NGAIO MARSH TO READ HER NEW THRILLER AT 2YA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 85, 7 February 1941, Page 9

NGAIO MARSH TO READ HER NEW THRILLER AT 2YA

T was King John who died of a surfeit of lampreys. But listeners may be assured that in her new novel "Surfeit of Lampreys," Ngaio Marsh does not write about what J. R. Green describes as a " gluttonous debauch " of one of the worst of English Kings. The Lampreys in her new detective story, which the National Broadcasting Service will begin broadcasting on Wednesday, February 12, are an aristocratic family who come to New Zealand to farm sheep, fail in that, as they fail in pretty well everything except charm, and go back to England. Before the Lampreys leave they make a close friend of a New Zealand girl, and when she is orphaned she goes to England and stays with them. Then the crime is committed, and enter our old friend Chief-Inspector Alleyn, of Scotland Yard, accompanied by his trusty assistant Fox. Who killed ? Alleyn of course finds out, but only after much labour for himself and much excitement for the reader. The waters he explores are deep and dark. Detective fans will enjoy "Surfeit of Lampreys," which is published in America under the title of "Death of a Peer." It is Ngaio Marsh at her best, and her best is very good-so good that a London paper says of her that "for many people she is now to be numbered with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers "-acknowledged masters of their craft. America has acclaimed her as weil as Britain. Her books have been translated into four foreign languages-Dutch, Swedish, Italian, and Polish. "Surfeit of Lampreys" ("Death of a

Peer") is Ngaio Marsh’s ninth novel, and bids fair to surpass all the others in popularity. She has had advice from the United States of its immediate success on publication towards the end of 1940. London publication was fixed for January. The NBS has obtained-the rights for "Surfeit of Lampreys" and will begin broadcasting it at 2YA on Wednesday evening, February 12. This is one of -the most ambitious and most novel of NBS enterprises. For not only will this detective novel be broadcast simultaneously with publication, but the author herself will be the broadcaster. Ngaio Marsh

is to tell her own story over the air, and no one who heard her radio account of the meeting of the Detection Club that she attended in London, will want any more persuasion. The first broadcast of "Surfeit of Lampreys" will be heard on Wednesday evening, February 12, from 2YA, and it will be continued twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays.