From Library Journal
This vintage mystery, featuring inspector Roderick Alleyn, is remarkably fresh for a novel written in 1936. References to a sea voyage and a character's racial slur directed at a Maori doctor are about the only things that date it. Marsh's series character Alleyn (of Scotland Yard) has gone to New Zealand to vacation and recuperate from a work-related injury. It is no surprise when he becomes involved in the intrigues of a British theater troupe traveling along the same route (and in the same conveyances). A near accident on the train is passed off as just that; but when a celebratory stunt involving a huge bottle of champagne at an after-theater party turns deadly, Alleyn finds that the police in the small New Zealand town are very glad that he was at the scene. Reader James Saxon demonstrates his experience and versatility, conquering a variety of dialects of both Britishers and New Zealanders. This is a production that completely captures the moods of the characters and the atmosphere of the country. A good selection for larger collections and essential for libraries with others in the series.AMelody A. Moxley, Rowan P.L., Salisbury, NC Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Ngaio Marsh is undeservedly one of the least appreciated writers of the British Golden Age of mystery. This early adventure of Inspector Roderick Alleyn is read with magnificent force and versatility by British stage and television star James Saxon. Set in the author's native New Zealand, where the Scotland Yard detective is on holiday, VINTAGE MURDER follows a traveling English theater company whose manager is killed when a rigged champagne bottle falls on his head. Saxon effectively captures the personalities, the ethnicities and the social strata of the many characters. His smooth and effortless reading adds to the colorful characters, theatrical background, and New Zealand setting of Marsh's novel. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Review
"It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." --New York magazine



Review
"It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." --New York magazine



Review
"It's time to start comparing Christie to Marsh instead of the other way around." --New York magazine



Book Description
Death served well-chilled

The leading lady of a theater company touring New Zealand was stunningly beautiful. No one-including her lover-understood why she married the company's pudgy producer. But did she rig a huge jeroboam of champagne to kill her husband during a cast party?

Did her sweetheart? Or was another villain waiting in the wings? On a holiday down under, Inspector Roderick Alleyn must uncork this mystery and uncover a devious killer...



About the Author
From her first book in 1934 to her final volume just before her death in 1982, Ngaio Marsh's work has remained legendary, and is often compared to that of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. During her celebrated fifty-year career, Marsh was made a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, was named Dame Commander, Order of the British Empire, won numerous prestigious awards, and penned 32 mystery novels.

Now St. Martin's Dead Letter Mysteries is thrilled to make all of Marsh's novels available again for old fans to relish and new ones to discover. So sit back, draw the curtains, lock the doors, and put yourself in the hands of Grande Dame of detective novels...

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Death served well-chilled

The leading lady of a theater company touring New Zealand was stunningly beautiful. No one-including her lover-understood why she married the company's pudgy producer. But did she rig a huge jeroboam of champagne to kill her husband during a cast party?

Did her sweetheart? Or was another villain waiting in the wings? On a holiday down under, Inspector Roderick Alleyn must uncork this mystery and uncover a devious killer...

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

This vintage mystery, featuring inspector Roderick Alleyn, is remarkably fresh for a novel written in 1936. References to a sea voyage and a character's racial slur directed at a Maori doctor are about the only things that date it. Marsh's series character Alleyn (of Scotland Yard) has gone to New Zealand to vacation and recuperate from a work-related injury. It is no surprise when he becomes involved in the intrigues of a British theater troupe traveling along the same route (and in the same conveyances). A near accident on the train is passed off as just that; but when a celebratory stunt involving a huge bottle of champagne at an after-theater party turns deadly, Alleyn finds that the police in the small New Zealand town are very glad that he was at the scene. Reader James Saxon demonstrates his experience and versatility, conquering a variety of dialects of both Britishers and New Zealanders. This is a production that completely captures the moods of the characters and the atmosphere of the country. A good selection for larger collections and essential for libraries with others in the series.--Melody A. Moxley, Rowan P.L., Salisbury, NC Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

AudioFile - AudioFile Review

Ngaio Marsh is undeservedly one of the least appreciated writers of the British Golden Age of mystery. This early adventure of Inspector Roderick Alleyn is read with magnificent force and versatility by British stage and television star James Saxon. Set in the author's native New Zealand, where the Scotland Yard detective is on holiday, VINTAGE MURDER follows a traveling English theater company whose manager is killed when a rigged champagne bottle falls on his head. Saxon effectively captures the personalities, the ethnicities and the social strata of the many characters. His smooth and effortless reading adds to the colorful characters, theatrical background, and New Zealand setting of Marsh's novel. S.E.S. ￯﾿ﾽ AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine