Red boards, black cloth backstrip, 232 pp. Spine ends & corners bumped & rubbed (bottom corners to boards), name on pastedown blotted out with marker, price inked on ffep, heavy marker on top edges. Dame Ngaio Marsh, a native of New Zealand, published her first mystery novel, A Man Lay Dead, in 1934 and her last, Light Thickens, appeared posthumously in 1982. She is often ranked with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers -- and was also a noted theatrical producer & instructor.

FICTION, MYSTERY & CRIME