We have made it to our penultimate Queen, Margery Allingham. I had not heard of Allingham, at least not that I remember, until watching the TV adaptation of her Campion series. Obviously, I could not learn about a new Golden Age author without adding her to my booklist. I’m very glad I did. In fact, it was hard for me to decide whether to put Sayers or Allingham first in my ranking. There are so many great things about both.
The Crime at Black Dudley is the first book featuring Albert Campion, but it is not my first Campion read. The first one I read was Tiger in the Smoke, which was written much later. Campion was not as prominent, likely owing to the common phenomenon of mystery writers growing tired of their detectives but feeling pressure from their audience to keep their stories going. Overall, Tiger in the Smoke was well-crafted, but I was hoping to see a lot more of the eccentric, bespectacled sleuth.
The Crime at Black Dudley is a very different book from Tiger, and I think that’s a good thing. Written in 1929, it falls squarely in the Golden Age I’ve been praising throughout this blog series, and it has many classic tropes of the era. The setting is a forbidding manor house, the murder weapon is a dagger shrouded in family lore, and the cast of characters is a quirky group from the upper-crust.
Campion himself still doesn’t have as much “screen time” as I might like (or maybe I should say he doesn’t yet). However, he still plays a major role and is enormously entertaining. The scene in which he takes charge of the other characters’ plan to capture the crooks (proving himself far brighter than he appears) had me in stiches. Additionally, I found the point-of-view character, Dr. Abbershaw, to be well executed. He was interesting enough to keep the reader engaged, but didn’t monopolize the story, giving the other characters plenty of time to shine with their unique personalities and roles.
What stood out to me about this story was the amount of action. And yes, I mean action in the Mission Impossible sense. This story had elements of political intrigue, organized crime, and even a border-line hostage situation! It was much more thriller-ish than most of the novels by the other three “Queens.” More than looking for clues to solve a murder, the characters were often trying to escape death themselves.
Interestingly, as fascinating as the happenings at Black Dudley were, the final explanation for the murder didn’t do much for me. Yes, it was connected to the rest of the story, but it also introduced some new details that I didn’t feel were set up as well as they could have been.
Fortunately for Allingham, she did such a good job creating suspenseful scenes between the Black Dudley guests and the gangsters, I found that I didn’t mind a slightly lack-luster ending the way I might have in a more typical whodunit. Really, my slight disappointment in the solution probably had more to do with how well she escalated every other part of the story. The ending was logical enough, but it was hard to beat the adventures at the Black Dudley estate.
On a side note, I loved that she mentioned car models by name. Most people might not care, but I love 20s and 30s automobiles and had a great time googling up images of the makes she mentioned.
Conclusion
I highly recommend The Crime at Black Dudley to anyone who enjoys vintage British mystery. I loved Margery Allingham’s creativity and sense of adventure, and I can’t wait to add more Albert Campion to my shelves.
The next review will be on Ngaio Marsh's A Man Lay Dead. It will be the last post in the Queens of Crime series, which means it's time for me to start brainstorming more content.
I’ve really enjoyed this mystery review series. My books to read list is growing.
I hadn't thought about Allingham's books in years. I think I read a few of them MANY years ago, so now I'll have to go back and re-read. Sounds like my kind of author. Thanks for your entertaining and well-written description of all of the 'Queens.' You've added some brightness to my reading day.