Dame Ngaio Marsh was born in New Zealand in 1895 and died in February 1982. She wrote over 30 detective novels and many of her stories have theatrical settings, for Ngaio Marsh’s real passion was the theatre. She was both actress and producer and almost single-handedly revived the New Zealand public’s interest in the theatre. It was for this work that she received what she called her ‘damery’ in 1966.

‘In her ironic and witty hands the mystery novel can be civilized literature.’NEW YORK TIMES‘Ngaio Marsh is one of the detective novelists whose books I regularly re-read, always the test of a good detective story.’P.D. JAMES‘In the front rank of crime-story writers.’THE TIMES‘The finest writer in the English language of the pure, classical puzzle whodunnit. Among the crime queens, Ngaio Marsh stands out as an Empress.’THE SUN