A Man Lay Dead

Ngaio Marsh was one of the queens (she has been called the empress) of Englandʼs Golden Age of mystery fiction. And in true Golden Age fashion, her Inspector Alleyn series opens with, yes, a country-house party between the two world wars—servants bustling, gin flowing, the gentlemen in dinner jackets, the ladies all slink and smolder. Even more delicious: The host, Sir Hubert Handesley, has invented a new and especially exciting version of that beloved parlor entertainment, The Murder Game. It is not until a real body turns up actually dead that we meet Inspector Alleyn for the first time. Unusually for the series, the book is told entirely from the perspective of Nigel Bathgate, who will become a recurring character and occasional Dr. Watson to Alleyn's Sherlock Holmes. And speaking of Holmes: Inspector Alleyn is a fan.