Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Death in a White Tie (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
    Unavailable
    Death in a White Tie (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
    Unavailable
    Death in a White Tie (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
    Ebook390 pages5 hours

    Death in a White Tie (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)

    By Ngaio Marsh

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 3, 2009
    ISBN9780007344451
    Unavailable
    Death in a White Tie (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)
    Author

    Ngaio Marsh

    Dame Ngaio Marsh was born in New Zealand in 1895 and died in February 1982. She wrote over 30 detective novels and many of her stories have theatrical settings, for Ngaio Marsh’s real passion was the theatre. She was both an actress and producer and almost single-handedly revived the New Zealand public’s interest in the theatre. It was for this work that the received what she called her ‘damery’ in 1966.

    Read more from Ngaio Marsh

    Related to Death in a White Tie (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Just good FRIENDS

      Nov 9, 2022

      Just good FRIENDS
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Girl on THE MOON

      Mar 10, 2021

      The Girl on THE MOON
      8 min read

    • Article

      Lady with A LUTE

      Aug 3, 2022

      Lady with A LUTE
      9 min read

    • Article

      More Fool HER

      Feb 10, 2021

      More Fool HER
      8 min read

    • Article

      Written In The STARS

      Oct 12, 2021

      Written In The STARS
      6 min read

    • Article

      Mysteries IN WOOD

      Nov 30, 2022

      Mysteries IN WOOD
      6 min read

    • Article

      Lady with A LUTE

      Aug 10, 2022

      Lady with A LUTE
      9 min read

    • Article

      Daughter’s DILEMMA

      Dec 29, 2021

      Daughter’s DILEMMA
      3 min read

    • Article

      Losing Battle

      Oct 30, 2020

      Losing Battle
      5 min read

    • Article

      AN EXCERPT FROM The First Line of Dante’s ‘Inferno’

      Dec 1, 2020

      Early forties, tall, self-possessed. Hiking in the woods in search of her missing sister. A young park ranger, late twenties. Pretty. Slim. Strong. The play is formatted like prose; however, it is intended for performance. If actors simply perform th

      15 min read

    • Article

      Secrets and LIES

      Mar 17, 2021

      Secrets and LIES
      6 min read

    • Article

      POISON ON Pink Paper

      Dec 23, 2019

      POISON ON Pink Paper
      8 min read

    • Article

      Pearls before SWINE

      Feb 9, 2022

      Pearls before SWINE
      5 min read

    • Article

      Marmalade SUMMER

      Sep 1, 2022

      Marmalade SUMMER
      5 min read

    • Article

      Deadly DAVID

      Feb 23, 2022

      Deadly DAVID
      3 min read

    • Article

      Green Ticket To Ride

      Feb 19, 2024

      Green Ticket To Ride
      8 min read

    • Article

      An unexpected GIFT

      Apr 12, 2023

      An unexpected GIFT
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Book Lover

      Jun 29, 2021

      The Book Lover
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ordinary People

      Feb 24, 2021

      Ordinary People
      11 min read

    • Article

      The little NIGHTINGALE

      Dec 21, 2022

      The little NIGHTINGALE
      9 min read

    • Article

      Just good FRIENDS

      Nov 2, 2022

      Just good FRIENDS
      8 min read

    • Article

      Just a Kiss

      Jun 4, 2020

      Just a Kiss
      6 min read

    • Article

      Luis Alberto Urrea

      Jun 12, 2023

      Luis Alberto Urrea
      12 min read

    • Article

      Long dark EVENINGS

      Nov 17, 2021

      Long dark EVENINGS
      3 min read

    • Article

      Every CLOUD

      Aug 31, 2022

      Every CLOUD
      6 min read

    Reviews for Death in a White Tie (The Ngaio Marsh Collection)

    4/5

    145 ratings13 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      A thoroughly enjoyable upper crust mystery in the style of Agatha Christie. Unfortunately Alleyn has to investigate the death of a good friend and Yard confident which makes the story more poignant.
    • 4/5
      I think this is the first Alleyn mystery where I genuinely felt for the victim, which helped greatly in my enjoyment of the story. It's the first one where you spend part of the book following the victim closely, too, and where Alleyn has personal feelings on the matter, both of which I think are relevant. I know that the trope of the personally involved detective can be exasperating -- and Alleyn even refers to it, in one of those unsubtle bits of meta -- but at least it's another way for the reader to engage with the case.The actual puzzle aspect of the story is more or less as usual: a character you wouldn't normally suspect ends up in it up to the neck, where the guy who looks like a sure thing is actually innocent. Still, the reasoning does make sense, all the timings match up, etc, so it makes perfect sense, which Ngaio Marsh is admittedly good at (apart from the weird mix of opportunism and premeditation in the crime in the first Alleyn book).As for Alleyn's personal life, well. I still can't help but feel he's a cut rate Wimsey. His relationship with Troy has some similar ups and downs to Wimsey's with Harriet, but we don't get to see as much interaction, as much of the push-and-pull they feel, and so it feels less compelling. I know I'm biased as a major fan of Sayers already, but I can't help the feeling.
    • 4/5
      A slow start setting the scene and painting the characters, but did give a good picture of bygone ball seasons and debutants coming out.
      Enjoyaable, clever solving of the crime with clues dropped along the way.
      Likeable gentleman Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn, CID.
    • 3/5
      I read the book a very long time ago, but just listened to the audiobook narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch. It's an old fashioned mystery, cleanly written and of its time, and Cumberbatch's smooth young English voice is perfect for it. A nice indulgence.
    • 2/5
      Around forty years ago, in my early teens, I devoured traditional mystery stories. I worked my way through one Agatha Christie novel after another, with that dogged obsessive urge to ‘complete the set’ which is common to boys. When I had finished all the Agatha Christie books I could lay my hands on, I moved on to Ngaio Marsh’s novels featuring her upper crust copper, Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Once again, after having started with Death at the Dolphin, selected at random from my parents’ bookshelves, I read one of her books after another.Looking back, I recognise now that I was a wholly undiscerning reader. I read those Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh books solely for the plots, and took everything at face value. Of course, now I recognise that there was a vast ferment of tacit social comment lying hidden in Agatha Christie’s stories, and when I have revisited some of them recently I have enjoyed her gentle satire of social conventions particularly in the largely rural settings that so many of them enjoy. In my teenage dalliance with Ngaio Marsh I was similarly oblivious to the settings, and the slightly wry commentary on the socially elevated circles in which so many of her stories were set. Coming back to them now, I feel that they have not aged as well as those of Agatha Christie. I struggled with this book, set against a context of debutantes’ balls and the coming out process. I don’t think that this was a judgement on that now archaic world itself, but more a difficulty accommodating the slightly smirking condescension with which Dame Ngaio portrayed it all. In Death in a White Tie, the plot develops very slowly. This, of course, is not necessarily a bad thing and initially came as a welcome relief to the tendency among today’s thrillers to pitch the reader headlong into an already developed situation. In this case, however, it seemed to move with glacial slowness, establishing in intricate detail a social circle in which a blackmailer was taking his toll on various targets among the debutantes’ mothers and guardians. I am by no means reluctant ti have a scene set carefully, but this was like watching a normally slow 3D printer on a work to rule protest.Inspector Alleyn was as decorous and discreet as ever, and the actual construction of the crime, and the manner in which he found the solution, seemed as sound and entertaining as it had forty-odd years ago. Unfortunately, I am not sure that the enjoyment afforded by the kernel of the plot was sufficient to outweigh the annoyance I found in the tone of the writing.
    • 4/5
      Sept. 2019 reread via my dad's Kindle:I realized soon upon reading this that I had indeed read it before & so I was quick to notice all the clues that pointed to the correct murderer. What I hadn't remembered was that the personal business between Alleyn and Troy that happens in this book - I do like Troy!
    • 4/5
      Having recently read biographies of Debra and Diana Mitford and being sick with sinusitis I decided to take the plunge into a fictional version of London Season between the wars and reread "Death in a White Tie". It's fascinating to see how well the outsider Marsh (she was a New Zealander) has captured the feel of the era of debutantes balls, chaperones, debs delights and it's underbelly of adultery, divorce, illegitimacy and remarriage. Things I thought far-fetched when I first read this story are rooted in reality! It's also a good murder-mystery with Roderick Alleyn seeking the help of Lord Robert "Bunchy" Gospell in identifying a society blackmailer - a request that led to murder. There's also a little romance with Alleyn wooing, and finally winning, painter Agatha Troy (who he met in "Artists in Crime"). Marsh creates some delightful cameo parts too particularly Alleyn's mother (making her first appearance in the series) and the truculent paying Jewish debutante Rose Birnbaum (who's hard-as-nails chaperone tells her "there was a good deal to be said for the German point of view"). Yes, there's a lot of class attitudes that perturb modern sensibilities but this book also paints us vivid picture of a time and place.
    • 4/5
      1930's London, high society, and cold-blooded murder - as far as murder mysteries go, this is about as classic as it gets. Marsh's prose is wonderful. The plot is well-paced, and the clues leave one guessing right till the end. Reading this, one understands why Marsh (along with her contemporary Christie) is still considered a standard-bearer for the murder mystery genre.
    • 3/5
      Less artificial in its construction than some of her earlier books -- better characterization in general. Scary hints of the level of casual antisemitism of Britain at the time with an almost offhand comment about Germany's treatment of Jews -- this is written and set in the late 30s before the war but after the situation in Germany had become almost intolerable for Jews. Less rabid and knee jerk in its treatment of illegal drugs with hints of the changing sensibilities about sex.
    • 4/5
      I had forgotten what a smart read this was. A bit tough to get going, but once you're past the first third or so, it becomes quite entertaining.
    • 4/5
      This installment in the Alleyn mystery series was in the same vein as much of the series, but, like the previous ones, this book is bulkier than the beginning ones. Alleyn's personal life, in the form of Troy, his love interest, adds to the novel. His romantic aspirations have to take a backseat to the latest crime. Alleyn has been investigating a series of blackmails targeting women of the upper class, and since his family is also a part of that gentile group, he has been employing an old family friend, Lord Gospel, affectionately known as Bunchy, to make the type of inquiries unavailable to police officers. The case takes a dark turn when Bunchy winds up dead, strangled with his own tie. This is the first time that we've seen Alleyn investigate the death of a friend, and we are privy to his guilt, anger, pain, and uncertainty. That, combined with his love life, makes this the novel that has revealed the most, so far, of Alleyn's personal life. The story still has the usual complement of suspects, all with their secrets, some related to the crime, and some not. Also, the mystery is interesting. I enjoyed the blackmailing angle as a change of pace from murder (as much as I love my murder mysteries), and I really wanted to know who did it, a sign of a good mystery.A couple of things didn't work for me, though. First off, the size. I enjoy my big clunker books, but with Marsh, and most mysteries, for that matter, I like them short and swift. Notice how Agatha Christie's books are all in bite-size pieces? I like that. Helps me get to the end, and therefore the answer, quicker. Marsh's books started out that way, but they have gradually been gaining weight, presumably because we are getting more into Alleyn's personal life, not just his professional. I like learning all that information, but maybe spread out in smaller doses across more books? The other aspect that I didn't like was she made it a little too easy this time: I figured out the culprit in the side mystery quickly, and I determined the killer before all was revealed. I like it when my mystery authors make me surprised at the end. Thus the three and a half stars, rather than four. A solid read, but not as good as earlier entries in the series.
    • 4/5
      Lady Alleyn is chaperoning her granddaughter (Inspector Alleyn’s niece) in her coming out season. Alleyn has enlisted the help of a dear old friend to look into a case of blackmail; this request leads to murder. I think this is the second book which has Troy in it. This was a very good story and although I had a pretty good idea who the culprit was I wasn’t absolutely sure until the end. I think I was sleepy when the clinching clue was subtly presented—it wasn’t blatant and required a little bit of time calculating, but I should have caught it.
    • 4/5
      Interesting, though I tagged the murderer before he even did it. I liked Inspector Allyen and his cohorts, but not on the same intimate level as Lord Peter, Archie Goodwin and Cadfael. Not as humorous.