Death in Ecstasy

Death in Ecstasy

First edition
Author	Ngaio Marsh
Language	English
Series	Roderick Alleyn
Genre	Detective fiction
Publisher	Geoffrey Bles
Publication date	1936
Media type	Print ()
Preceded by	The Nursing Home Murder
Followed by	Vintage Murder

Death in Ecstasy is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh, the fourth to feature her series detective, Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard. It was first published in 1936.

When lovely Cara Quayne drops to the floor dead after drinking the ritual wine at the House of the Sacred Flame, she was having a religious experience of a sort unsuspected by the other initiates. Discovering how the fatal prussic acid got into the wine is but one of the perplexing riddles that confronts Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn, when he is called upon to discover who poisoned this wealthy cult member.

Death in Ecstasy' centres around a dubious spiritual cult in fashionable 1930s London, with an even more suspect charismatic cult leader. According to Marsh's biographer Margaret Lewis,^[1] despite the author's conventional insistence that all the characters are fictitious, the book drew on an actual cult in 1890s Christchurch, NZ: Arthur Bentley Worthington's Temple of Truth.^[2]

Uncharacteristically, the novel dispenses with Marsh's usual introductory section establishing her characters, their relationships to each other and motives, plunging straight into journalist Nigel Bathgate's spur-of-the-moment attendance at The Temple of the Sacred Flame, where a sudden death takes place. In her Preface, the author thanks Robin Page "for his advice on sodium cyanide", Guy Cotteril "for his plan of the Temple", and Robin and Adamson "for the friendly ingenuity in the preparation of household poisons".

Storyline[]

On a gloomy December Sunday evening, disciples of a spiritual cult recently established in fashionable Belgravia (London) by the charismatic Jasper Garnett make their way through the pouring rain to The Temple of the Sacred Flame for an act of worship. On a whim, journalist Nigel Bathgate slips in and witnesses the sudden collapse and death of one of the cult members, the beautiful, wealthy orphan Cara Quayne, immediately after drinking from the ritual goblet of wine, which proves to contain cyanide. Bathgate, the 'Watson' of Alleyn's early cases, attaches himself to the police investigation into Cara Quayne's death and the circumstances surrounding The Temple.

Actors[]

Jasper Garnett, priest in the Temple of the Sacred Flame

Seven initiates:

Samuel J. Ogden, Church warden, businessman & investor in The Temple.

Raoul de Ravigny, Church warden & wealthy dilettante.

Cara Quayne, the "Chosen Vessel", a wealthy and beautiful orphan.

Janie Jenkins, the youngest of the initiates.

Maurice Pringle, Janie Jenkins' fiancé and a reluctant initiate.

Ernestine Wade, the eldest of the initiates.

Others:

Claude Whitley & Lionel Smith, attendants at The Temple.

Dr. Nicholas Kasbek, witness.

The Gatekeeper Of The Temple.

Edith Laura Hebborn, Cara Quayne's nurse.

Wilson, Cara Quayne's maid.

Mr. Ratisbon, Cara Quayne's lawyer - a regular character in Ngaio Marsh's detective novels.

Elsie, Mr. Ogden's housekeeper.

Roderick Alleyn, chief inspector of Scotland Yard.

Inspector Fox, his assistant.

Sergeant Bailey, his finger-print specialist.

Dr. Curtis, his district doctor.

Nigel Bathgate, his Watson, a young journalist.

Radio and television adaptations[]

A television episode in 1964 had Geoffrey Keen in the lead role, Keith Barron as Nigel Bathgate, Joss Ackland as Jasper Garnett and Nigel Hawthorne as a temple doorkeeper.^[3]

A dramatisation by John Tidyman of the novel was broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Night Theatre in September 1969, with Peter Howell as Alleyn and Gary Watson as Nigel Bathgate.^[4]

External links[]

• "Recent Mystery Fiction (1937 review)". Otago Daily Times in Papers Past. 13 March 1937.
• "Photograph of Temple of Truth Christchurch". Te Ara, New Zealand. 2020.</ref>

References[]