18 books like Death at the Bar

What to read after Death at the Bar — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Death and the Dancing Footman Ngaio Marsh · 1941 · ★ 4.0 · 331p · ≈ 11h · Challenging With the notion of bringing together the most bitter of enemies for his own amusement, a bored, mischievous millionaire throws a house party. As a brutal snowstorm strands the unhappy guests, the party receives a most unwelcome visitor: death. Now the brilliant inspector Roderick Alleyn must step in to decipher who at the party is capable of cold-blooded murder. Inspector Alleyn receives a late… Shares: Alleyn, Roderick Alleyn, Police, England

Death in a White Tie Ngaio Marsh · 1938 · ★ 4.1 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Challenging A body in the back of a taxi begins an elegantly constructed mystery, perhaps the finest of Marsh's 1930s novels.The season had begun. Debutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas, dinners, balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim.But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that something was up. He had already planted his friend… Shares: Alleyn, Roderick Alleyn, Police, England

Colour scheme Ngaio Marsh · 1943 · ★ 3.8 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Challenging Often regarded as her most interesting book and set on New Zealand's North Island, Ngaio Marsh herself considered this to be her best-written novel. It was a horrible death -- Maurice Questing was lured into a pool of boiling mud and left there to die. Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, far from home on a wartime quest for German agents, knew that any number of people could have killed him: the… Shares: Alleyn, Roderick Alleyn, Police, England

Opening night Ngaio Marsh · 1951 · ★ 4.0 · 238p · ≈ 7h · Moderate "The theatre plays backdrop to romance and murder . . . Good reading." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Newly arrived from New Zealand and in need of funds, Martyn Tarne takes a job as a dresser to the Vulcan Theater's leading lady. Along with a paycheck, this also provides her with a ringside seat to the backstage circus—and the eventual murder that occurs on opening night.… Shares: Alleyn, Roderick Alleyn, Police, England

Clutch of constables Ngaio Marsh · 1968 · ★ 4.1 · 248p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Five Days Out of Time … that was how the ad had described the Zodiac cruise on the “weirdly misted” English river. The passengers were the usual, unusual lot: a couple of unpleasantly hygienic Americans, an aloof Ethiopian doctor, a snooping cleric with a wall-eye, an artist running away from her success… But they were not all what they seemed. For Inspector Alleyn knew that one of them was… Shares: Alleyn, Roderick Alleyn, Police, England

Enter a Murderer (Roderick Alleyn #2) Ngaio Marsh · 1935 · ★ 3.8 · 184p · ≈ 6h · Challenging The script of the Unicorn Theatre's new play uncannily echoes a quarrel in the star's dressing room. And the stage drama gets all too real when charming Felix Gardener shoots his blustering rival, Arthur Surbonardier, dead-with a gun Arthur himself loaded with blanks. Or did he? How the live bullets got there, and why, make for a convoluted case that pits Inspector Roderick Alleyn against someone… Shares: Alleyn, Roderick Alleyn, Police, England

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman P. D. James · 1972 · ★ 3.8 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Moderate A Cordelia Gray MysteryMeet Cordelia Gray: twenty-two, tough, intelligent and now sole inheritor of the Pryde Detective Agency. Her first assignment finds her hired by Sir Ronald Callender to investigate the death of his son Mark, a young Cambridge student found hanged in mysterious circumstances. Required to delve into the hidden secrets of the Callender family, Cordelia soon realizes it is not… Shares: Roderick Alleyn, Police, England, Mystery

A Shilling for Candles (Inspector Alan Grant #2) Josephine Tey · 1936 · ★ 3.9 · 197p · ≈ 6h · Challenging A woman's body is found on the English seacoast, and twisted in her hair is an article screaming murder. For Inspector Alan Grant, the case becomes a nightmare, as too many clues and too many motives arise. (cc. Edmonton Public Library website.) Shares: Police, England, Mystery

Death at the president's lodging J. I. M. Stewart · 1936 · ★ 3.2 · 232p · ≈ 7h · Challenging Inspector Appleby is called to St Anthony's College, where the President has been murdered in his Lodging. Scandal abounds when it becomes clear that the only people with any motive to murder him are the only people who had the opportunity - because the President's Lodging opens off Orchard Ground, which is locked at night, and only the Fellows of the College have keys. Shares: Police, England, Mystery

Peril in Paris Rhys Bowen · 2022 · ★ 4.5 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Lady Georgiana Rannoch and her husband, Darcy, are awaiting the arrival of their baby when they receive an unexpected invitation to visit Paris. However, their trip quickly turns into a tangled web of international intrigue as they become embroiled in a mystery involving murder, espionage, and high-stakes politics. Shares: England, Mystery

Resurrection Men Double Sided A2 Poster Ian Rankin · 2001 · ★ 4.0 · 440p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Sent to a rehabilitation school after a serious mistake, Inspector John Rebus discovers that among his fellow "resurrection men" are a group of classmates plotting a drug heist and joins forces with his protTgT, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke to investigate ties to an art dealer's murder, a crime that could lead to scandal and danger at the highest level of law enforcement. 50,000 first… Shares: Police, Mystery

The Paradise Mystery Joseph Smith Fletcher · 1920 · ★ 3.7 · 210p · ≈ 7h · Challenging American tourists, sure appreciators of all that is ancient and picturesque in England, invariably come to a halt, holding their breath in a sudden catch of wonder, as they pass through the half-ruinous gateway which admits to the Close of Wrychester. Nowhere else in England is there a fairer prospect of old-world peace. There before their eyes, set in the centre of a great green sward, fringed… Shares: England, Mystery

The Unfinished Clue Georgette Heyer · 1934 · ★ 3.9 · 246p · ≈ 8h · Challenging It should have been a lovely English country-house weekend. But the unfortunate guest-list is enough to exasperate a saint, and irascible General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith was nobody's idea of the perfect host. In fact he was absolutely frightful. He bullied his wife, Fay, grumped at his guests, refused gleefully to help his financially stricken indigent nephew, and positively blew his stack… Shares: Police, England, Mystery

The daffodil murder Edgar Wallace · 1921 · ★ 3.4 · 261p · ≈ 8h · Challenging Ein Londoner Gescha˜ftsmann entla˜©t seineAngestellte fristlos. Kurze Zeit spa˜ter liegter erschossen im Gras des Hyde Park ... Shares: England, Mystery

The King of Diamonds Simon Tolkien · 2011 · ★ 4.2 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Moderate David Swain has spent two years of his life sentence for murdering the lover of his ex-girlfriend, Katya Osman. On the night he escapes from prison, Katya is found murdered in her uncle's home. Inspector Trave heads the manhunt for David, but his personal life becomes entangled in case because his ex-wife his having an affair with Katya's uncle. Shares: Police, England

All Shall Be Well Deborah Crombie · 1994 · ★ 4.4 · 243p · ≈ 8h · Moderate From an author who is “writing in P.D. James territory” (Associated Press) comes a compelling Scotland Yard detective novel in the entertaining Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James series.Perhaps it is a blessing when Jasmine Dent dies in her sleep. At long last an end has come to the suffering of a body horribly ravaged by disease. It may well have been suicide; she had certainly expressed her… Shares: Police, England, Mystery

Leave the Grave Green Deborah Crombie · 1995 · ★ 4.5 · 333p · ≈ 11h · Moderate When Connor Swann, the dissolute son-in-law of renowned and influential Sir Gerald and Dame Caroline Asherton, is found floating in a Thames River lock, the circumstances eerily recall a strangely similar tragedy. Twenty years ago, the Ashertons' young son, Matthew, a musical prodigy, drowned in a swollen stream while in the company of his sister Julia -- Connor Swann's wife.Police Superintendant… Shares: Police, England, Mystery

The Seven Dials Mystery Agatha Christie · 1920 · ★ 3.8 · 193p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Brings back several characters from an earlier novel, The Secret of Chimneys, in a story that can best be described as a John Buchan thriller told by P.G. Wodehouse. (https://agathachristie.fandom.com/wiki/The_Seven_Dials_Mystery) Consummate young silly ass Gerry Wade is the despair of hosts and hostesses across the land, with his inability to make it to breakfast before the eggs are congealed,… Shares: Police, England, Mystery

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