleyn and his sidekick Brer Fox. It was like meeting old friends. Alleyn is unique in the detective genre. He's very much a gentleman, but smart as a whip. Ms. Marsh also does the English village mystery in style. Her characters are realistic and believable, and it feels like you can picture them as you read. In this book one of the two main spinsters in the village is murdered, and when Alleyn investigates he finds there are numerous people with motives, but do they have the right victim? Was the wrong person killed? You have to read to find out.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Marsh Mystery I've Read (so far)!
Review: Overture to Death is Marsh's best for a few reasons: 1) The background of the murder (English village life) is extremely well drawn. 2) The characters are so well-defined, you feel as if you know them. 3) The method of murder is the cleverest I've seen yet, from Dame Marsh, and is completely plausible. One of the reasons that people look down on mystery novels, is that often they are about plot with scant attention paid to the literary aspects. Not so with Ngaio Marsh.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Marsh Mystery I've Read (so far)!
Review: Overture to Death is Marsh's best for a few reasons: 1) The background of the murder (English village life) is extremely well drawn. 2) The characters are so well-defined, you feel as if you know them. 3) The method of murder is the cleverest I've seen yet, from Dame Marsh, and is completely plausible. One of the reasons that people look down on mystery novels, is that often they are about plot with scant attention paid to the literary aspects. Not so with Ngaio Marsh.
Rating:
Summary: Dangerous Music Is A Special Treat!
Review: When an extremely clever booby trap dispatches a local pianist, Inspector Marsh must sort through the soap-opera hysteria surrounding the production of a small-town theatrical fund-raiser whose performers are more dramatic than the script: two elderly, neurotic women in hot pursuit of the widowed vicar, a pair of young lovers, a squire with an eye for the ladies, and a couple engaged in an affair that has scandalized the community. Marsh is at her best in this novel, very witty with her words and crafting memorable characters in a memorable setting. As in most Marsh novels, some readers will solve the crime before the conclusion--but where Marsh is concerned getting there is at least half the fun, and her works bear up under repeated readings. A special treat!
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