Money in the Morgue cover art

Money in the Morgue

The New Inspector Alleyn Mystery

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About this listen

Roderick Alleyn is back in this unique crime novel begun by Ngaio Marsh during the Second World War and now completed by Stella Duffy in a way that has delighted reviewers and critics alike.

Shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award 2018.

It’s business as usual for Mr Glossop as he does his regular round delivering wages to government buildings scattered across New Zealand’s lonely Canterbury plains. But when his car breaks down he is stranded for the night at the isolated Mount Seager Hospital, with the telephone lines down, a storm on its way and the nearby river about to burst its banks.

Trapped with him at Mount Seager are a group of quarantined soldiers with a serious case of cabin fever, three young employees embroiled in a tense love triangle, a dying elderly man, an elusive patient whose origins remain a mystery … and a potential killer.

When the payroll disappears from a locked safe and the hospital’s death toll starts to rise faster than normal, can the appearance of an English detective working in counterespionage be just a lucky coincidence – or is something more sinister afoot?

Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction International Mystery & Crime Mystery Police Procedural Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Thriller Crime Exciting Suspense

Critic reviews

'Stella Duffy performs a remarkable act of ventriloquism with New Zealand's Queen of Crime. I defy readers to see the join' VAL McDERMID

‘A proper Golden Age set up of suspects and plot, a wonderful sense of place and period, and a real frisson of being with Alleyn himself! I can’t imagine anyone doing it better – Stella Duffy is the natural successor to Dame Ngaio’ KATE MOSSE

‘Ngaio Marsh fans rejoice! After 35 years Alleyn is back in a new mystery – and both are as good as ever’ JOHN CURRAN

‘Marsh and Duffy have created A Midsummer Night’s Dream with corpses, clues and Kiwi accents. Ingenious indeed’ ANDREW TAYLOR, THE SPECTATOR

‘Fans all over the world will, I’m sure, hope that there are more stories to come.’ SOPHIE HANNAH, THE GUARDIAN

‘I absolutely love Ngaio Marsh! She's probably my favourite golden age doyenne’ A.J. FINN, author of The Woman in the Window

‘A more appropriate ‘completist’ author could hardly have been wished for’ MIKE RIPLEY, SHOTS Magazine

‘One of the most successful resurrections of another author’s character I’ve come across.’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘Clever stuff. Ngaio Marsh would give it nine out of ten’ DAILY MAIL

‘Duffy captures Marsh’s style, dialogue and mood brilliantly’ THE TIMES

‘A complicated tale, so well completed by Stella Duffy that I was quite unable to see the join’ LITERARY REVIEW

“A taut atmospheric whodunit … Duffy’s facility at injecting wit into fair-play detecting will make Marsh fans hope she’ll continue the series.” PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“Though tart noir specialist Duffy might seem an unlikely choice to flesh out the skeleton Marsh left behind, fans will be hard-pressed to find the joint between the two writers.” KIRKUS REVIEW

“An extraordinary literary tag-team completed 75 years after it began.” THE LISTENER (NZ)

All stars
Most relevant
I persevered. the story itself was pure Ngaio Marsh. credit to Stella Duffy for her finishing off this text.

but why oh why did someone choose for her to narrate it? it wasn't even clear narration, with words dribbled into each other even listening at a lower speed.

Such a shame it wasn't narrated by James Saxon

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Loved the plot. Had never read any Ngaio Marsh before but works very well as a one-off. There's a lot of Adamsberg in Alleyn for those who like Fred Vargas! I had however already heard Stella Duffy read some of her stories so having her read a novel is an absolute delight: funny, lively, overall brilliant.

If only for the performance!

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This new novel has been written by Stella Duffy from the unfinished fragments Ngaio Marsh left before her death and it flows deftly through the many intrigues Detective Inspector Alleyn has to uncover and resolve with an easy irresistible sureness. Stella Duffy evokes a glorious richness in the specifics of the 1940s wartime New Zealand time and place setting, and voices her cast of characters, drawn with all of Ngaio Marsh’s signature complexities, with all the distinctiveness and theatrical vitality demanded by Marsh’s style. Listening to this novel is an easy, enjoyable and utterly compelling page turner. Highly recommended.

A golden age-style crime mystery read with compelling theatrical vitality by its contemporary author Stella Duffy

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Stella Duffy has done a wonderful job completing this novel and i very much hope she is allowed to write more new novels featuring the wonderful inspector

excellent book well told

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I’m sad that some reviewers have found this story ‘boring’ or objected to the voice of the narrator - indeed the co-author.

I found the story line (or should I say lines, without diving plot away) were true of the great Ngaio Marsh. One can guess at places where the dialogue has moved on a little from Ms Marsh, but Stella Duffy deserves very great praise for completing this “lost” Alleyn novel, so true to form. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this - one one day (!) - it was so compelling. Well done. And can we encourage Stella Duffy to perhaps produce a 34th Alleyn book?

Excellent Listen

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