Spinsters in Jeopardy

Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, 1953. AP3 - A first edition (stated) hardcover book in very good condition in good dust jacket that is mylar protected. Dust jacket has wrinkling, chipping, crease, small tears and open tears on the edges, corners and sides, some scattered scratches, scuffing, fading and smudge, a few scattered spot stains, tanning and shelf wear. Book lightly cocked, some bumped corners and light cover edgewear, label adhered on the front free endpaper, small tear on the upper hinge of the front endpaper, small patch stain on the upper right side of the front free endpaper and upper part of the right side page edges, some glue stains on the hinge of the back endpaper, light tanning and shelf wear. Although not marked in any way, this copy comes from the personal collection of Otto Penzler, legendary editor and founder of the Mysterious Press, an award-winning icon in the genre. 8.25"x5.5", 278 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Ngaio Marsh (Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh) was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. Marsh is known as one of the "Queens of Crime", along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Margery Allingham. She is known primarily for her character Inspector Roderick Alleyn, a gentleman detective who works for the Metropolitan Police (London). The Ngaio Marsh Award is awarded annually for the best New Zealand mystery, crime and thriller fiction writing. Internationally she is best known for her 32 detective novels published between 1934 and 1982. Along with Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie, she has been classed as one of the four original "Queens of Crime" - female writers who dominated the genre of crime fiction in the Golden Age of the 1920s and 1930s. All her novels feature British CID detective Roderick Alleyn. Several novels feature Marsh's other loves, the theatre and painting. A number are set around theatrical productions (Enter a Murderer, Vintage Murder, Overture to Death, Opening Night, Death at the Dolphin, and Light Thickens), and three others are about actors off stage (Colour Scheme, False Scent and Final Curtain). Her short story "'I Can Find My Way Out" is also set around a theatrical production and is the earlier "Jupiter case" referred to in Opening Night; the short story won third prize in 1946 in the inaugural short story contest of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.[10] Alleyn marries a painter, Agatha Troy, whom he meets during an investigation (Artists in Crime), and who features in three later novels. Most of the novels are set in England, but four are set in New Zealand, with Alleyn either on secondment to the New Zealand police (Colour Scheme and Died in the Wool) or on holiday (Vintage Murder and Photo Finish); Surfeit of Lampreys begins in New Zealand but continues in London. Notably, Colour Scheme includes M?ori people among its cast of characters, unusual for novels of the British mystery genre. This novel is said to further subvert the genre by incorporating elements of spy fiction and providing a veiled critique of the British Empire. In 2018, HarperCollins Publishers released Money in the Morgue by Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy. The book was started by Marsh during World War II but abandoned. Working with just the book's title, first three chapters and some notes - but no idea of the plot or motive of the villain - Duffy completed the novel. . First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.