It was planned as an act of charity: a new piano for the parish hall, an amusing play to finance the gift. But its execution was doomed when Miss Campanula sat down to play. A chord was struck, a shot rang out, and Miss Campanula was dead.Who in the quiet village of Chipping would kill wealthy spinster Idris Campanula? Plenty of people, among them her fellow cast members from the troubled charity production. Miss Campanula was a spiteful gossip, gleefully destroying others' lives m...

A man dies with his hand on a radio dial. A disguised aristocrat finds murder at the opening night of a play. A cryptogram produces death in an English churchyard. These are just a few of the situations that confront Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn who, with his lovely wife Agatha Troy, charmed his way through more than thirty novels.Many other colorful characters created by Ngaio Marsh appear throughout this collection as well.Death on the Air and Other Stories ...

In this thrilling yarn, the art of detection gets clouded by desire.It was a bizarre pose for beautiful model Sonia Gluck—and her last. For in the draperies of her couch lay a fatal dagger, and behind her murder lies all the intrigue and acid-etched temperament of an artist's colony. Called in to investigate, Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn thinks this is just another routine case…for now. The model was killed in full view of the entire class, making everyone in it a susp...

When the president of Ng'ombwana proposes to dispense with the usual security arrangements on an official visit to London, his old school mate, Chief Superintendent Alleyn, is called in to try to persuade him otherwise.Alleyn performs his mission so successfully that on the night of the Ng'ombwanan embassy's reception, the house and grounds are stiff with police. However, an assassin does strike, and Alleyn discovers a wealth of suspects in a coterie of ex-colonials residing in the...

An English manor house on the moors is an ideal setting for a murder—and for one of Ngaio Marsh's classic murder mysteries.The occasion is a Christmas party hosted by Mr. Hilary Bill-Tasman, landed proprietor of Halberds Manor and authority on antiques. Santa Claus is in attendance, played by a highly unpopular servant. When he goes missing after his performance, foul play is immediately suspected. There are a number of unusual characters attending the festivities, several of whom ...

A wide-ranging history of assisted reproductive technologies and their ethical implications.Finalist of the PROSE Award for Best Book in History of Science, Medicine and Technology by the Association of American PublishersSince the 1978 birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in England, more than eight million children have been born with the help of assisted reproductive technologies. From the start, they have stirred controversy and raised profound qu...

The professional advice and the sheer beauty of these projects make this title a "must-have" reference for every power carver. Improved performance, versatile attachments, and lower prices have placed power tools within the reach of every woodworker. Celebrating 20 years of power carving wizardry, this big book presents 22 all-time favorite step-by-step projects and patterns from Woodcarving Illustrated, the leading how-to magazine for carving enthusiasts. If you've been thinking ...

A ritual dance becomes a murderous mambo…The village of South Mardian always observes the winter solstice with an ancient, mystical sword dance, complete with costumed performers. But for one of them, the excitement proves too heady, and his decapitation turns the fertility rite into a pageant of death. Now Inspector Roderick Alleyn must penetrate not only the mysteries of folklore but the secrets and sins of an eccentric group that includes a surly blacksmith, a domineering dowage...

A wide-ranging history of assisted reproductive technologies and their ethical implications.Finalist of the PROSE Award for Best Book in History of Science, Medicine and Technology by the Association of American PublishersSince the 1978 birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in England, more than eight million children have been born with the help of assisted reproductive technologies. From the start, they have stirred controversy and raised profound qu...

Lord Pastern fired his revolver. The figure in the spotlight fell and the coup-de-theatre had become murder. Could Inspector Alleyn believe Pastern had let hatred of his future son-in-law go too far?When Lord Pastern Bagott takes up with the hot music of Breezy Bellair and His Boys, his disapproving wife Cecile has more than usual to be unhappy about. The band's devastatingly handsome but roguish accordionist, Carlos Rivera, has taken a rather intense and mutual interest in her pre...

Murder gets into the act in Ngaio Marsh's wittiest and most readable novel—and aShakespearean actor takes his final bow.Beautiful Troy Alleyn, artist wife of Inspector Alleyn, had been warned about the famed old Shakespearean actor Sir Henry and his eccentric household. But she was not prepared for the acts of malice and mischief that would ensue at his birthday party.Now Sir Henry is dead, after a large and lethal birthday dinner of champagne and crayfish—and after changin...

En route to a family vacation on the French Riviera, Inspector Roderick Alleyn glimpses from the train a shocking tableau. In a moonlit window, a white-robed figure raises a knife to a woman's shadow. Thus begins his incognito exploration of the Chateau of the Silver Goat, where a jet-set cult's "Way of Life" could spell death for a maiden lady of a certain age—and even for Alleyn's own young son—unless he can unveil its illicit mysteries.This classic mystery thriller combines susp...