This is the first book in Marsh's series of mysteries featuring Inspector Roderick Alleyn. It was written in the 1930s, in the heyday of British mysteries (although Marsh was from New Zealand). I read this about 30 years ago and that was long enough for me to have vague memories of the story but not remember who the murderer was. Alleyn is a rare detective who comes from the upper classes and was educated at Oxford. After working for the diplomatic service he turned to policing. The story is a classic one of a British house party where a "murder game" is played but one of the guests actually ends up dead, stabbed with his own dagger. The victim's cousin, Nigel Bathgate, is also in attendance and ends up helping Alleyn with the investigation while still being a suspect because of inheriting the victim's fortune. Bathgate reappears in later stories about Alleyn. Of course, there are multiple characters who could be the killer (including the butler). A side story about a band of Russian anarchists enhances the investigation. Inspector Alleyn is still single in this volume and appreciates young, eligible women, but not in a creepy way. He meets and marries artist Agatha Troy in a later book.
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