Friday, November 16, 2012

Coroner's Pidgin by Margery Allingham

Albert Campion is in the bath. Home on leave after three years of intelligence work overseas his only thought is to enjoy this brief time of relaxation before catching his train home.
Hearing strange noises in his flat he investigates and finds his manservant, Lugg, and a Dowager Marchioness depositing a dead body of a woman onto the bed. Inconsiderate and uncouth, particularly when neither of them knew the identity of the corpse: only that it had turned up in the bed of the young Lord Carados who is about to be married.
Reluctantly, Campion is drawn into the intrigues of the aristocratic household and finds himself dealing with murder and treason.

Earlier in the year I read my first Margery Allingham, The Beckoning Lady and loved the village setting, amusing characters and witty dialogue . The setting and atmosphere of Coroner's Pidgin are a complete contrast with a real feeling of the mood of people confronting the everyday realities of war and the realisation nothing will ever be the same again. 

It is 1943 - London is coping with blackouts and the Blitz. Lugg is working for Heavy Rescue and raising a pig in the aristocratic environment of Carados Square. Then he disappears....there is a second attempted murder, a mystery involving rare wine and a series of art thefts. These seemingly unrelated events make this plot a complicated, and sometimes confusing one but the pieces all come together at the end. 

I like Margery Allingham's style very much and will be looking out for more of her Albert Campion series.

Vintage Mystery Challenge - Golden Age Girls



8 comments:

  1. I have a two more of the Campion novels unread - and this is one that I want to re-read. I love the ending!

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    1. It was a lovely ending and a moment none of them will ever forget.

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  2. It has been years since I read an Allingham mystery and this sounds so good. I need to try her again!

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    1. I was impressed how MA created a completely different atmosphere in each of the books I've read and looking forward to more.

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  3. Always worth reading more than one Allingham as her style is so varied she really doesn't write the same book twice. It was the experience of reading all her novels in chronological order that inspired me, years ago, to ask permission to write her biography. And then I discovered the hidden relationships ofthe books to her own life. Double dose of fascination ...

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    1. A biography sounds very interesting. I shall have to look out for it.

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  4. I love vintage mysteries. It sounds like I should check this series out.

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    1. If you like vintage mysteries you're sure to like this series.

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