Sir Handesley is throwing a party at his country home. His five guests are beguiled into playing a new party game, “Murder.” One person is randomly assigned the role of the murderer, and the rest are victims who try not to get murdered and figure out who the killer is. Everyone is ready to play the first round, the lights go off, and they scatter. In the darkness, the dinner gong sounds with a dull thud. After a short interval, the lights are raised, and Charles Rankin lies dead. The murder game has turned deadly.
Inspector Roderick Alleyn is soon on the scene and discovers a lot of brewing beneath the surface of this friendly dinner party. Charles Rankin is not well-liked; he has the uncanny knack of deeply annoying practically every person he meets and was invited to this party by his cousin Nigel Bathgate. Nigel Bathgate is a journalist who acts as Inspector Alleyn’s guide into the party’s inner workings. The two become friendly and lean on each other to solve the mysteries at Frantock.
As Inspector Alleyn interviews the other house guests, he begins to get the lay of the land. There’s Rosemund Grant, who is desperately in love with Charles Rankin, despite his well-known philandering, and Angela North, Sir Hubert’s thoroughly modern niece who loves fast cars and a good time. Also at the party are Arthur Wilde and his wife, Marjorie. Arthur is a semi-famous writer and archeologist who went to Eton with Nigel and Charles. Nigel and Arthur are friends, but Arthur is badly bullied by Charles while at school and quickly bristles at any light teasing by Charles. Marjorie is Arthur’s lovely attractive wife. Despite Charles’ somewhat antagonistic past towards several party members, there’s little to suggest a strong enough motive to kill him.
However, there’s more afoot when several partygoers mention a dagger acquired by Sir Hubert from the Russian Empire and its supposed ritualistic importance to a secret brotherhood. There was a marked tension over who the rightful owner should be of such an artifact by Russian Dr. Torkareff, who is also staying at the house, and Sir Hubert.
Upon further investigation, Inspector Alleyn finds that Dr. Torkareff is a member of this secret Russian order. Dr. Torkareff’s true motives in Great Britain are questioned when a murder is committed with the artifact dagger and Sir Hubert’s Russian butler, Vassily, has disappeared. Inspector Alleyn must now discover whether these two disparate crimes are connected and stop before another person is killed or a revolution is started.
A Man Lay Dead is Inspector Alleyn’s first case, and he is remarkably fleshed out in his first foray. He’s incredibly kind to all the guests and willing to work with Nigel and others to solve the case. He’s awfully quick witted, funny, and easy going, which often puts people at ease and coaxes more information out of unwilling witnesses. These traits define the character and go with him in future adventures.
A Man Lay Dead also has some of Ngaio Marsh’s signature writing style, with many allusions to politics, artistic movements, and literature. Her writing is more erudite and polished but not as accessible or readable as Christie’s. She elevates the prose of the mystery novel without being inaccessible. This, again, gets more refined and distinct in future books.
The country house dinner party, complete with a dagger of mysterious origins central to death and a larger conspiracy, is ripped straight from Margery Allingham’s The Crime at Black Dudley, published in 1929. Agatha Christie and P. G. Wodehouse’s influences are all over A Man Lay Dead, making Ngaio Marsh’s A Man Lay Dead less of a wholly original idea and more of a response to famous works in the mystery genre. It lacks her signature slanting of the picture, subtle clueing, and original plotting.
I like the country house murder mystery, the characters were well drawn, and the machinations of the murder were very well done. I found it challenging to determine whether the motivations to kill Charles Rankin were rooted in actual hostilities driving people to murder today. I thought Ngaio Marsh did an excellent job of slowly ratcheting up and revealing long-held grudges and hurt feelings that ultimately led to murder.
What really let the story down was the ungainly subplot about Russian revolutionaries hiding in England who are interested in disrupting English politics. The whole thing felt forced and detracted from the circle of well-constructed suspects who killed Charles Rankin. They were so nuanced and enjoyable that I was taken out of the story whenever the story veered into running around trying to catch potential Russian spies. The Russian subplot also takes over the account for a good chunk, then is resolved over the-top, and then bookended by the much better conclusion of who killed Charles Rankin. I think Ngaio Marsh will find a better balance with her political discourse in future books, but in her first mystery, this aspect falls flat.
A Man Lay Dead is a good country house mystery, with a somewhat disappointing Russian subplot, middle, but lands strong with the reveal of who killed Charles Rankin. Coupled with a great introduction to Inspector Alleyn, there’s a lot to like in this uneven debut mystery by Ngaio Marsh.
Golden Age of Detective Fiction 
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