Product Description

Dreams of stardom had lured Martyn Tarne from faraway New Zealand to make the dreary, soul-destroying round of West End agents and managers in search of work. The Vulcan Theatre had been her last forlorn hope, and now, driven by sheer necessity, she was glad to accept the humble job of dresser to its leading lady. And then came the eagerly awaited Opening Night. To Martyn the night brought a strange turn of the wheel of fortune - but to one distinguished member of the cast it was to bring sudden and unforeseen death...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64959 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-06
• Format: Audiobook
• Number of items: 3
• Binding: Audio CD
• 176 pages

About the Author
Ngaio Marsh was born and educated in New Zealand. Along with Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Dorothy L. Sayers, she was classed as one of the four original 'Queens of Crime' - female British crime writers who dominated the crime fiction genre in the 1920s and 1930s.

Customer Reviews

Opening Night
This is one of Ngaio Marsh's best, and that means it is very good, but beware that "Night at the Vulcan" is the American title. In the UK it has always been published as "Opening Night".

Night at the Vulcan/opening night
This book confirms Ms. Marsh in the topflight of the genre. We follow the beautifully detailed and knowledgeably described course of a new play from dress rehearsal to the opening night. The cast is a richly and sympathetically imagined group and into this mixture enters a breathless ingenue who has the classical dream that "next day on your dressing room they hang a star"!. Sounds like a cliche? Well yes okay but what is a cliche but a much told truth? And here it is told with mouthwatering skill. Oh and by the way there is a very satisfactory murder,each member of the cast has a motive and Supt Alleyn has the job of disentangling them. This is a book to read and re reread. You will stick the pages with sellotape as they fall out with too many uses. You will perhaps not be suprised to hear that I love this book. Its up there with Caroline Graham's "Death of a hollow man", which it slightly resembles.

One of Marsh's top ten
This is Miss Marsh at the very top of her form. The story is beautifully written and extremely entertaining. The characterisation is sophisticated and memorable. A delight.