Editing Ngaio Marsh (section)

==Career==
[[File:Ngaio Marsh, 1940s.jpg|thumb|Ngaio Marsh, 1940s]]
Internationally she is best known for her 32 [[Detective fiction|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 Detective Fiction|Golden Age]] of the 1920s and 1930s.<ref name="CR"/> Agatha Christie held that both [[Muriel Spark]] and Ngaio Marsh wrote ''a very good detective story''.<ref> {{cite book |last= Cook |first= Cathy |title= The Agatha Christie Miscellany |accessdate=  |edition=  |orig-date= |year= 2013 |publisher= The History Press |location= Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK |isbn= 978-0-7524-7960-6  |oclc=  |page= 64 }}</ref>

All her novels feature British [[Criminal Investigation Department|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]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harding |first1=Bruce |title=Ngaio Marsh: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction |date=2019 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-0-7864-6032-8 |page=16 |url=https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/ngaio-marsh/ |access-date=15 July 2020}}</ref> Alleyn marries a painter, Agatha Troy, whom he meets during an investigation (''Artists in Crime''), and who features in three later novels.<ref name="CR"/>

Most of the novels are set in England, but four are set in New Zealand,{{sfn|Bargainnier|1981|p=95}} 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 [[Māori people]] among its cast of characters, unusual for novels of the British mystery genre.<ref name="Colour scheme">{{cite journal |last1=Allmendinger |first1=Blake |title=Colour blindness, race, and (post)colonial detective fiction Ngaio Marsh's 'colour scheme' |journal=Journal of New Zealand Literature |date=2019 |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=69–90 |jstor=26816899 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26816899}}</ref> This novel is said to further subvert the genre by incorporating elements of spy fiction and providing a veiled critique of the British Empire.<ref name="Colour scheme" />

In 2018, HarperCollins Publishers released ''Money in the Morgue'' by Ngaio Marsh and [[Stella Duffy]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.harpercollins.co.nz/9780008207113/money-in-the-morgue/|title=Money in the Morgue – Stella Duffy – Paperback|work=Harper Collins New Zealand|access-date=23 April 2018}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/23/money-morgue-ngaio-marsh-stella-duffy-roderick-alleyn-detective-review|title=Money in the Morgue by Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy review – Inspector Alleyn returns|last=Hannah|first=Sophie|date=23 March 2018|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=23 April 2018}}</ref>