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Death at the Bar

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Death at the Bar

By: Ngaio Marsh
Narrated by: James Saxon
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About this listen

A classic Ngaio Marsh novel in which a game of darts in an English pub has gruesome consequences.

At the Plume of Feathers in south Devon one midsummer evening, eight people are gathered together in the taproom. They are in the habit of playing darts, but on this occasion an experiment takes the place of the usual game - a fatal experiment which calls for investigation.

A distinguished painter, a celebrated actor, a woman graduate, a plump lady from County Clare, and a Devonshire farmer all play their parts in the unravelling of the problem....

©1940 Original Text of 1940 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio Cosy Crime Thrillers Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Crime Detective Game

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Critic reviews

"Full marks...a really clever problem in detection. It will need a really sharp brain to discover the criminal." ( Times Literary Supplement)
"Read just one of Ngaio Marsh’s novels and you’ve got to read them all...." ( Daily Mail)
"The finest writer in the English language of the pure, classical puzzle whodunit. Among the crime queens, Ngaio Marsh stands out as an Empress." ( The Sun)
All stars
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Another excellent book. Well read, great characterisation. Highly recommended . Well worth listening to. Wonderful story.

Very good

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Not as convoluted and long winded as some,. I like the stories full of red herrings. I listen whilst I work so the more tedious, in a good way, the better. This story was fairly direct and to the point.

Another great Marsh story.

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A bit slow to get started (until the murder then arrival of Alleyn) but turned out to be a very fine traditional detective novel. In my opinion, the characters are not as well developed as in other Ngaio Marsh Inspector Alleyn novels but even so the plot was excellent - twisty without being over complicated. A very good listen but not my favourite Ngaio Marsh - however she sets the bar very high! The narration by James Saxon was excellent as always.

Tradtional Detective Novel

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Marsh is brilliant at evoking atmosphere and place and her characters are excellent. In some the attitudes of the writer and some of her characters towards the mentally ill, the old, the unattractive or minorities are unsympathetic if not sometimes cruel, but one ends up forgiving her for the excellent of her writing and the story. Superb narration makes all the difference

full of wonderful characters, brilliantly narrated

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This story creeps up on you. At first, I found it rather boring, and my mind kept wandering. However, as soon as the murder happened, it became very interesting and I listened 'with all my ears'. I can't usually solve detective stories, but I do seem to be able to solve the ones written by this author, and once again I had worked out the solution well before the end. I think Ngaio Marsh is generous with her clues :) The book ended very abruptly, almost mid sentence, which was strange.

Abrupt end

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I like Marsh's style, and her descriptions of settings and characters. The Alleyn novels are fun and contain a lot of details that give us a snapshot of the time when they were written. The plot of this one feels a bit contrived, however, and the characters are less interesting than usual. The narration is competent and in some ways very good – I would have wished for a little more contrast between some of the characters' voices, though, because the dialogue is sometimes rather hard to follow.

Good but not brilliant

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In creating place, atmosphere and social relationships within a specific setting Naigo usually surpasses Agatha C, who admitted she didn’t like “describing”. This book is an exception relying mainly on lengthy conversations setting out a variety of tedious hypothetical proposals as to the culprit. Again her usually impeccable ear for dialogue is replaced by a generic West Country Yokelshire accent, a mad Chief Constable who speaks entirely in a word salad of literary quotations. None of the candidates come alive or are sympathetic. If you enjoy puzzles about how to get a goose a wolf and an alligator across a swollen river with only a log a tin of tomatoes and a box of matches you may enjoy the plot. When the solution comes it is technically possible but impossible to believe it would have been attempted or have succeeded. If you enjoy character driven plots in an interesting setting that leave you exclaiming “of course” I think you will be disappointed.

Not vintage Naigo

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