False Scent

Name: False Scent
Brand: Hachette UK
Availability: InStock
Author: Ngaio Marsh
ISBN: 9781405531955

Author: Ngaio Marsh

Series: Inspector Alleyn #21

Narrator: James Saxon

Unabridged: 7 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Published: 10/01/2015

Categories: Fiction, Classic, Crime

Synopsis

Mary Bellamy is the sweetheart of the London stage, fluffy as only an elderly lady of 50(!) can be. Her fans and friends-and who didn't adore, positively adore darling Mary?-are heartbroken when somehow Mary manages to spritz herself not with her favorite perfume but with the deadly insecticide meant to be sprayed on the azaleas. Inspector Alleyn begins by smelling something fishy (everything he learns about lovely, fragile Mary suggests that in fact she was a rather vicious battleax), but he very quickly starts smelling something different...something like a rat.

About 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 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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bev on September 17, 2019

False Scent (1959) by Ngaio Marsh finds Inspector Roderick Alleyn investigating another murder in the theatrical world. This time the murder is completely off-stage--in all senses of the word. Mary Bellamy is a fading stage star...but still a star to be reckoned with. The scene opens on the day her......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on July 09, 2019

This is the first novel I have read of Ngaio Marsh. I hesitated for a while because I had read a short story by her and was not all that impressed. This novel, however, has changed my mind dramatically. An aging actress is having a birthday party. We meet her and the various people that play roles in......more

Goodreads review by Bill on June 26, 2021

False Scent is the 21st book in Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn mystery series. I've enjoyed this series very much. Each story is different; some laid out almost as plays, some centered on his wife, artist Troy, or his young son. This one was most entertaining. For the first half we meet the cast of c......more

Goodreads review by John on June 03, 2022

SPOILERS AHEAD An excellent mystery. Mary Bellamy an aging, narcissistic theatre actress is having her fiftieth birthday. The stage is set. She see’s conspiracy and plots against her. Her husband Peter Temperton, his ward Richard Daker’s, Colonel Warrender, Pinky, Bertie, Florence the dresser and th......more

Goodreads review by Lady Wesley on December 08, 2021

This is another of Marsh’s mysteries related to the theater. It’s lots of fun, and the whodunnit was quite a surprise.......more