Death and the Dancing Footman: Inspector Roderick Alleyn (Volume 11) - Ngaio Marsh Audiobook

Written by Ngaio Marsh
Read by James Saxon
Format: Opus
Bitrate: 32 Kbps
Unabridged

Everyone has his secret fear of which even his closest friends know or suspect nothing. Jonathan Royal’s private hell was the fear of boredom. He was elderly, unmarried, well-off, secure in his fine house and large estate. But he was bored; he must devise new means of distraction. He had his interests, of course, such as supporting surrealist plays; indeed he had done much to establish the reputation of young Aubrey Mandrake, the poetic dramatist. And it was to Aubrey that he explained his latest idea. This was his invitation to seven friends whom he knew were each hateful to one another. That is to say, not everyone hated everyone else, but no single member of this party would be on good terms with all the rest only Aubrey himself; who knew none of them, would be an `outsider’, so to speak.
The seven friends would arrive the following day at Jonathan’s home to spend the week-end. None of them knew of the impending presence of the others, and once assembled it would be very difficult to separate. The winter was severe; they would have to stay indoors, remote from other diversions. Jonathan himself would blandly act as host, assiduously keeping the party in being. It would be the greatest fun to watch their reactions, to see how they would have to settle down to the enforced communal isolation. It might well give Aubrey an idea for a play. It would, in fact, be a play in itself, as Jonathan delightedly pointed out, with Aubrey as audience.
And a play it was to be, with the ‘curtain’ coming down on the miserable exit of a murderer. But that last act was not to be written by Jonathan, but by Inspector Alleyn, who had been called in to unravel the `plot’.