The 10 Best Books in the Inspector Roderick Alleyn Series
Ngaio Marsh was a crime writer from New Zealand and a contemporary of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. She was the bestselling author of the Inspector Alleyn series, a series of thirty-two mystery novels about a London detective. In addition to being a writer, Marsh was also a passionate patron of the theater, so many of her mysteries involve crimes around theatrical productions. She died in 1982, but her legacy lives on in her Inspector Alleyn series and the Ngaio Marsh Award, which is awarded to the best crime fiction in New Zealand each year. If you’re curious about starting the Inspector Alleyn books, let fans guide you to the best books in the series! The following list is the top ten Inspector Alleyn novels, according to Goodreads user ratings!
The 10 Best Books in the Inspector Roderick Alleyn Series, According to Goodreads Ratings
Average Rating: 4.11
The Constables are a collection of paintings done by famous artist John Constable, of whom artist Agatha Troy is a great fan. When she gets a chance to take a river cruise through Constable country, she leaps at the chance...but it turns out her ticket originally belonged to a man who was murdered in his cabin by an international criminal! His identity is veiled, but he is definitely aboard the ship, and Inspector Alleyn must unmask the criminal before he kills again.
Average Rating: 4.06
When Martyn Tarn arrives in London from New Zealand, she's in desperate need of a job. She takes a position as dresser to the leading performer at the Vulcan theater, giving her an up-close look on the manipulations and drama that occur behind the curtain. What she doesn't expect is murder...Enter Inspector Alleyn of the Metropolitan Police, who begins investigating the many theater types to find a killer.
Average Rating: 4.03
It's the height of the season in London, and as debutante balls and parties crowd social calendars, a blackmailer is working extra hard to wring the most out of the season. Inspector Alleyn is called in, of course, but this case is more difficult for him than most, and so he enlists the help of a friend who is well-known among the social circles. When that friend is murdered, Alleyn is shaken and guilt-stricken, but absolutely on to a much larger secret that someone would not only blackmail others for but kill to protect.
Average Rating: 4.03
When Inspector Alleyn and Miss Agatha Troy meet on the ship back to England, it isn't exactly love at first sight. The two find each other insufferable and are more than happy to disembark in England and go their separate ways...until Alleyn is called to the scene of a murder at an artists' community nearby. A model has been stabbed to death, and the community she is a part of is none other than the same one that Miss Troy is a member of, casting serious suspicion on her character.
Average Rating: 4.02
Marsh has her own take on the English country manor mystery trope in this novel, which opens with a celebrated Shakespearean actor who has commissioned Agatha Troy to paint his portrait. Agatha travels to his manor and senses immediately that all is not well in the home. When the actor is murdered at his own birthday following a very tense family argument, Agatha knows exactly who to call–Inspector Alleyn.
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Average Rating: 3.99
The Lamprey family is much beloved–charming, aristocratic, and all-around quite a pleasant lot. Their only downfall? They are chronically broke. When their uncle, a highly unpleasant marquis, dies unexpectedly, his entire fortune goes to the Lamprey family, which of course raises a few eyebrows. Enter Inspector Alleyn, who must determine who, if anyone, in the family has been motivated by money to kill.
Average Rating: 3.96
What do millionaires do when they get bored? They invite a large group of people to their mansions for a wild party...but make sure that everyone on the guest list are mortal enemies, so they can sit back and watch the show. Of course, this millionaire gets more than he bargains for when a snowstorm strands his party and murder strikes. In a house full of so many potential victims and possible perpetrators, it's only a matter of time before another murder, and Inspector Alleyn can't arrive soon enough!
Average Rating: 3.93
The Dolphin Theater was once a glorious structure but sadly suffered great damage during the Blitz...until a rich man restored it to its former glory. To mark the occasion, a performance of a play about Shakespeare and one of his lost artifacts is put on, but opening night is thrown into mayhem with the event of a murder, and only Inspector Alleyn can unravel the complicated history of the theater, the play, and find the murderer!
Average Rating: 3.92
Sybil is a snobby, stuffy upper-crust lady who has no patience for those beneath her and takes great delight in her fine gardens. When her family affairs prove to be entirely too trying, she takes herself off to a fancy spa to "recuperate"...and is found dead. While many people are all too quick to decry her death a suicide, her autopsy and an investigation reveal that there may be quite a good motive for murder, and Inspector Alleyn is on the case!
Average Rating: 3.92
When a retiree and a lawyer who cannot agree on anything share a country house, it's a recipe for disaster...especially when one of them ends up dead in a ditch. Inspector Alleyn arrives on the scene and immediately finds some suspicious things–a condolence letter written before the murder, and a missing pair of gloves that were used in the murder. Alleyn must unravel the two men's fraught relationship to find a murderer!
Want to read more Inspector Alleyn books? There are 22 more mysteries to discover!
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Tirzah Price is a writer and contributing editor at Book Riot. Find her on Twitter @TirzahPrice.