Death in a White Tie cover art

Death in a White Tie

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Death in a White Tie

By: Ngaio Marsh
Narrated by: James Saxon
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

The London season has begun. But while debutantes and chaperones plan their luncheons and balls a deadly blackmailer is stalking the highest echelons of society.

Naturally, it falls to charming, aloof Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn - son of Lady Alleyn - to investigate the case. He has already planted his close friend Lord Robert at the scene. But someone else got to him first....

Death in a White Tie was first published in 1938 and is perhaps the finest of Marsh's 1930s novels - elegantly constructed, witty and marvellously entertaining.

Please note: This is a vintage recording. The audio quality may not be up to modern day standards.

©1938 Original Text of 1938 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio Cosy Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction Mystery Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Thriller Crime Witty Suspense

Listeners also enjoyed...

 A Man Lay Dead cover art
The Ngaio Marsh BBC Radio Collection cover art
Inspector Alan Grant: The Full Collection cover art
The Crime at Black Dudley cover art
The Theft of the Iron Dogs cover art
The Wintringham Mystery: Cicely Disappears cover art
Footsteps in the Dark cover art
The Frost Fair cover art
Murder at the Dolphin Hotel: A Gripping Cozy Historical Mystery cover art
Say It With Poison, Mitchell and Markby Village, Book 1 cover art
The White Cottage Mystery cover art
These Names Make Clues cover art
The Affair of the Thirty Nine-Cufflinks cover art
A Hundred Thousand Dragons cover art
The Mysterious Affair at Styles cover art
Wicked Spirits: Mysteries, Spine Chillers and Lost Tales of the Supernatural cover art

Critic reviews

"The brilliant Ngaio Marsh ranks with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers." (Times Literary Supplement)

"Ngaio Marsh’s Death in a White Tie is the best detective story I have ever read...." (Dashiell Hammett)

"[This audiobook has] a distinction that puts the author in the front rank of crime story writers." (Times Literary Supplement)
All stars
Most relevant
Excellent book but the sound quality isn’t good which is annoying.
James Saxon is the best narrator possible

Love the book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is my favourite of The Ngaio Marsh novels but I had to return it after listening to just the first few chapters. I did not like the narration at all. Everyone sounded like a grotesque caricature . Very disappointing.

I didn't like the narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The usual engaging and glorious Roderick Alleyn murder mystery, and personally one of my favourites. The narration by James Saxon is spot on and expressive - but what has happened with the recording? It changes in some chapters to a grating quality as if spoken on an old-fashioned long-distance telephone line, which really spoils the ‘experience’. Not good enough, Audible!!

Death in a white tie - erratic recording

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I love the Inspector Alleyn stories, which are well written, engaging, and often has you guessing until the last minute. To me, this is the first novel that really has deep personal involvement in the Inspector's private life, with the murder of a friend, his unrequited love, and the challenge of having to interrogate his own social circle.

James Saxon reads these novels well, adds character and depth to the different parts, and brings the stories alive.

What drags this down is the recording quality, which changes from what originally appears to be disc by disc, and there are similar issues with other Saxon recordings. One minute you're listening to something that sounds like it's being played through a phone call, then the whole thing seems to have inhaled helium, or has so much static/hiss that you have to double check this is indeed digital!

Someone once gave me a copy of their recordings of these novels from CD, which were fantastic quality. Sort it out, Audible!

Shame About The Recording Quality

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The recording is quite poor quality - that is my only caveat in an otherwise enjoyable reading of my favourite Alleyn mystery. I’d forgotten the murderer so really enjoyed it. As a story it moves along a lot faster than some of the others (I find the New Zealand ones could have done with a bit more editorial pruning) and the love story with Troy is at its peak. It will keep you guessing and whiled away a lot of painting (rooms not canvasses!) very satisfactorily.

Classic 30s murder mystery

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews