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| I DO NOT LOOK LIKE THIS! |
I think Jo was trying to tell me something last night. She said that I reminded her of someone sleeping on a park bench. Maybe I need a haircut? She's trimmed the dogs so I guess I'll be next. Maybe I might even try the barbershop on the base.. We'll see. I don't think I look all that bad. No worse than Albert Einstein anyway. That's me, Einstein sans the brains and moustache. *sigh*
My Favorite Authors
This is my second post on this topic. Today I'll be looking at Margery Allingham.
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| Margery Louise Allingham |
"The Black Dudley Murder is the first Albert Campion mystery by Margery Allingham. It was originally published in 1929.
Campion is amongst a number of guests invited to a weekend party at Black Dudley Manor, located outside of London. The host, Colonel C0ombe, confined to a wheel chair, dies during a game played one evening. It is a supposed Black Dudley tradition, the passing along of an old dagger, while the house lights are turned down.
Two of the guests are doctors. At separate times they are asked to sign the death certificate to indicate that Coombe died of a heart attack. The first refuses as he is not permitted to look at the body. The second, George Abbershaw, is pretty well forced to sign the paperwork. Combe has been accompanied by three threatening individuals. While in the room, Abbershaw takes a billfold, filled with papers that seem to be in code.
Later, the mysterious guests, Dawlish and Gideon, lock the others in their rooms as they search for said documents. So there you go, this begins a relatively action-filled story, while the young guests try to keep the gang from finding the info they need. Campion, who it seems had come to the party to get the same documents from Combe, helps them. He remains a mysterious character throughout the story. As well, he is somewhat peripheral to the final action, which makes it curious as it is an "Albert Campion" mystery after all. The story focuses mainly on Abbershaw.
It's a curious, somewhat confusing story. Along with Abbershaw and his friends, we try to discover who killed Combe. What are Dawlish and Gideon and the gang looking for? Who will win the struggle between Abbershaw's friends and Dawlish's cohorts? And who is this mysterious Campion, who seems to have various aliases, who seems to be fool, but at the same time, who is effective when combating the enemy?
All in all it's an interesting story and a good intro to Campion. It leaves you wanting to know more about him. I've read others in this series and enjoyed them. Worth trying and checking out the Campion series. (3.5 stars)"
Campion is amongst a number of guests invited to a weekend party at Black Dudley Manor, located outside of London. The host, Colonel C0ombe, confined to a wheel chair, dies during a game played one evening. It is a supposed Black Dudley tradition, the passing along of an old dagger, while the house lights are turned down.
Two of the guests are doctors. At separate times they are asked to sign the death certificate to indicate that Coombe died of a heart attack. The first refuses as he is not permitted to look at the body. The second, George Abbershaw, is pretty well forced to sign the paperwork. Combe has been accompanied by three threatening individuals. While in the room, Abbershaw takes a billfold, filled with papers that seem to be in code.
Later, the mysterious guests, Dawlish and Gideon, lock the others in their rooms as they search for said documents. So there you go, this begins a relatively action-filled story, while the young guests try to keep the gang from finding the info they need. Campion, who it seems had come to the party to get the same documents from Combe, helps them. He remains a mysterious character throughout the story. As well, he is somewhat peripheral to the final action, which makes it curious as it is an "Albert Campion" mystery after all. The story focuses mainly on Abbershaw.
It's a curious, somewhat confusing story. Along with Abbershaw and his friends, we try to discover who killed Combe. What are Dawlish and Gideon and the gang looking for? Who will win the struggle between Abbershaw's friends and Dawlish's cohorts? And who is this mysterious Campion, who seems to have various aliases, who seems to be fool, but at the same time, who is effective when combating the enemy?
All in all it's an interesting story and a good intro to Campion. It leaves you wanting to know more about him. I've read others in this series and enjoyed them. Worth trying and checking out the Campion series. (3.5 stars)"
"Mystery Mile is the 2nd Albert Campion mystery by Margery Allingham. I've read a few others in this series, not particularly following them sequentially. Although now that I have the next few books, I will try to do so. Campion brings to mind Dorothy Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey, although Campion's past seems more mysterious than that of Wimsey. There are secrets in his life that I hope will come out more and more, but we'll see.
In this story, decides to help a retired American judge and his two adult children. They have left America to get away from a mysterious gang of criminals, lead by one Simister (a faceless unknown gang leader). The Judge, Crowdy Lobbett, has been trying to break the gang for years and appears to know something about the identity of Simister. The gang previously had been trying to scare Lobbett into giving up the investigation but now appear to want him snuffed out. Unfortunately their efforts so far have resulted in the deaths of others. Campion is brought into the case when an attempt is made on the Judge on board the cruise ship they on which they are traveling to England.
Campion takes the family to Mystery Mile, an isolated coastal town in Suffolk. They will stay at the Manor House, owned by friends of Campion, the Paget twins, Giles and Biddy, a young lady for whom Campion seems to have strong feelings. Campion hopes that the location will make it easier to detect strangers who might belong to the gang. An incident occurs immediately with the suicide of family friend, the local vicar, St Smithins. After this the plot progresses quickly, with further incidents occurring (I'll let you discover those as I don't want to ruin the story). Suffice it to say that there is a steady threat, sufficient action and intrigue to satisfy you.
The characters in the story are all interesting and sympathetic and there are enough quirky characters to enhance the colour and tone of the story. All very interesting and well-crafted, succeeding to draw you into the story and to feel invested in the safety and lives of the main characters. Campion is an excellent series and I look forward to reading the other books in the series. (4 stars)"
In this story, decides to help a retired American judge and his two adult children. They have left America to get away from a mysterious gang of criminals, lead by one Simister (a faceless unknown gang leader). The Judge, Crowdy Lobbett, has been trying to break the gang for years and appears to know something about the identity of Simister. The gang previously had been trying to scare Lobbett into giving up the investigation but now appear to want him snuffed out. Unfortunately their efforts so far have resulted in the deaths of others. Campion is brought into the case when an attempt is made on the Judge on board the cruise ship they on which they are traveling to England.
Campion takes the family to Mystery Mile, an isolated coastal town in Suffolk. They will stay at the Manor House, owned by friends of Campion, the Paget twins, Giles and Biddy, a young lady for whom Campion seems to have strong feelings. Campion hopes that the location will make it easier to detect strangers who might belong to the gang. An incident occurs immediately with the suicide of family friend, the local vicar, St Smithins. After this the plot progresses quickly, with further incidents occurring (I'll let you discover those as I don't want to ruin the story). Suffice it to say that there is a steady threat, sufficient action and intrigue to satisfy you.
The characters in the story are all interesting and sympathetic and there are enough quirky characters to enhance the colour and tone of the story. All very interesting and well-crafted, succeeding to draw you into the story and to feel invested in the safety and lives of the main characters. Campion is an excellent series and I look forward to reading the other books in the series. (4 stars)"
"The first killing took
place at a crowded art show, in full view of the cream of London
society. For the second killing, only the victim and the murderer were
present. Now the scene was set for the third--a lavish dinner party with
vintage wines, and with Albert Campion's death as the main course." (3 stars)
"Strange pranks are
being played on dancer Jimmy Sutane, star of London's Argosy Theatre.
When they spread to the Sutanes' country estate, it becomes apparent
that someone wants Jimmy's famous feet to tap their final dance. Campion
never dreamed the big show-stopper would be murder--and a case that
promises to test his mind and break his heart." (3 stars)
"This is the 2nd collection of Allingham's short stories I've read this year and both were excellent. In this collection, every story features her favourite sleuth, Albert Campion, a gentleman who likes to get involved with interesting cases. Each story is presented as an entry in Campion's casebook and as you see with one of them, the casebook is written by the author, Margery Allingham, sort of presented as Campion's secretary.
This book features 7 of Campion's cases and for the most part, they also include his friend, Scotland Yard inspector, Stanilaus Oates. I enjoyed how Allingham presented the cases, I liked her writing style and I like Campion, somewhat like Dorothy Sayers, Peter Wimsey, a confident, wealthy gentleman, who likes mysteries. The stories show how quickly he grasps the facts and how he is able to solve each case, each of which was interesting and different. I've read a few of the Campion books now and find that I'm enjoying them more and more. (4 stars)"
"Albert Campion returns
from three years’ work for the War Office in Europe to find that Lugg,
his manservant, has brought him an unusual gift from Edna, Dowager
Marchioness of Carados: the black silk nightdress-clad body of a dead
woman, an apparent suicide, found in her son's bed the night before his
wedding." (4 stars)
"While they aren't necessarily my favourite mystery series, I still enjoy the Albert Campion books. I think Campion is sort of unique in that he doesn't seem to play a major role in the stories. He is always around and involved, helping the police and investigating, but at the same time, the other characters; such as the police, the villains, secondary characters, etc also play important roles.
This story starts off with a friend of Campion requesting his assistance. She is a widow, her husband having been supposedly killed in the war. She has moved on and is engaged to a new man, when she begins getting pictures of her previous husband, which seem to indicate he might still be alive. From this interesting beginning, we find ourselves involved trying to solve the crimes of a serial murderer (who may or may not be related to the previous case), treasure from the war, etc. The story meanders through the plot, moving over to the criminals, back to the police, to Campion's relatives and family, but all the time leading inexorably to the exciting conclusion. Well worth reading (3 stars)"
"An excellent collection of short stories from Margery Allingham. I expected them all to feature her favourite detective, Albert Campion, but, in fact, only two of them did. Both of them were excellent, demonstrating Campion's ability to grasp the salient clues to quickly solve both mysteries. I enjoyed them very much. I was surprised, pleasantly it turned out, that there were 3 or 4 ghostish stories contained in the book. I can't say the endings totally surprised me, but I enjoyed them very much. My favourite story also happened to be the longest, A Quarter of a Million, which featured a gang of ruthless, cunning robbers who didn't mind killing to get what they wanted and an intelligent police inspector who was able to outsmart the gang, with a neat little twist at the end as he explained how he had figured things out. All in all, a most enjoyable collection. (4 stars)"
"This is my favourite book so far in 2012. It's a nice, tense, parlor-style mystery. Set in one house in London, there are murders committed and the family must deal with a police investigation and their suspicions of each other. It moved along nicely, the characters are interesting and the story is well-written. I particularly liked the main female lead; Frances Ivory and also the Scottish Police investigator, Inspector Bridie. Very well-done. This is my second Margery Allingham and I look forward to reading more of her mysteries. (4 stars)"
There you go. As I said, Allingham was a prolific writer so there is lots to choose from Her complete listing of works can be found at this link.
I hope you have a great week. Take care.
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