Preview
  • False Scent

  • By: Ngaio Marsh
  • Narrated by: James Saxon
  • Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (152 ratings)

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False Scent

By: Ngaio Marsh
Narrated by: James Saxon
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Publisher's summary

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
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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)

What listeners say about False Scent

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Funny, clever, completely engaging

One of Marsh's best. Such a clever reveal! Characters and dialogue are tremendously entertaining. This story evokes the bygone London theater world and the quirky types who inhabit it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Smooth and impeccable plotting by author—the narrator was extremely capable

Recommend reading (and/or listening to) Ngaio Marsh. The vocabulary introduced is much more sophisticated than many modern mystery writers.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Always good

I am really enjoying this series. I first discovered it on Audible Plus and have gone on to purchase many of the books. Marsh creates interesting characters in a good who dun it.Part of the stories are too drawn out at towards the end but that doesn't keep them from being 5. stars... Marsh is often compared to Christie .One thing Christie ha that Marsh does not is the great Hercules Poirot.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

one of the best

Definitely one of the best NM novels, if only for the really excellent first and second chapters which, missing a murder or a corpse, yet prove most engrossing in how the characters are depicted and interact. This is a collaboration and is almost seamless except for some repetitive passages and redundant scenes in the later chapters. I am inspired to relisten to other NM novels now.

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