This is Ngaio Marsh's debut novel, a classic country house party murder mystery, where the reader is tempted to map the location of all of the characters at the location of the murder. Nigel Bathgate, with his cousin Charles Rankin, is attending his first houseparty at Frampton. He has heard these houseparties hosted by Sir Hubert Handesley are both "original" and unpretentious. There will seven or eight guests, and, upon arrival, he learns that the main event will be a Murder. Sir Hubert has his own rules for the Murder Game, and eventually a murder there is, but not the theatrically staged one they have anticipated.

This is not Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn's first murder case, although it is Ngaio Marsh's first novel. Alleyn is already a seasoned detective, with a reputation for thorough and careful sleuthing. His reputation preceds him. He arrives at Frampton from Scotland Yard the morning after the murder. The body has already been moved, and the local constabulary and the police doctor are already in attendance.

In essence what Marsh does in this first novel is establish some of the characteristics which will become Alleyn's "signature" in subsequent novels. Alleyn does not appear as the other characters expect a detective to be. He is tall, cultured, detached, thorough, and objective. He professes to have a poor memory and keeps a small note book of important facts, with an alphabetical index. We learn that Alleyn is an Oxford man who initially became a diplomat, before turning to policing. He likes to inspect things first hand, and likes to reconstruct events until he gets them right. He may also lay traps for suspects. In A MAN LAY DEAD he decides one of the characters is innocent, and then uses him as his "Watson", not only involving him in some of the sleuthing, but also as a sounding board for his deductions. Thus we see the action often through two sets of eyes, both Alleyn's and the other characters.

This is an interesting novel as Marsh has included the element of "the Russian threat". First of all there is the Russian dagger with which the victim is stabbed, then the Russian butler who disappears, the house guest who is a Russian espionage agent, and then the Russian secret society that binds them all together. A MAN LAY DEAD was published in 1934 and is indicative of the fear of Russian communism that had had Europe in its thrall for the previous decade or so.

Ngaio Marsh is a New Zealander but this novel puts her right into the vein of the Golden Age writers like Agatha Christie and Margery Allingham. It is a British cozy murder mystery through and through. In A MAN LAY DEAD she is exploring a classic scenario, and bringing a new sleuth onto the crime fiction scene. There is no hint of her Antipodean origins. The language, the slang, the setting are thoroughly British.

From a 21st century point of view A MAN LAY DEAD has survived 8 decades pretty well. We wouldn't put it at the top of the tree these days, because there are things that date it. Marsh was more concerned to write a carefully constructed whodunnit, and not so taken with "why". Nevertheless it is very readable.
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This is the first book in the Roderick Alleyn series, a mystery very much in line with Agatha Christy's style of murder and mayhem: clever investigator (although Roderick happens to also be a police officer), a crew of suspects that all have secrets to hide even if they aren't the murderer, a death that frequently involves the upper class, and therefore lots of big, musty mansions that hold as many secrets as rooms to serve as the setting. I love this type of mystery, as formulaic as they can be. If you love the formula, then seeing an author employ it exceptionally well is quite enjoyable. Marsh does add some elements to make her series unique. Alleyn is actually an aristocrat himself, who has chosen to work in the police force. Many of the mysteries feature the theater and the stage in someway. She deals with more police procedural details than the usual sleuth investigator story. That being said, this first in the series starts out with a very standard plot: guests are invited to a mansion for a weekend of a mystery game, where a mock murder occurs and they must unravel the clues to discover the killer. Of course, a real corpse turns up all too soon, and a real investigator is called in to figure out "who (actually) done it". Done before? Yes. But Marsh does it so well that it can be said that many of the examples today are imitating her, and it was a fun read. Clever enough, with a good mix of interesting and shady characters, to push me into adding this mystery series to my list of old regulars. ( )

A perfect bit of fluff. English manor, aristocratic investigator, intrigue, deception, love, and snappy dialogue. ( )

2768 A Man Lay Dead, by Ngaio Marsh (read 26 Jul 1995) Since I'd never read anything by Marsh, a "name" in English detective fiction, I decided to read this, her first book. It tells of Nigel Bathgate, who goes for a weekend to Sir Hubert Handesley's estate with his cousin Charles Rankin, and who is murdered (Rankin, that is) in a bizarre way. Inspector Alleyn from Scotland Yard comes and solves the case, which occurred when the guests were to play "Murders." It is all contrived and improbable and one is not really able to get to know the characters. So when one turns out to be the murderer one doesn't get too excited. {I have not read anything more by Marsh.] ( )

A thoroughly delightful old-fashioned British mystery. A group of people are invited to Franstock for the weekend to participate in a 'Murder' party, except instead of a pretend victim they are confronted with a real corpse. I love these types of mysteries and this one was very clever. I was not able to figure out whodunit and was tickled with the plot twists at the end. The cast of characters are all very stereotypical portraits but that is what makes them so fun. In this first of the series, in which we are introduced to Inspector Alleyn we are not given much information about his character or personal life at all. There was no mention of a wife which I found interesting as all the books I've read are further on in the series and he has a wife in them. I'm really looking forward to seeing his character develop over the course of the books. Recommended! ( )