Slightly Better Books
Author Focus:Margery Allingham
Murder Mystery; Crime Fiction; Classic English Detective Fiction
| Margery Allingham; also wrote as Maxwell March | ||
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****Hyperlinked titles will take you to our copy on sale or prebuilt searches of copies on sale****
Useful Links: Titles to Look Out For: Posthumous Works Her first detective story was 'The White Cottage Mystery', which was serialised in The Daily Express and published in 1928, but it was not till 1929 that she really made her name in fiction writing with the first of her Albert Campion stories: namely 'The Crime At Black Dudley'. During the war, she ventured briefly into writing in the area of social history, but has remained faithful to the characters she created. She got married to Philip Youngman Carter and lived on the edge of the Essex Marshes for many years. She died in 1966. |
On Amazon: Some selected items: |
 9th printing, Penguin, pbk In stock, click to buy for £13.85, not including p&p Alternative online retailers to try: Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Ebay
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Storyline/synopsis: Seven suspects all have an excellent motive for killing Eric Crowther, the mysterious recluse, who was an expert in making an enemy of everyone who had ever known him. The seven suspects all feared him and all wanted him dead - in fact, Eric Crowther left a loaded shotgun in the White Cottage to taunt his victims that they did not have the guts to shoot him. But one person did have the courage to pull the trigger; and someone had the nerve to move the corpse and remove something from a pocket. In the quest to identify that one person, Detective Inspector Challoner and his son Jerry search half way across Europe, in the process of which they unearth a secret and powerful crime society, against which their powers are mute. Continuing to investigate, they examine each of the suspects' pasts and motives before a surprising and unexpected conclusion is reached. Margery Allingham's first detective story was originally published as a newspaper serial Characters: Verdict: 6.5/10. |
9th Printing, Penguin, pbk
1978, Penguin, pbk |
 1967, Penguin, pbk Alternative online retailers to try: Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Ebay
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Storyline: Overnight a light-hearted weekend freezes into a deadly game of hide-and-seek... with nine young people somewhat relucantly participating in the Petrie family's Ritual of the Dagger, ending up trapped in their remote Suffolk mansion house called 'Black Dudley', with a corpse to account for, and Albert Campion at grips with a master criminal... or criminals? Or is Albert Campion working for the criminal side in the story? None of the other guests knows who he is, so when the murder occurs, Campion is a natural suspect... Campion's inoffensively idiotic voice (as Abbershaw puts it) and his flippant, jovial, and foolish manner lend him some protection from suspicion. Although a suspect, people can't quite believe he'd be involved with the murder; and his quick, intelligent, problem-solving brain is quite obviously on-side with them and working to get them all out of the house safely. The criminal element in the house is preventing the guests from leaving Black Dudley until they get something back that belongs to them. Question is, what is it exactly that they want? - none of the guests publicly seems to know, and the guest that does know more starts to realise that he may have made a serious mistake messing with their property. The seriousness of the situation dawns on him as he gradually becomes aware that the criminals are hardened, ruthless individuals. Characters: Chapters: Verdict: 7/10. Good characterisation, good story. I particularly liked the fact that in a story this old, the criminals were prepared to pick off guests and the good guys with a rifle and burn them to death if necessary- something you'd expect to see in modern crime novels, not ones from the 1920s. Campion is an interesting detective - he seems to work for the police sometimes but not all the time and in this story, he was initially working for what seems to have been a rival criminal gang to the ones Colonel Gordon Coombe usually worked with. This was a dangerous job and to all intents and purposes, it went badly wrong, but he survived using his wits and instinct. Particularly good was a bit later in the story where Campion picks a gang member's pocket and takes his gun, which comes in particularly useful in the conflict between the good and bad guys.
Overall a great story -makes you want to follow Campion on another adventure! |
2018, Bloomsbury Reader, pbk 2015, Vintage, pbk 2006, Felony & Mayhem, pbk 1991, Yestermorrow, hbk 1988, Avon Books, pbk |
 8th printing, 1989, Penguin, pbk Alternative online retailers to try: Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Ebay
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Storyline: Campion accepts a bet on the England-bound ship Elephantine that the handsome old man he's looking at across the deck will not be murdered within a fortnight, but little does he realise what trouble the old man is bringing with him. The elderly gentleman is an American from New York known as Judge Crowdy Lobbett and he's in a whole lot of danger from the Simister gang. He's been fighting them all his life and he's now in the position of having some leverage over them, having discovered a clue as to Simister's real identity. The Simister gang are aware he knows something and are trying to find out exactly what it is - that's quite apart from simply trying to kill him. They've already killed his butler, secretary, chauffeur and a man walking with him down the street. On board ship, a magician takes to the stage and Campion comes into his element, preventing yet another murder attempt successfully taking place involving the magician's disappearing cabinet; and it's this simple, but intelligent act that brings him to the attention of the Lobbetts and it takes only a further recommendation from Chief Inspector Deadwood of Scotland Yard to put him in charge of the Lobbett's safety and future in England. The arrangements for Campion to protect them are all sealed with a visit by Judge Lobbett's son, Marlowe, to Campion's headquarters above the Bottle Street police station in Piccadilly. Campion decides to isolate the Lobbetts on the Suffolk Coast in a spit of land where there is only one access road in and out of the place. The nearest village on the spit is Mystery Mile and it's surrounded by impassable mud flats and saltings and possesses only a half-dozen cottages, post-office, rectory and Manor House. So the area is controllable, any strangers would stand out and the risk to the Lobbetts reduced. Campion knows the family in the Manor House - Giles and Biddy - who agree to decamp to the Dower House so the Lobbetts (the judge, Isobel and Marlowe) can stay. Meanwhile the villagers of Mystery Mile keep an eye out for strangers and Campion, the Lobbetts, Giles, Biddy and the rector St. Swithin settle down to the new arrangements to take on Simister and his gang. Little do they realise that Simister already knows where they are and moves are afoot to finish what they started... Characters: Chapters Verdict: 8/10: better than 'The Crime at Black Dudley', but linked to that story via the chief crook, Simister, who had actually employed Campion (indirectly) on a task in that story. Note in this story also that Campion has a love interest - Biddy, who unfortunately goes off with someone else Campion has introduced to her... Campion is a bit of an all-conquering hero in this book and it doesn't do his character any harm. Some sections of the story are excellent, for example Campion's secret entrance to his flat (a service lift) and the ending is pretty unexpected and well-written |
2018, Bloomsbury Reader, pbk |
 2007, Vintage, pbk Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK Alternative online retailers to try: Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Ebay
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Storyline: Amateur detective Albert Campion is summoned by his old friend Marcus Featherstone to Cambridge to help Marcus's fiancée's great-aunt, Caroline Faraday, solve a murder in their midst - the death of her nephew, Andrew Seeley, whose body was pulled from the river Granta. Campion takes residence at the family home, Socrates Close, where his friend Marcus has prepared him a room. He must untangle a web of family resentments and hostilities towards one another and find out what the truth is behind Andrew's murder. His disappearance for a week after attending church one Sunday is unexplained; and the discovery of his body in a secluded stream has many suspicious circumstances surrounding it. The deaths don't just stop with Andrew - Julia is also found dead one morning poisoned by her morning cup of tea; and Uncle William is attacked and suffers a deep cut on the hand. Is there a rampant murderer on the loose? And why do mysterious symbols keep appearing on the house windows? Why has bad-penny outcast Cousin George Makepeace Faraday suddenly turned up in the area after all this time and at such a sensitive juncture? Is he involved in the deaths? Did he kill and attack the family? Campion must unravel a chillingly complicated plot to get to the true and startling fact behind the sudden killing spree within the Faraday family Characters: Chapters/Contents: Verdict: 8/10: |
2007, Vintage, pbk |
 1960, Penguin, pbk Sorry, out of stock, but click image above to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK Alternative online retailers to try: Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris Click here for our prebuilt search for any edition of this title on Ebay
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Storyline: The Gyrth Family had guarded the chalice (the Gyrth Chalice) which they held for the British Crown for hundreds of years. It was held by them for the crown, but the chalice despite its antiquity and beauty and the fact that no-one who stole it could ever dispose of it, was now threatened along with the lives and happiness of those who kept it. The chalice is irreplaceable and no ordinary thief could hope to acquire it and dispose of it; however it's no ordinary thief behind this plot. The criminals after the chalice are determined and they've specialised in stealing precious gems and treasures to order before; and that's the problem - they're under order to steal it for a private collection. Collectors don't operate under the same rules as the ordinary thief...not these collectors anyway - these six could buy almost anything they want; trouble is they now want things they can't have and the Gyrth Chalice is one of them. There's going to be a small problem getting the collectors to stop pursuing the Chalice and that problem is that they won't ever stop. Not, that is, unless the agent in charge of securing it is killed. Then, by the rules of the club, they will consider the matter at an end. Trouble is Campion doesn't know who the crooks' agent is... In offering to protect the Gyrth Chalice, Campion is endangering his life and protecting the Gyrth family from retribution by the Crown; for if the Chalice is lost, the Gyrth family forfeits all its possessions. There's also a critical date coming up for the Gyrth family. The young male successor in the Gyrth family, Val Gyrth, has his 25th birthday coming up very shortly on the 2nd July and it marks his initiation into the secret of the Gyrth Chalice, which includes his being shown a secret room in the East Wing of the Tower by his father. Unfortunately Val has had a disagreement with his father and is vagranting in London in protest; but finding Val and getting him back to his home village of Sanctuary, Suffolk, is all in a day's work for Campion. The stakes are high, Campion's taken to carrying a gun; and the gang of criminals try to kidnap Val. Lady Diana Pethwick (Val's Aunt) is then found dead in the Pharisees' Clearing within 8 hours of Val's prodigal return to the family estate and the chalice goes missing. It's easy to guard against the possible, but when it's the impossible, then that's not so easy and that's where Albert Campion comes in and why this story is told... Verdict: 8/10: An excellent and gripping storyline - not the best M. Allingham has written, but pretty close and still outstanding in quality and oomph. Look out for the hints about who Campion might be and it's apparent that he comes from a wealthy and powerful background (and is readily called upon by the establishment to deal with apparent threats, as with this threat to steal the Gyrth Chalice). Val notices that Campion resembles someone he knows when Campion has successfully lured him to his office, but we don't get to hear who that someone might be. Interesting that Campion is his own man in this story - he tells of being left a lifetime's worth of savings from his uncle, the Bishop of Devizes. Campion refers to two characters from Mystery Mile on page 120 - wishes that Marlowe Lobbett had picked on Penny instead of Biddy (Campion and Marlowe were love-rivals for Biddy). Nice to see M. Allingham providing continuity from and connection with previous stories. A nice thing about the 1956 Penguin edition is that when it gets to the part of the story concerning Mrs Dick Shannon's stables, there's a plan of Heronhoe Heath (p.214) showing where the gipsy encampment is in relation to her property; and those two in relation to the village of Sanctuary. Helps the reader place it all in context. Characters: Chapters: |
2017, Ipso, pbk 2006, Felony & Mayhem, pbk |
 1990, Penguin, 19th printing, pbk In stock, click to buy for £2.25, not including p&p Alternative online retailers to try: Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Ebay
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Storyline/synopsis: Campion's got some documents to find before villain and crime boss Brett Savanake gets hold of them and holds the British government and international affairs to ransom! It's a mission he's highly qualified for, at least that's what his employers think. But, does the village of Pontisbright hold the secret to their whereabouts and why are dead bodies turning up on the heath wrapped up in sheets with coins on their eyes? How it all starts: The story opens on the French Riviera with Guffy Randall approaching the Hotel Beauregard, Mentone, in his car and witnessing a hotel guest escape with bag and revolver through a ground floor window. The departee had a small, pink, ratlike face attached to a small body dressed in a brown suit. His eyes looked scared. This incident was a coincidence for Guffy and embroiled him in a much larger international affair, far from the reaches of his original reason for being in that location at that point, which was due to escorting an aged aunt to an Italian spa and heading home down the coast. Guffy stops at the hotel to warn the proprietor M. Étienne Fleury about the just-witnessed events outside the hotel. The hotel manager is pleased to see Guffy - knowing that Guffy is familiar and at ease with upper ranks of society; he lays before him a mystery currently occupying his mental powers - that of the residence of a Mr. Brown, a Mr. Robinson and a Mr. Jones, with a Mr. Smith waiting upon Robinson and Jones. The hotel proprietor is curious and he believes all three are nobility and wants Guffy's opinion. There is another problem - Mr. Smith, a more rough spoken character, stands accused by a neighbouring guest of ransacking his room. Needless to say, this neighbour turns out to have been the escaping crook Guffy witnessed. When the hotel manager invites Guffy to peer through a secret window onto the lounge where the "noblesse" were seated, he recognises Mr Brown as Jonathan Eager-Wright, a famous mountaineer. Another friend Dicky Farquaharson turns out to be another of the "nobles" and finally Campion is revealed as the third. All three are on a mission and Guffy conveniently was meant to be the fourth. Their mission essentially revolves around this: there's a very unimporant Kingdom called 'Averna' that is not well known and measures about 800 square acres in size which, through quirks of history, ended up being claimed by the English crown at the time of Richard I. King Richard wasn't impressed with the kingdom and awarded it to a mad family called Huntingforest as a snub and it's here that the tie to Pontisbright comes in - the Huntingforests are the ancestors of the Earls of Pontisbright. In 1400, the 5th Earl of Pontisbright had a crown made for Averna, and had deeds of ownership drawn up and signed and ratified by Henry IV. Averna, until now unimportant, gets hit by a huge earthquake, which opens it up as a natural harbour. Not only that, but oil is discovered in the land behind its castle. Averna therefore becomes a place of huge international significance and the documents entitling England to claim it as her territory HAVE to be found because they know that if they don't there are powerful enemes that will. The government hires Campion as the best person to do the job, on account of the sort of stuff he likes to get involved in! So, when we meet Campion, he actually holds the position of Hereditary Paladin of Averna (head of the country), Farquaharson is the government of Averna and Eager-Wright the opposition! It's at this point in the hotel on the French Riviera that Lugg enters in full rough-edged and humorous character, bearing a letter stolen from the neighbour that tips Campion and friends off that the next clue to the whereabouts of these deeds of ownership lies in Pontisbright. Verdict: 8/10: It's eay to love this book and for followers of Campion and Lugg, this is where he meets Miss Amanda Fitton, who is to feature large in his life in the future. You can also sense Campion noticing and appreciating Amanda for her common sense, level-headedness and zest for the chase, danger and excitement. The kidnap device used on Campion was unexpected and it leaves the right amount of speculation in the reader's mind as to who is responsible for some of the events happening at the Pontisbright Mill and those happening to the Pontisbrights, and allows you the anticipation of a return of Campion at some unexpected point in the story, plus the desire to know exactly what he's been up to and involved in when he does return! Characters: Chapters: |
1990, Penguin, pbk |
 2005, Vintage, pbk Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon Alternative online retailers to try: Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Ebay
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Storyline: Pig Peters, erstwhile chum of Albert Campion at Botolph's Abbey School, is dead. Lugg breaks the news to Campion whilst he's in bed munching breakfast - strange thing is though, the news has not just made the obituaries, but it's also come to Campion in an anonymous letter. Campion has not seen the man for many years, so the letter is a particularly odd occurrence (although at school he did promise he'd attend his funeral on one occasion when the two came into contact with each other during one of their altercations...). Campion's not sure he wants to go, but then the funeral is located close to the village of Kepesake, where Colonel Sir Leo Pursuivant lives...and his daughter Janet is quite a strong lure for Campion... . The funeral takes place in Tethering, and there is only a small gathering. Campion notices at one point during the proceedings, much to his surprise, that someone is clearing his throat vicously in exactly the way Pig Peters used to. Looking round, Campion can't spot the perpetrator of the cough, but he does discover Gilbert Whippet, his junior at Botolph's Abbey standing close by and it turns out that Gilbert has also been mysteriously invited to Pig's funeral. Outside the churchyard, Campion falls into conversation with a doctor from Tethering who had attended the funeral and it quickly emerges that Pig Peters had died from cardiac problems combined with pneumonia. Seems straightforward enough, but it doesn't explain the invites or coughing... Campion returns home and forgets all about the incident till June when a hysterical Janet phones up and tells him there's been a murder and asks him to come to Kepesake at once, which he duly does, taking both himself and Lugg down in the Lagonda to Highwaters. Sir Leo has a big surprise in store for him for there on the table in the police station is the body of non-other than "Pig" Peters, now known as Oswald Harris. The list of suspects is wide - Pig had not been making himself very popular, throwing his weight around as a land and property developer, about to change the very nature of the village of Kepesake with a dog-track, cinema dance-hall and hydro. This is quite apart from lending money to other estates and then foreclosing when the time is right to capitalise... The case has begun and before it's done there's going to be a lot of questions to answer, for example, Who is the MOLE? Where has Pig Peter's body disappeared to?; and who is the man watching the village through a telescope up the hill in the middle of the night - a man with Pig Peter's cough? This case could end up being quite a close call for both his and Lugg's survival... Verdict: 8/10. Actually quite a good storyline and well written - both Lugg and Campion are in peril in this one; and the appearing and disappearing body are a great touch. There's little indication of who did it till right at the end, so this story is a bit like Dancers in Mourning - the surprise of who did it is total; actually so is the method of Oswald Harris's demise (Pig Peters) - Campion doesn't reveal how the murderer did this until very late in the story. There's also lots of humour in the story with the straight man (Campion) - funny man (Lugg) act going on; Lugg's gritty and witty common-man's outlook on life provides a complementary nature and outlook to Campion's. As with Police at the Funeral, there is the odd bit of difficult and non-PC language, but it doesn't spoil the story, despite the discomfort because Allingham treats her characters with love and respect - she describes their quirks and natures fondly through Campion's eyes and the fact that Campion's nature is so well-developed means that you identify with his opinion and accept it as valid and a good assessment. Characters: |
2005, Vintage, pbk |
 Sorry, out of stock. No picture available Click title to access prebuilt Amazon search for this title Alternative online retailers to try: Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Ebay
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Storyline: In this story, we meet Uncle William again (from Police at the Funeral) and he's become a bit of a celebrity with the British public and it's all because of his memoirs. Having sat down to write them with every intention of sticking to the truth, he started to embellish parts of it and ended up with a finished product that came to the attention of a critic on a Sunday paper who described at as one of the funniest of the decade. It didn't stop there however, and we find Mr. William Faraday, and Campion, sitting in the Argosy Theatre watching the 300th performance of the stage show of his memoirs, called 'The Buffer', which is where the story starts. Jimmy Sutane, a talented dancer and the idol of music revue, is the victim of a series of practical jokes, some of them particulary vicious. This inane persecution attains such a degree that Mr Campion is invited to investigate by Uncle William. Mr Campion visits White Falls, Sutane's country house about 20 miles from London, and on his first night there the first of a number of pointless, seemingly irresponsible murders is perpetrated, not to mention the disappearance of Sutane's sister Eve. The victim is Chloe Pye, an intriguing unscrupulous woman and star of the old-time music hall days. Her death could have been an accident or perhaps suicide, but in either case it was extremely convenient for quite a few people. In an atmosphere of bewildering and increasing tension, and a situation not assisted by Mr Campion's emotional entanglements (he's fallen in love with Linda, Sutane's wife), the story is carried through to an unexpected, exciting climax. Verdict: 8/10. Margery Allingham really shows her expertise and experience as a crime writer with this story by completely throwing both her main character and her readers off the scent as to who the guilty party is in all of this. The problem is that you don't feel a lot of empathy for any of the characters in the story apart from Doctor Bouverie (mainly because of his just-so, earnest and serious outlook in life and his love of roses), Campion and Uncle William - oh and perhaps Linda too, but then you tend to think she got herself integrated into the Jimmy Sutane lifestyle and therefore has to bear some of the blame for her predicament. The other characters are slightly, if not quite, unlikeable and pointing the finger at them as being the murderer(s) means it wouldn't feel like much of a jolt to put them in prison, particularly Jimmy and Benny Konrad, of whom the latter is definitely one of life's oddities Note: In the Allingham Omnibus, Margery Allingham wrote that this book was the second of three novels designed to incorporate pictures of certain phases of contemporary life weaving into them convincing murder mysteries. Flowers for the Judge had presented a colourful view of Publishing, so Dancers in Mourning was aimed at doing the same for the Musical Stage. For Mr. Campion, his love affair with Linda was more serious than any flrtations he'd previously had and so marked a milestone in his life - a point that showed he was willing to entertain finding a serious relationship. The author also points out that this was the story where Campion was wrong about the perpetrator right up to the penultimate moment... Characters: |
2015, Vintage, pbk |
 1950, Penguin, pbk Sorry, sold out, but click image to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK Alternative online retailers to try: Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris Or click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Ebay
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Setting: The Fashion House of Papendeik, for whom Albert's sister Val is employed as head designer. Storyline: Georgia Wells was an exceedingly fortunate woman - and a very good actress in many ways. Her marriages and her affairs we always so arranged and seemingly touched by the hand of fate. They began with such flourishes and ended very conveniently. There was also never any scandal. But it did seem strange to Albert Campion that the conditions under which her menfolk were whisked from the scene appeared at times to be strangely similar. Albert had never met Georgia Wells - although he had heard about her of course, for who had not? - until she became interested in Alan Dell, head of Alandel airplane manufacturing, who had been taken with Albert's sister until he fell madly in love with Georgia. Albert needed to meet with Georgia and this wasn't too difficult since his sister was the cutting-edge dress designer for her, giving her glamorous fashion to dazzle her fans, lovers and audience with. The meeting therefore came about quite accidentally and from that point on, Albert noticed that events seemed to arrange themselves around Georgia, like the hand of fate at work; and some of them happened with glaringly suspicious repetitition, with her always at the centre. But was she directing these events herself, or was somebody else behind them? This was no ordinary case - Albert needed to work through a maze of facts, events and personalities to arrive at his conclusion; and the personal cost was almost deadly... Characters Mentioned [in order of appearance]: Verdict: 8/10. Really good read and showing all the marks of an experienced and skillful crime-writer, who has come on by leaps from the 'The Crime At Black Dudley'. The setting of the story in a fashion house is a good one and it works really well. There are a couple of surprising (one is shocking) references to theories of the day and the place of women in society. The text that will shock the modern reader refers to rape and it is very out of place and very unacceptable in what it implies. It's one of those instances that jars the reader, but it doesn't spoil the book. There's a lot of humour in the book too, for example when Tante Marthe asks Campion how Amanda keeps her stockings up and he replies that it's probably with two magnets and a dry-battery. The characterization is good, particularly Campion, Val and Georgia Wells, who comes across very much as someone who could act her way out of a locked trunk whilst wearing a straightjacket |
2006, Vintage, pbk |
 2005, Vintage Books, pbk Sorry, sold out, but click image above to access a prebuilt search for this item on Amazon UK
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Storyline: Campion simply could not remember anything, not a thing - not his name, not why he had woken in hospital accused of killing a policeman, where he was, nothing: his mind was a blank, his memory gone: his brain groped for knowledge as a baby's would. Yet he was very aware that he had to do something quickly, and he became increasingly, urgently aware that that something was of immense importance. At first, when he had awoken in the hospital bed alone, untended, and in the dark, he had not been able to react at all. But then afterwards, once he had managed, by some incredible fluke, to get out of the place, to get away in a car and then to be picked up when that went wrong, people seemed to accept him. Not just accept him, but expect him to do something. What is more, they were prepared to stand for the oddest behaviour, no questions asked Trouble is - what had he been working on and why? How long had he got to address this important something and how was he going to do that with no memory and no-one he could ask without alerting everyone to the fact that he'd got himself into a bit of bother that had ended up risking the whole mission? No, the only way forward was for Campion to start piecing it all back together again and hope that he could do it in time and with the help of the rock-solid Amanda and Lugg for support. As for the policeman's death - that was going to be a huge problem, if only he could remember what had happened... Verdict: 8/10: For all those who do have a few Campion's under their belt before they read this one, then this book might be a bit frustrating because you keep wishing Campion would get his act together when he's wandering around at the start of the book trying to work out what he's supposed to be doing and what mystery he was actively solving. I know he was knocked out by thugs when he was getting too close for comfort, but I get the distinct feeling that M. Allingham was trying to craft the story a bit too carefully round Campion's loss of memory and tried too hard to keep it within the bounds of reason. As a result I think it has come out a bit lumpish and awkward. It does get better though - much better and is at its best when Campion gets hold of some handgrenades using them to dramatic effect. Characters: |
2006, Vintage, pbk |
 2005, Vintage Books, pbk Sorry, sold out, but click image above to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK
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Background to the Story: In 'The Mysterious Mr. Campion' omnibus, Margery Allingham described this story as the second part of an experiment - the first had been created in 'More Work for the Undertaker' when she'd made Campion team up with Chief Inspector Charles Luke and made real detectives out of the two of them - sort of a crime busting partnership. She had felt that the post-war world needed this change in Mr Campion. Trouble was once you up the level of sophistication and authority in your detective figures, you need them to fight an altogether more serious and somewhat nastier type of criminal. Storyline: It's all about treasure - treasure on the French coast at Ste Odile-sur-mer, left in a house that used to belong to the now deceased Major Martin Elginbrodde; and it's this magic word and image that's driving the troubles from start to finish of this story; troubles that involve his former comrades-in-arms. 25 year old Meg Elginbrodde, Major Elginbrodde's widow is happy to be marrying her fiancé Geoffrey Levett...well, she would be if she wasn't receiving mail in the post showing her dead husband alive and well and wandering the streets of London. Campion thinks it's blackmail attached to the forthcoming marriage, but her father Canon Avril thinks it may actually be Martin, alive but with some kind of madness. Campion, Divisional Detective Chief Inspector Charles Luke, "Charlie Luke" and Meg rendezvous at the mainline London station where "Martin" is going to appear according to a message written on his latest letter. Geoffrey waits in the taxi outside. Meg spots the miscreant and runs towards him convinced he is her husband, but he just turns and runs away...while outside an unobtrusive, innocuous street band plays its dreary thumping tune in Crumb Street. When the man is caught, he's very frightened, but it's quickly apparent that the fear is not of the police, but of someone else unknown - someone who may take reprisals against him for messing up. The case throws up mystery after mystery - for instance, who stole Martin Elginbrodde's jacket from the rectory right under his widow's nose? And just where has Geoffrey Levett got to? When he goes missing completely, it's up to Campion to put two-and-two together as to where he may have got to... Verdict: 9/10. Wonderful story, truly, but with faults (e.g. when Geoffrey Levett is tied up in the cellar and is ignored by Jack Havoc - this just doesn't ring true for a man who is supposed to have lost control...). This story would make a super film - particularly the scene when the evil perpetrator breaks into Meg Elginbrodde's bridal house, which both her and Amanda have gone to see. The house is in darkness due to their being no connected electricity and this sets up the perfect atmosphere for terror and suspense - they can both hear the intruder searching the house with a violent intensity and at one point, he brushes past Amanda Fitton in the dark inside the house and she just doesn't realise the amount of danger she is in - he would have no scruples at all about dispensing with her. This is one of the scenes of pure energetic vitality and suspense in the book; matched only by the scene later on involving the perpetrator and Canon Avril, where the dialogue is skillfully written and the outcome of the scene is tense, unexpected, and yet one that makes sense despite the murderous nature of the criminal. Characters: |
2015, Vintage, pbk |
 1963, Penguin, pbk Alternative online retailers to try: Click here for our prebuilt search for any edition of this title on Alibris Click here for our prebuilt search for any edition of this title on Ebay
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Stories: In the Patient at Peacock's Hall, a young and beautiful woman doctor fights to save the life of her rival; lost poison seems damning evidence, and dramatic revelations follow each other in a neatly constructed story of suspense, involving a film-star, a mysterious Frenchman, and other material for village gossip... Safer Than Love is set in a preparatory school at the beginning of the summer holidays. The headmaster's young wife has her own reasons for prevaricating when inquisitive neighbours in the small town enquire about her husband's whereabouts |
1963, Penguin, pbk |
 2007, Vintage Books, pbk In stock, click to buy for £4.75, not including p&p, which is Amazon UK's standard charge (£2.80 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers) Alternative online retailers to try: Click here for our prebuilt search for any edition of this title on Alibris Click here for our prebuilt search for any edition of this title on Ebay
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Storyline: As if presaging what misfortunes are to come, the book opens with a sad event for anyone following the fortunes of Campion and friends. We find ourselves reading the Times obituary of Uncle William who first appeared in Police at the Funeral as the son of Caroline Faraday, widow of the late Dr. John Faraday. We learn in The Beckoning Lady that after William's mother died, he became quite a successful humourist and celebrated literary figure. We also learn that he moved to Pontisbright in Suffolk to stay at a house called 'The Beckoning Lady' owned by the Cassands - Minnie and Tonker - who are the centre of this murder mystery. Campion and Lady Amanda are married and have a son Rupert, and they're on holiday in Pontisbright looking after The Mill House for a Miss Huntingforest, who is vacationing in America. So, we have all the main characters in the right place at the right time to take part in this exceptional whodunit - not forgetting the wonderful Lugg - Campion's "manservant", or more appropriate - right hand man. We also find Detective Inspector Charles Luke recuperating at the Mill after he was injured in The Caroline Street Raid and he has a part to play in the investigations into the murders, but we also see him get back to himself in the book - he starts to take charge of his life again and whilst the murders provide a catalyst for him to do this, there's also a love interest - a rather unusual choice called 'Prune', who Campion thoroughly disapproves of... The main events of the book take place around Minnie and Tonker's preparations for a huge and usually unforgettable party. The party takes a life of its own and gathers its own momentum and whilst the first murder has the potential to derail the party and its atmosphere, some quick and clever thinking by Tonker diverts attention to the neighbouring (and somewhat of a rival) estate - the Pontisbright Park Estate, where the owner Francis Genappe is absent in South Africa. Some interesting characters to look out for (and possibly the best ones in this story) are Old Harry - a country person who's completely at home in his environment - he's part and parcel of his surroundings - he understands them, reads them, uses them and lives his life immersed in them. He is able to guide the police somewhat as to the importance of some of the clues. The other interesting character is the Inland Revenue Inspector - there's a whole thread of the story wound round this man and his advice and 'help' to Minnie over her finances. Some of the suggestions and demands he made, combined with his enforcement of his 'tax rules' suggest something sinister and 'conman' about him... . He plays a large part in this book - keep an eye out -it's worth trying to figure all of this out in what is a classic Margery Allingham, well written, intelligent and moreish. Characters: Characters who do not appear: |
2007, Vintage, pbk |
 1972, BCA, hbk Sorry, sold out, but click image above to access prebuilt search for this title on Amazon UK Alternative online retailers to try: Click here for our prebuilt search for any edition of this title on Alibris Click here for our prebuilt search for any edition of this title on Ebay
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About this book: This Book Club Associates edition; includes the stories The Case of the Late Pig; Dancers in Mourning; and The Tiger in the Smoke. There is also an introduction by the author called 'Mystery Writer in the Box' and a short story called 'On Christmas Day in the Morning'. The Case of the Late Pig was written immediately after 'Flowers for the Judge' and when it appeared in this compilation, it was the first time that it had appeared in hardcovers in England. The story was an attempt to combine Mr. Campion's newly found responsible mood with his earlier light-hearted adentures and to achieve this, he tells the story himself. Dancers in Mourning is the second of three novels written to incorporate pictures of certain phases of contemporary life with convincing murder mysteries. Whereas Flowers for the Judge presented a colourful view of publishing, Dancers in Mourning aimed to do the same for the Musical Stage. The story was a milestone in Mr. Campion's Life in as much as his love affair with Linda became more serious than any of his earlier flirtations and was to have a profound effect upon the depth of his character. Also Campion's idea about how the murder took place proves to be wrong... The Tiger in the Smoke is the second part of an experiment for M. Allingham - the aim in 'More work for the Undertaker' had been to meet the new 'no-nonsense' mood of the post-war world with a knight errant of reasonable authority, and Chief Inspector Charles Luke had teamed up with Mr. Campion in a remarkably happy relationship. It now seemed evident that real detectives needed real criminals and it was to this end that the author and the readers started along the path to identifying the Tiger On Christmas Day in the Morning: Characters: |
1972, BCA, hbk |
 1961, Penguin Books, pbk In stock, click to buy for £1.99, not including post and packing Alternative online retailers to try: Click here for our prebuilt search for any edition of this title on Alibris Click here for our prebuilt search for any edition of this title on Ebay
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Storyline/synopsis: The story is billed as 'Murder near London Theatreland' on the front cover, but it all begins with a murder on a rainy night in a cul-de-sac called Goff's Place near London theatreland. A moneylender, "Lew", with a pawn shop in Deban street is killed by a debtor. There's blood all over the moneylender's office, but no body and the police can only conclude that the body's been taken away in the bus seen in the area at the time. Strange thing is there's a witness who swears there was an old couple asleep in the bus when he saw it which makes the bus an unlikely getaway vehicle...still, if Superintendent Charles Luke is right about all the bits of information he's put together on a London street map in his office, he might well be on the track of the murderer, despite the scepticism of Chief Superintendent Yeo and his friend Campion. Luke believes there are links between this and other killing: a left-hand glove from the Church Row shooting; a gold ring decorated with ivy leaves recognised as belonging to a missing couple; and a lizard-skin lettercase from a car salesman found dead in a chalk pit on the London-Folkestone Road who was forced off by another car: all these items were found in the Garden Green area of London and they begin a trail, driven by Luke's conviction that the murderer has links with the area, that leads by way of a 'Museum of Oddities' to a very strange scrap dump in the East End, "Rolf's Dump". It's here that two storylines converge - Richard Waterfield has been following the man the police are looking for all day for a different reason - he's been trying to find out what kind of family his friend Annabelle has got mixed up with now she's come down to London - little realising that his quarry has a habit of killing people he comes across and what danger he is putting himself in... Verdict: 9/10. This book is just so good and ranks as one of the very best Margery Allingham crime stories. It's wonderfully written - it has its own momentum and the storyline is a strong; well actually, it's three storylines in one book and they all come together at the end. It's not really even a Campion mystery as he features so little in the story (Lugg is absent too) and any references to him could almost have been done away with and no-one would be any the wiser. There are really five prominent figures in this tense thriller and they are Inspector Charles Luke, Gerry Hawker, Polly Tassie, Annabelle and Richard Waterfield. Watch out for references to Haigh, the acid-bath murderer - this horrific crime was obviously fresh in Margery Allingham's mind when she wrote this and it is mentioned a couple of times here in relation to the murders committed Characters: |
2007, Vintage, pbk |
 1969, Heinemann, hbk In stock, click image above to buy for £20.00, not including post and packing Alternative online retailers to try: Click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Abebooks Click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Alibris Click here to access our prebuilt search for this title on Biblio |
Storyline: Inglewood Turrets is a bizarre treasure of Victorian gothic art, standing in extensive grounds some twenty miles from London. Its chatelaine is Miss Charlotte Cambric, a determined lady who, with a nice blend of charm, improvisation and bluff, contrives to keep it solvent as an unusual kind of country club. Her guests are mostly solemn groups of foreigners who come eager to imbibe the High Victorian period atmosphere that Miss Cambric so sedulously preserves; her only enemy, she supposes, is a property development tycoon with designs on the estate. But one day she harbours a defecting Russian scientist and finds that she is playing quite out of her league |
2013, Ostara Publishing, pbk |
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in Great Britain in hardback
. Priced originally at £5.99; Australia $10.95. Cover illustration by Andrew Davidson
by Penguin Books
, 
, 1961, 
, 
and 
in Great Britain in hardback by William Heinemann
in Great Britain in Penguin Books (in the Green & Cream Penguin Crime design) in paperback 
. Reprinted at least 8 times
. Cover illustration by Keith Marten. Original UK retail price of the 2007 edition: UK - £6.99; Canada - $19.95
in Great Britain in Penguin Books (Penguin Crime)
in Great Britain in Penguin Books
in the United States by Felony & Mayhem (NY), in paperback, 274 pages, ISBN 
in Penguin Books; at least 20 print runs followed this initial printing
. Original UK retail price when published: UK-£3.50, AUST.-$11.99, N.Z.-$13.95 
in Great Britain
in Great Britain by Penguin Books in paperback, 228pp, no ISBN. No. 771 in the Penguin Crime Series
in Great Britain in hardback by William Heinemann Ltd
, 
, 
, 
, 208 pp, No. 772. Original UK retail price 2/6 (2 shillings and sixpence) 
. Original UK retail price: £7.99. Cover illustration by Keith Marten 
in Penguin Books published circa 1988 and included in the Ted Smart 
, in paperback, 224pp, ISBN 0140166173
in Great Britain by the World's Work
in Great Britain by Penguin Books
, 1962 and 
by Penguin Books
in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus in hardback
in Great Britain by Book Club Associates in hardback with dustjacket, 505pp, no ISBN. Jacket design by P. Youngman Carter 
in Great Britain by Chatto and Windus, in hardback with dustjacket
in Great Britain in Penguin Crime paperbacks
in Great Britain in Penguin Crime paperbacks, 223pp. Original UK retail price: 2/6 (2 shillings and sixpence)