High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Off With His Head is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the nineteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1957. The plot concerns a village festival in the English countryside, and features Morris dancing among other folkloric elements. The novel was published as Death of a Fool in the United States, a reference to the fact that the murder victim is playing a Fool in the festival.