False Scent cover art

False Scent

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False Scent

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

In a poisonous cloud of spray, the curtain falls on a drama queen. Little did beloved British actress Mary Bellamy know that she would be done in at her own birthday party - choked by toxic mist from the bottle of Slaypest, a deadly insecticide.

Basking in the glow of her most adoring fans - who all happened to be her most duplicitous enemies - Mary would make her final performance.

When Superintendent Roderick Alleyn arrives, he smells a rat amongst the contemptuous collection of theatre types detained at the party, for this case has the unmistakable scent of murder....

©1960 Original Text of 1960 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Cosy Crime Thrillers Fiction Genre Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Urban Crime Thriller Detective

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Critic reviews

"The brilliant Ngaio Marsh ranks with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers." ( Times Literary Supplement)
"Miss Marsh triumphs." ( Daily Telegraph)
"High-spirited, amusing...neatly contrived from start to finish." ( New Statesman)
All stars
Most relevant
From the authorship, to the story, to the characters, to the narration, to the setting and to the quality, Ngaio Marsh never fails to thrill and impress.

Simply brilliant.

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If you could sum up False Scent in three words, what would they be?

Jolly good fun!

What did you like best about this story?

The story is a classic whodunnit.... but Saxon brings it to life

What does James Saxon bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

James Saxon must be one of the best character voice actors going, and in this show biz story he is supreme, from coy to camp and back..... but mostly camp.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Laughed out loud, not so much at the plot but at Saxon's interpretation.

Any additional comments?

Listen out for Deep Throat Nin!

Oooh Ducky!!! Luvies abound!

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Another great theatrical ‘whodunnit’ from Ngaio Marsh. Theatrical, engaging & totally absorbing. Such clever narration, absolutely no chance of mixing up the cast of characters.

Another Ngaio Marsh tour de force.

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One of her best. Theatre background as usual Made me want to read the next one.

Clever and credible plot

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Another murder amongst theatre folk. Each of these luvvies is a little OTT but offset by non theatre folk and plenty of pathos. Highly recommend.

Enjoyable Whodunnit

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