One of Ngaio Marsh’s most popular novels, this time featuring one of her best creations – Lucy Lockett, the crime-solving cat.

A visiting dignitary in London asks for security—and gets extra help from a clever feline—in a novel starring “the nonpareil among criminal investigators” (The New York Times). Superintendent Alleyn’s old school chum, nicknamed the “Boomer,” has become the president of the newly emerged African nation of Ng’ombwana, newly emerged in the wake of colonialism. Old school ties being what they are, his friend—making an official visit to London—insists that Alleyn handle his security, rather than Her Majesty’s Special Branch. The Special Branch is not best pleased about this, as the Boomer is known to have some very deadly enemies, and the threats only increase when the Ng’ombwanan ambassador is killed. Happily for the Boomer, not only is Alleyn up to the task, but he is assisted by a rescued cat who proves extremely adept at finding clues . . . “The brilliant Ngaio Marsh ranks with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers.” —Times Literary Supplement

England is at war--this means "spy fever" for a quarrelsome collection of patriots at a shabby New Zealand resort, and a macabre murder that shocks even Scotland Yard!

The murder of a famous opera soprano finds Inspector Alleyn crawling around backstage in her life, interviewing agents, past lovers, servants, and others hoping to learn who dispatched La Sommita with her own stiletto.

The Ritual Wine Taste of Evil When lovely Cara Quayne dropped dead to the floor after drinking the ritual wine at the House of the Sacred Flame, she was having a religious experience of a sort unsuspected by the other initiates. Discovering how the fatal prussic acid got into the bizarre group's wine is but one of the perplexing riddles that confronts Scotland Yard's Inspector Rocerick Alleyn when he's called to discover who sent this wealthy cult member to her untimely death.

Roderick Alleyn's son Ricky Alleyn is now 21, and has taken himself off to a secluded island to write a novel. Or think about writing a novel. Or look for distractions so he can avoid writing a novel. The distractions abound, mostly in the form of colorful local characters, until Ricky stumbles across a murder and then gets himself kidnapped. Which is too bad for Ricky (and the murder-victim), but it brings Inspector Alleyn to the island. A subtheme involving drug-running may strike a jarring note, but Last Ditch was first published in 1977, and as such, it offers a remarkable look at what happens when the characters and conventions of the Golden Age fetch up in the distinctly tarnished present.

A series of Ngaio Marsh editions concludes with an edition of her autobiography.