Although it looks like suicide, Alleyn knows it's murder. That same night, a police deputy tracks a suspect back to the Unicorn where Props is found hanging from the rafters. Gardener previously told Alleyn someone stepped on his foot in the dark but when everyone's movements are replayed, no such event happened. Alleyn arrests Saint for drug smuggling but is coy publicly about what the exact charges are.Īlleyn asks for a recreation of everyone's movements backstage before the play began. When Alleyn searches the actor's flat, he finds a what looks like a sheet Arthur used to practice copying Wakeford's signature. The letter was allegedly written by a journalist named Edward Wakeford, but many people believe Arthur wrote it himself as an attempt to blackmail his wealthy uncle. The actor's uncle, Jacob Saint, owns the Unicorn and was once the target of a slanderous letter that accused him of being involved in a drug smuggling ring. Alleyn learns very little from his interviews but suspects Props, the prop manager, knows more than he lets on lest because he dropped a chandelier on the stage in an ill-fated attempt to escape.Īlleyn, aided by Bathgate and Inspector Fox, begins to look into Surbonadier's personal life. The prop bullets have a similar substance on them. They are later found covered in white stage makeup. Veteran actress Susan Max informs Alleyn a pair of grey woollen gloves she knitted have disappeared. The prop bullets were stored in a desk and must have been switched when the lights went out before the play began.
He fought with Gardener about several things, most importantly actress Stephanie Vaughn. Arthur Surbonadier really is dead having been shot when the prop bullets in the Rat's gun were switched with real ones.Īlleyn takes control of the investigation and learns nearly everyone in the cast hated Surbonadier. The Beaver stares angrily at the Rat and drops dead. In the climax, the Rat makes a dramatic entrance and shoots the Beaver, played by Arthur Surbonadier. The production is fantastic and Alleyn and Bathgate's eyes are glued to the stage.
The star of the show is Felix Gardener, a friend of Nigel's who plays the titular Rat. Journalist Nigel Bathgate accompanies his friend Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn to a production of "The Rat and the Beaver" at the Unicorn Theatre. This novel marks the first appearance of Alleyn's sidekick, Inspector Fox. Unfortunately for the murderer, Inspector Alleyn is in the audience. The novel is the first of the theatrical novels for which Marsh was to become famous, taking its title from a line of stage direction in Macbeth, and the plot concerns the on-stage murder of an actor who has managed to antagonize nearly every member of the cast and crew. Enter a Murderer is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh it is the second novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1935.
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