Opening Night (novel)
''Opening Night'' is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the sixteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1951. It was published in the United States as ''Night at the Vulcan''. The novel is one of the theatrical ones for which Marsh was best known, and concerns the murder of an actor backstage on opening night of a new play in London. The play is being performed at the Vulcan Theatre; it was formerly known as the Jupiter Theatre, renamed after an infamous murder recounted in the Alleyn short story "I Can Find My Way Out". The old crime is referenced in the text. Martyn Tarne, a young and inexperienced actress from New Zealand, finds herself involved in a play where her own heredity plays a significant role in a minor part. As the understudy for a minor role, Martyn is caught up when Inspector Roderick Alleyn begins investigating a murder made to appear a suicide. The book also sees the return of Lord Michael Lamprey. A child witness in ''A Surfe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Novels Set In London
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Novels About Actors
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1951 British Novels
Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt. * January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment. * January 20 – Winter of Terror: Avalanches in the Alps kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time, in Switzerland, Austria and Italy. * January 21 – Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea erupts catastrophically, killing nearly 3,000 people and causing great devastation in Oro Province. * January 25 – Dutch author Anne de Vries releases the first volume of his children's novel '' Journey Through the N ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roderick Alleyn Novels
Roderick, Rodrick or Roderic (Proto-Germanic ''* Hrōþirīks'', from ''* hrōþiz'' "fame, glory" + ''* ríks'' "king, ruler") is a Germanic name, recorded from the 8th century onward.Förstemann, ''Altdeutsches Namenbuch'' (1856)740 Its Old High German forms are ''Hrodric, Chrodericus, Hroderich, Roderich, Ruodrich'' (etc.); in Gothic language ''Hrōþireiks''; in Old English language it appears as ''Hrēðrīc'' or ''Hroðrīc'', and in Old Norse as ''Hrǿríkʀ'' (Old East Norse ''Hrø̄rīkʀ'', ''Rø̄rīkʀ'', Old West Norse as ''Hrœrekr, Rœrekr''). In the 12th-century ''Primary chronicle'', the name is reflected as , i.e. ''Rurik''. In Spanish and Portuguese, it was rendered as ''Rodrigo'', or in its short form, ''Ruy, Rui, or Ruiz'', and in Galician, the name is ''Roi''. In Arabic, the form ''Ludhriq'' (لذريق), used to refer Roderic (Ulfilan Gothic ''*Hroþareiks''), the last king of the Visigoths. Saint Roderick (d. 857) is one of the Martyrs of Córdoba. Th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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George Baker (British Actor)
George Morris Baker, MBE (1 April 19317 October 2011) was an English actor and writer. He was best known for portraying Tiberius in ''I, Claudius'', and Inspector Wexford in ''The Ruth Rendell Mysteries''. Early life Baker was born in Varna, Bulgaria. His father was an English businessman and honorary vice consul and his mother an Irish Red Cross nurse who moved to Bulgaria to help fight cholera. He attended Lancing College, Sussex; he then appeared as an actor in repertory theatre and at the Old Vic. Career Early film stardom Baker's first film was '' The Intruder'' (1953). He made his name in '' The Dam Busters'' (1955), and his first starring role was in ''The Ship That Died of Shame'' (1955) with Richard Attenborough. Baker also starred as a leading man in ''The Woman for Joe'' (1955) opposite Diane Cilento; '' The Feminine Touch'' (1956), playing a handsome doctor in a nurse film; ''A Hill in Korea'' (1956), playing a heroic soldier, with Robert Shaw and Stanley Baker ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ngaio Marsh Theatre (TV Series)
''Ngaio Marsh Theatre'' was a 1977 television miniseries which adapted four of the author's Inspector Roderick Alleyn detective novels for New Zealand television. The British actor George Baker starred in the title role. The series adapted three Alleyn novels that were set in New Zealand ('' Vintage Murder'', ''Colour Scheme'', and ''Died in the Wool'') along with the London-set '' Opening Night''. The last mentioned featured a major character from New Zealand coming to England to work in the theatre. The series was originally screened on Television New Zealand. A later broadcast on PBS in the United States was the first American screening of a New Zealand television drama. Cast * George Baker as Roderick Alleyn Local actors who appeared in the series included Terence Cooper, Don Selwyn and Ian Watkin Ian Watkin (25 January 1940 – 18 May 2016) was a New Zealand actor known for the films ''Braindead'' and '' Sleeping Dogs''. Watkin grew up in Greymouth, and started his c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Detective Novel
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades. History Ancient Some scholars, such as R. H. Pfeiffer, have suggested that certain ancient and religious texts bear similarities to what would later be called detective fiction. In the Old Testament story of Susanna and the Elders (the Protestant Bible locates this story within the apocrypha), the account told by two witnesses broke down when Daniel cross-examines ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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WikiProject Books
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spinsters In Jeopardy
''Spinsters in Jeopardy'' is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the seventeenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1954. The novel is set in Southern France, where Alleyn, his painter wife Agatha Troy and their young son Ricky are holidaying, although Alleyn is also tasked by his Scotland Yard superiors with meeting French police colleagues to discuss international drug trafficking through Marseilles. On the overnight sleeper train from Paris, the Alleyns witness what appears to be a fatal night-time stabbing in the illuminated window of a dramatically-set mediaeval castle overlooking the railway line. This proves to be the resort of an élite, louche group of socialites who are dabbling in Black Magic under the auspices of a smoothly dubious host and 'high priest' of a cult that clearly involves recreational drug-taking, with vulnerable wealthy women potentially exploited. Alleyn's investigations are complicated by the kidnapping of Ricky from their ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Swing Brother Swing
''Swing, Brother, Swing'' is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the fifteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1949. The plot concerns the murder of a big band accordionist in London; the novel was published as ''A Wreath for Rivera'' in the United States. Plot Its opening chapter a series of sharply contrasting letters, telegrams and gossip column press items, the novel soon brings together its cast of characters at the Belgravia home (Duke's Gate, London SW1) of the eccentric, outrageous Lord Pastern & Bagott, his long-suffering, coiffed and corseted French wife Lady Cécile and her daughter by a previous marriage Félicité (Fée) de Suze. Apart from the extensive domestic staff and Lady Pastern's companion-secretary Miss Henderson, we meet a family cousin Hon. Edward Manx and Lord Pastern's niece Carlisle Wayne, returning from war work overseas to be reunited with a family she now observes with affectionate irritation and cool detachment. The ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |