Money in the Morgue, Paperback

Inspector Alleyn just wants to write a letter to his wife, but World War II, for one, keeps intruding. It's war-work, after all, that has brought Alleyn to this seedy hospital in New Zealand's hinterlands, and it's the war that has left the hospital swimming in convalescing soldiers - noisy, often drunk, and always over-interested in the nurses. Nor is the weather helping. A storm has killed the electrical power, leaving Alleyn, the soldiers, the medical staff and all stranded in the dark...with a murderer. It's a good thing for everyone, including the reader, that there's a Scotland Yard detective on hand. Dame Ngaio Marsh died in 1982 after writing 32 "Inspector Alleyn" novels and a few chapters of Money in the Morgue. The manuscript has been brilliantly completed by Stella Duffy, who shares with Marsh an expertise in crime-fiction, a New Zealand background, a passion for the theatre, and an Order of the British Empire. Marsh fans who have longed for just one more of Alleyn's adventures will be delighted, and new readers will enjoy the introduction to Marsh, long hailed as one of the "four queens" of classic British mystery.

About the Author:

Dame Ngaio Marsh (whose first name is pronounced "NYE-oh), was born and grew up in New Zealand, and moved to England in the late 1920s. Bored and out of sorts on a wet weekend, she wrote A Man Lay Dead, first of the 32 novels featuring Inspector Alleyn of Scotland Yard; the series would eventually see her named one of England's four "queens of crime" (alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Margery Allingham), and earn her a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America, for her lifetime achievements in crime fiction. Despite these accolades, Marsh's true passion was for the theater (and many fans regard the "Alleyn" novels with theatrical settings as her best). In 1966, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to theater in New Zealand. Marsh died in 1982, leaving behind a passionate fan-base and the opening chapters of....Money In the Morgue. Like Ngaio Marsh, Stella Duffy has been a celebrated actor and theatrical producer, as well as a playwright, but she is perhaps best known as a novelist, the author of five crime-novels featuring lesbian private-eye Saz Martin, and nine works of literary fiction. The youngest of seven children, Duffy spent her childhood in New Zealand, but moved to England as an adult; she now lives in London. In 2016 Duffy was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her services to the arts.