Margery Allingham

Margery Allingham was one of the Four Queens of Crime, along with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, during the Golden Age of mystery writing.  There's apparently some dispute among fans of the genre as to whether the fourth "queen" was Ngaio Marsh, a New Zealander, or Josephine Tey, but Allingham's place in the pantheon seems secure.  

Allingham's detective, Albert Campion, can be a bit tiresome with his vague mannerisms, but usually comes through with the solution, winding things up in a satisfactory manner.  

I decided to re-read the Allingham books in chronological order of copyright date, if I have them.  Since the object of the exercise was to read the books in my own collection, I am resisting so far the temptation to go out and find the ones I don't have.  I've noted the titles of the missing books in red.  

Margery Allingham books in chronological order:

The White Cottage Mystery, 1928.   Boring.  Didn't finish.  Grade:  D.  

The Crime At Black Dudley, 1929.  Introduces Albert Campion.  House party murder, jeweled dagger, master criminal and international gang.  Grade:  C.

Mystery Mile, 1930.  Another international gang attempting to assassinate a visiting American judge.  Grade:  C.

Look to the Lady; alternate title The Gyrth Chalice, 1931.  One of my all time favorites.  Campion tries to protect a priceless historical object.  This one moves right along. I particularly like Campion's friendship with the Gypsies.  Grade:  A.

Police at the Funeral, 1931  Introduces Uncle William Faraday.  Plot a bit convoluted and ending rather doubtful--would anyone really have done this if he weren't going to be around to see the effect of all that effort?  Grade:  C.

Sweet Danger, 1933.  Another favorite.  Introduces Amanda Fitton.  Plot unlikely, but really good fun otherwise.  Grade: A.

Death of a Ghost, 1934.  Don't have this one.

Flowers for the Judge, 1936.  Don't have this one, either.

The Case of the Late Pig, 1937.  Didn't have this one, either, but it sounded interesting, so I bought it.  It was mildly interesting.  Albert Campion receives an obscurely worded anonymous letter and consequently attends the funeral of Pig Peters, a man he went to school with.  Several months later, another body turn up and it appears to be the same man or possibly a brother.  Grade:  C.  

  I've tried to stick to books I already have and not use this as an excuse to acquire more, as my heirs will eventually have to figure out what to do with them all, but some of these are really tempting.  

Dancers in Mourning, 1937.  Good plot, interesting characters.  Grade:  B.

The Fashion in Shrouds, 1938.  Campion (or whatever their real name is) family drama.  Introduces his sister, Val.  Always good.  Grade:  B. 

Mr. Campion and Others, 1939.  Short stories.  Grade: B.

Black Plumes, 1940.  Not a Campion book.  Gothic-ish tone.  Has a touch of the HIBK* to it., HIBK being the annoying "Had I But Known" school of detective story writing.  For a hilarious satire of this style of writing, see Ogden Nash's poem, "Don't Guess, Let Me Tell You".  According to Allingham's husband, Philip Youngman Carter, in his introduction to the collection of short stories in The Allingham Case Book, she had to rush to finish this one so she could get started on Traitor's Purse.  Grade: D.

Traitor's Purse, 1940.  Maybe she had to write this one to get the taste of the previous one out of her system.  Agonizingly suspenseful book with Campion stumbling around, deep in amnesia, not knowing friend from foe and what it is that he needs to do to save the country from economic chaos.  Grade:  A+.

Coroner's Pidgin; alternate title Pearls Before Swine, 1945.  Parts of this don't make sense--why would the police want to keep Campion hanging around in London doing nothing?  But the ending is good, and made reading it worthwhile.  Grade:  B.

More Work For the Undertaker, 1948.  Complicated plot.  Not sure it's believable that crooks would flee in caskets.  Grade: B.  

Tiger in the Smoke, 1952.  I read this one decades ago and only remember that I didn't like it much, so probably got rid of it.  J.K. Rowling thinks it's Allingham's best one.  

The Beckoning Lady; alternate title, Estate of the Beckoning Lady, 1955.  I nearly gave up on this one about a third of the way through; the plot seemed dreary and the characters incomprehensible, but persevered and it got better as it went on.  Had to read it twice to get it all straight, but it was even better the second time around.  Grade:  A, upgraded from a B.  This one may become a favorite.   

Ten Were Missing; alternate titles Tether's End and Hide My Eyes, 1958.  C'mon, Margery, not another psychopath.  Done with it.  Grade:  D.  

The China Governess, 1962.  Young man trying to discover his parentage.  At least she plays fair, but the motive for two murders seems pretty far fetched.  Grade:  C.  

The Mind Readers, 1965.

Cargo of Eagles, 1968.

The Allingham Case Book, 1969.  Short stories.  Grade:  C.

Bottom Line:  Margery Allingham was a talented writer, although her plots sometimes are hard to believe.  Some of these will remain favorites, and some I will probably never read again.  

Starting With A--Catherine Aird

 I'm starting this year or so of re-reading my collection of mystery novels with two by Catherine Aird, Slight Mourning, published in 1975, and Some Die Eloquent, from 1979.  Both are comfortable, entertaining reads for an evening or two, but... neither one will stick with you for very long, although sometimes that's a good thing.

Grade for each:  B.

The Golden Age of Mystery Fiction

I've been reading and collecting mystery novels most of my life.   I'm going to spend the next year or so re-reading and commenting on my collection.  Most, but not all of them are in the classic tradition of the "Golden Age" mysteries, so I thought a few words on what that tradition is about might be helpful at the start.

 The "Golden Age" of mystery fiction is generally considered to have started in the 1920's, flourished in the period between WWI and WWII and extended into the 1950's, although these dates are not carved in stone by any means.  Golden Age mysteries are usually although not exclusively English, are usually not excessively violent or graphic and are usually puzzles written according to a code of fair play where the reader is given sufficient clues to enable the reader to solve the mystery along with the detective.  

In 1928 Monsignor Ronald A. Knox, a noted mystery author, set down ten commandments for the authors of detective fiction that enumerate the features of this code of fair play.  Those rules are:

1.  The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.  Once Agatha Christie had done it, no one else could do it.  

2.  All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.  If you're writing a ghost story, call it that and not a mystery or detective story.  

3.  Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.  Father Knox himself violated this one, but points out that he was careful to state that the house had belonged to English Catholics during the period of religious turmoil when a priest's hole or concealed passage could reasonably be expected to be found in such a house.

4.  No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation in the end.  He gives R. Austin Freeman's detective Dr. Thorndyke a pass on this one, but just barely.

5.  No Chinaman must figure in the story.  He rightly deplores the racist Western assumption of the time that Chinese people were "over-equipped in the matter of brains and under-equipped in the matter of morals."  This rule of course does not apply to Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mystery novels, which are set in ancient China and in which all of the characters are Chinese.  

6.  No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.  An intuition or insight based on available evidence that has been disclosed to the reader is acceptable, but not one based on evidence that has been concealed, or on no evidence at all.  

7.  The detective himself must not commit the crime.  This doesn't rule out criminals disguised as or purporting to be detectives, of course.  Agatha busted this one early on, too.  

8.  The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.  This is the essence of fair play; the reader must have the means necessary to arrive at a logical solution to the puzzle.  

9.  The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.  Of course, it's not necessary for the detective to have a Watson at all.  When we get to Conan Doyle, I'll have a few words to say about Dr. Watson, who I believe has been unfairly regarded as stupid.  Less brilliant and less well trained in observation than Holmes, perhaps, but not less intelligent than the average reader.  

10.  Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.  Really, it's out and out cheating if that happens.  

Source: "A Detective Story Decalogue", Ronald A. Knox, reproduced in The Art of the Mystery Story, A Collection of Critical Essays.  Edited by Howard Haycraft, Grosset & Dunlap, 1946.