Death in Ecstasy — Ngaio Marsh

Among many strange sects and places of worship in London perhaps one of the strangest was the group that met every Sunday evening at the House of the Sacred Flame on Knocklatchers Row.

At one of the special monthly services, Cara Quayne was chosen to drink the wine of ecstasy. The cup went around the circle of Initiates and finally came to Cara, who tipped back her head, drained the cup--and fell to the floor, dead.

It then became the task of Inspector Roderick, Alleyn of Scotland Yard, and his plodding but' shrewd assistants, Fox and Bailey, to nail the culprit in this bizarre case of devotion and murder.