A Man Lay Dead

The first of Ngaio Marsh's 32 acclaimed mystery novels, this introduces the continuing detective protagonist, Sir Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard. Five guests gather at Sir Hubert Handesley's country house party for the amusing parlor game of "Murder". But they aren't laughing when the lights come up on an actual corpse: the handsome and mysterious Charles Rankin with a dagger in his back. Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives to find the butler missing, alibis for all the suspects, and an intricate puzzle of betrayal. Thus begins his search for the key player in this deadly game.