Lockridge, Frances and Richard - Death of an Angel (1955)

The theater atmosphere in Death of an Angel (1955) is probably the closest American equivalent of Ngaio Marsh's theater mysteries. The opening chapters of this book (Chapters 1 - 2) have considerable charm. The Lockridges' characters are considerably less eccentric than Marsh's. They also do a lot more drinking, in the American style - see Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man (1933), and Craig Rice.

Mike Grost