Off with His Head cover art

Off with His Head

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Off with His Head

By: Ngaio Marsh
Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
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About this listen

Pagan revelry and morris dancing in the middle of a very cold winter set the scene for one of Ngaio Marsh’s most fascinating murder mysteries.

When the pesky Anna Bünz arrives at Mardian to investigate the rare survival of folk dancing still practised there, she quickly antagonizes the villagers. But Mrs Bünz is not the only source of friction - two of the other enthusiasts are also spoiling for a fight.

When the sword dancers' traditional mock beheading of the Winter Solstice becomes horribly real, Superintendent Roderick Alleyn finds himself faced with a case of great complexity and of gruesome proportions....

©1957 Original Text of 1957 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio Cosy Crime Thrillers Fiction Genre Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Urban Thriller Detective City Winter

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Critic reviews

"The brilliant Ngaio Marsh ranks with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers." ( Times Literary Supplement)
"The incomparable Ngaio Marsh." ( Daily Express)
"Mrs Marsh’s work has the hallmark of the master. She is at the top of her form. Definitely first-class plus." ( Queen)
All stars
Most relevant  
loved the story and all the fine details and twitch&turns would read it again great!!

narrator was brilliant old aunt was great!

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This was a bit long winded. It draged on. Well read by the narrator who brought some life into the story.

Not the best

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I’ve recently embarked on a rereading on the Ngaio Marsh mysteries and am really enjoying them. I find it interesting that I missed the sense of a place in time the first time I read them (about 40 years ago). The characters in this one are firmly placed in a post war era, when pre war values are being eroded and the men who came back from fighting brought with them sights that they had seen on the battlefields and skills that have no place in peace time.
The narrator was a minor irritation, however, with a tendency to put the emphasis on the wrong word in a sentence or through haste read the wrong word eg referring to a male character and ‘her’ father. Fortunately he’s not reading the next in the series!

A sense of time and place

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The narrator, Rio Jerrom, did a great job with a very slow paced story that I might well have abandoned had he not injected some life into it. Fair but not vintage Ngaio Marsh.

A slow burner

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The narrator was extremely good but the story started with a large number (six) of one family of west country yokel characters and this made it tedious as it was hard to discern who was who amongst some of the minor ones - that I think was the fault of the author although was key to the plot. (I have also read the book years before and found it difficult to follow for the same reason). I kept having to replay sections as I dropped off to sleep and missed key parts. Nevertheless, the plot tied together in the end quite satisfactorily and was inventive and strangely plausible. Worth persevering although not one of her best.

Slow start but worth persevering

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I sent it back. The most boring story I've ever had the misfortune to listen to. Quite unlike any of the other Alleyn stories I've read or listened to, though the performance was fine.

Terrible.

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