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Death in Ecstasy
- Narrated by: James Saxon
- Series: Roderick Alleyn, Book 4
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery
Non-member price: $29.96
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Magnificent reading of old-style murder mystery
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Death and the Dancing Footman
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A winter weekend ends in snowbound disaster in a novel which remains a favourite among Marsh readers. It began as an entertainment: eight people, many of them enemies, gathered for a winter weekend by a host with a love for theatre. They would be the characters in a drama that he would devise. It ended in snowbound disaster. Everyone had an alibi - and most had motives as well. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn, when he finally arrived, knew it all hung on Thomas, the dancing footman....
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A body in the back of a taxi begins an elegantly constructed mystery, perhaps the finest of Marsh’s 1930s novels. The season had begun. Débutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas, dinners, balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that something was up. He had already planted his friend, Lord Robert Gospell, at the scene. But someone else got there first....
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Good story but sound quality issues
- By Anonymous User on 13-06-2018
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Overall
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Performance
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Sir John Phillips, the Harley Street surgeon, and his beautiful nurse, Jane Harden, are almost too nervous to operate. The emergency case on the table before them is the Home Secretary - and they both have very good, personal reasons to wish him dead. Within hours he does die, although the operation itself was a complete success, and Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn must find out why....
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A touring theatre company in New Zealand forms the basis of one of Marsh’s most ambitious and innovative novels. New Zealand theatrical manager Alfred Meyer wanted to celebrate his wife’s birthday in style. The piece de résistance would be the jeroboam of champagne which would descend gently into a nest of fern and coloured lights on the table, set up on stage after the performance. But something went horribly wrong. Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn witnessed it himself.
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-
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
One of Ngaio Marsh’s most famous murder mysteries, which introduces Inspector Alleyn to his future wife, the irrepressible Agatha Troy. It started as a student exercise, the knife under the drape, the model’s pose chalked in place. But before Agatha Troy, artist and instructor, returns to the class, the pose has been reenacted in earnest: the model is dead, fixed forever in one of the most dramatic poses Troy has ever seen. It’s a difficult case for Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn.
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Overall
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The crime scene was the stage of the Unicorn Theatre, when a prop gun fired a very real bullet; the victim was an actor clawing his way to stardom using bribery instead of talent; and the suspects included two unwilling girlfriends and several relieved blackmail victims. The stage is set for one of Roderick Alleyn's most baffling cases.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A winter weekend ends in snowbound disaster in a novel which remains a favourite among Marsh readers. It began as an entertainment: eight people, many of them enemies, gathered for a winter weekend by a host with a love for theatre. They would be the characters in a drama that he would devise. It ended in snowbound disaster. Everyone had an alibi - and most had motives as well. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn, when he finally arrived, knew it all hung on Thomas, the dancing footman....
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A body in the back of a taxi begins an elegantly constructed mystery, perhaps the finest of Marsh’s 1930s novels. The season had begun. Débutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas, dinners, balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that something was up. He had already planted his friend, Lord Robert Gospell, at the scene. But someone else got there first....
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Good story but sound quality issues
- By Anonymous User on 13-06-2018
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Not one of her best
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A bit far fetched
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Please no more James Saxon
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Swing, Brother, Swing
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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? Or would the tangle of jealousies and blackmail among the guests reveal another murderer?
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Off with His Head
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Pagan revelry and morris dancing in the middle of a very cold winter set the scene for one of Ngaio Marsh’s most fascinating murder mysteries. When the pesky Anna Bünz arrives at Mardian to investigate the rare survival of folk dancing still practised there, she quickly antagonizes the villagers. But Mrs Bünz is not the only source of friction - two of the other enthusiasts are also spoiling for a fight.
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On a cold February night, the police find the third corpse on the quayside in the Pool of London, her body covered with flower petals and pearls. The killer walked away singing. When the cargo ship Cape Farewell sets sail, she carries nine passengers, one of whom is known to be the murderer. Which is why Superintendent Roderick Alleyn joins the ship at Portsmouth on the most difficult assignment of his professional career....
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One of the best Marsh Novels
- By Evelyn on 13-07-2017
Publisher's Summary
The poison was cyanide, slipped into the sacred wine of ecstasy just before it was presented to Miss Cara Quayne at the House of the Sacred Flame.
The victim was a deeply religious initiate who had trained for a month for her last ceremony. She was also a very beautiful woman.... The suspects were the other initiates and the high priest. All claimed they were above earthly passions. But Cara Quayne had provoked lust, jealousy - and murder.
Roderick Alleyn suspected that more evil still lurked behind the Sign of the Sacred Flame....
Critic Reviews
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What listeners say about Death in Ecstasy
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- John
- 27-03-2017
Tedious narrator
I know this gentleman is hired quite often to read in this series.....
However,... Someone needs to tell him to swallow his saliva regularly and more often... He waits until he's almost drowning in it , then gulps it away...
Ugh... Shudder... Most distressing..
5 people found this helpful
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- Susan J.
- 12-04-2018
Boring book
This book was so boring that I couldn't finish it. The characters were stereotypes of little interest and the plot nonexistent.
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- Gen S
- 08-07-2020
Good plot ruined by an awful narrator
Good story ruined by an over-the-top narrator. He read the book like it was one long farce. I know that the author was not always politically correct, but I felt the narrator could have tempered this by his performance, but instead, I felt he was poking fun at the characters and, ergo, belittling the author's writing. It was really off-putting.
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- Seagull
- 16-02-2018
Enjoyable
I enjoy most of Ngaio Marsh's books, and as far as plot-lines go, this one doesn't disappoint. It's atmospheric, ingenious and well written. However - a warning: It does contain attitudes to homosexuality which are offensive but which were, alas, common to the times in which it was written.
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- Ebru AW
- 19-01-2018
Old-fashioned, light-hearted sleuthing
The kind of crime that we’re used to from old-fashioned Holmes and detectives who play their part. The characters are a little cartoon-like and the accents are way too stereotypical but so what? I enjoyed listening to it.
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- Keithj
- 16-03-2016
Spoiled by the strange voices used by the narrator
I enjoy the Alleyn stories but enjoyed this less through the irritating narration. It gave impression that the narrator was not taking it seriously. Too many characters were caricatures and several sounded more like Julian and Sandy from Round The Horne than real people.
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