• False Scent

  • By: Ngaio Marsh
  • Narrated by: James Saxon
  • Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (150 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
False Scent  By  cover art

False Scent

By: Ngaio Marsh
Narrated by: James Saxon
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.52

Buy for $14.52

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

In a poisonous cloud of spray, the curtain falls on a drama queen. Little did beloved British actress Mary Bellamy know that she would be done in at her own birthday party - choked by toxic mist from the bottle of Slaypest, a deadly insecticide.

Basking in the glow of her most adoring fans - who all happened to be her most duplicitous enemies - Mary would make her final performance.

When Superintendent Roderick Alleyn arrives, he smells a rat amongst the contemptuous collection of theatre types detained at the party, for this case has the unmistakable scent of murder....

©1960 Original Text of 1960 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The brilliant Ngaio Marsh ranks with Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers." ( Times Literary Supplement)
"Miss Marsh triumphs." ( Daily Telegraph)
"High-spirited, amusing...neatly contrived from start to finish." ( New Statesman)

What listeners say about False Scent

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    101
  • 4 Stars
    39
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    102
  • 4 Stars
    21
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    81
  • 4 Stars
    37
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Funny, clever, completely engaging

One of Marsh's best. Such a clever reveal! Characters and dialogue are tremendously entertaining. This story evokes the bygone London theater world and the quirky types who inhabit it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Smooth and impeccable plotting by author—the narrator was extremely capable

Recommend reading (and/or listening to) Ngaio Marsh. The vocabulary introduced is much more sophisticated than many modern mystery writers.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Always good

I am really enjoying this series. I first discovered it on Audible Plus and have gone on to purchase many of the books. Marsh creates interesting characters in a good who dun it.Part of the stories are too drawn out at towards the end but that doesn't keep them from being 5. stars... Marsh is often compared to Christie .One thing Christie ha that Marsh does not is the great Hercules Poirot.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

one of the best

Definitely one of the best NM novels, if only for the really excellent first and second chapters which, missing a murder or a corpse, yet prove most engrossing in how the characters are depicted and interact. This is a collaboration and is almost seamless except for some repetitive passages and redundant scenes in the later chapters. I am inspired to relisten to other NM novels now.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!