Albert Campion has been asked to find barrister Richard Portland-Smith, former fiancé of actress Georgia Wells, who has been missing for three years. Having found him – well, his body – he inveigles himself into Georgia’s circle. This isn’t a desperately difficult thing to do, given that her best friend is Campion’s sister, Val.
Campion keeps hanging around as things start to escalate – the theft of a dress design, a confrontation with a rival – until finally Georgia’s rather unpleasant husband is found dead in his private plane. While that is written off as natural causes, soon there is a body that is unequivocally murder…
Let’s hope this isn’t your first visit to In Search Of The Classic Mystery Novel, your one-stop shop for succinct reviews of classic and modern mysteries, always spoiler-free and with an emphasis on the plot. That’s what you normally get, but in this case, unfortunately, I’ll have to make an exception – you see, this book bored me rigid, and I really can’t be bothered to go into too much detail. Still no spoilers though, unless it being deathly dull is a spoiler.
It’s hardly the first book to do that, but it’s the first in a while that I’ve persevered with. Normally if I read a book with so little to interest me in the first third, then I put it down and don’t review it. But every now and then – such as The Documents In The Case or Reputation For A Song – I persevere. And you can sum up the reason in two words – Book Club.
I know Margery Allingham is one of the Queens of Crime but, let’s face it, I’m not a fan of Ngaio Marsh either. Or what I’ve read of Dorothy L Sayers, either, to be honest, but I haven’t read enough of her to judge – just Whose Body? Which isn’t a good start and the aforementioned The Documents In The Case, which is hardly representative. Allingham, this is the third book after Traitor’s Purse and Death Of A Ghost. I didn’t like the first – it wasn’t the best title to start with – but I didn’t mind the second. This, like Ghost, is presented more as a whodunit, but there’s very little detection on show.
And worst of all, it’s just really boring.
Right, let’s redo the Queens. Christie (duh), Sayers (jury’s still out), Brand and Lorac/Carnac. Maybe Marsh can be half a Queen (a Princess) for the first half of her books…
As for Allingham, though, it’ll be a while before I’ll be back.
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
Ha!Ha! Most Margery Allingham books are BORING !
LikeLike
So sorry you’re not a fan – I don’t think much of Marsh either but love Allingham. You should try TIGER IN THE SMOKE though, it’s her finest book and a marvellous read.
LikeLike
Will do – I trust you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What are your thoughts on this one?
LikeLike
I like it but a) not read it in over 30 years and b) it’s nothing like TIGER 😁
LikeLike
👍
LikeLike
Flowers for the Judge and Tiger in the Smoke are my two standard recommendations for Allingham. On another note, I hope Anthony Gilbert gets some consideration for the Queens re-do. I prefer The Mouse who Wouldn’t Play Ball, The Clock in the Hat Box, and Death Knocks Three Times to anything I’ve read by Sayers, Marsh, or Allingham.
LikeLike
At last ,someone who says it how it is !!!. Queens of crime…Mary Fitt/ Harriet Rutland/ Ianthe Jerrold/Margaret Bowen/Anthony Gilbert /Moray Dalton….all of whom leave Allingham and Marsh still at the starting post !!!
LikeLike
Some of those probably shouldn’t qualify due to only writing a few books, but I take your point. Need to read more Gilbert
LikeLike
How does this one rate in Allingham’s canon would you say?
LikeLike
Ju
Just read my first Anthony Gilbert, Death in Fancy Dress- I found it pretty enjoyable but more light and thrillery than mystery-like… is that typical of her books or is it just that one (which I know was a one off character-wise)?
I will say- she did a good job with the criminal, I knew something seemed odd but didn’t totally put it together. I do think it worked better in the moment than if you sit back and try to calculate the whole broader scheme, though.
LikeLike
That’s the BL one, isn’t it? I think I’ve got that somewhere
LikeLike
Yep! I’ve been reading a bunch lately and I’d say this is in the upper half of the ones I read in the last couple of months.
LikeLike
Any top recommendations?
LikeLike
There is admittedly a lot of variance in the Gilbert novels. The 3 I listed above are the best ones in my opinion, and I consider all 3 of them classics. But I’d recommend you check out Neeru’s blog for more info on Gilbert.
LikeLike
I read… ten? eleven? Allingham books waiting for them to get good… I’ll never get that time back lol. Some of them I basically enjoyed while I was reading them (I think Flowers for the Judge was one of them?) but they were still immensely forgettable once I was done in a way that no Sayers or Christie book ever is for me. I also just get a kind of a feeling of smugness from Allingham- like she thinks she’s a better straight writer than Christie and a better mystery constructor than Sayers but in reality she may be polished but in a sterile kind of way.
As someone who hates Whose Body? (the writing is patchy and the mystery is absurdly easy, even if the actual crime is very chilling), though I do overall like The Documents in the Case, I think that Sayers genuinely deserves your reappraisal- I’d recommend The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, as I think it’s probably the novel in which she best combined her love of mystery writing and her interest in writing a novel of literary interest, and it’s just really great, one of my favorites by her (and I find something to love in pretty much everything besides Whose Body and Five Red Herrings?). Alternatively, if you’d rather start earlier, Clouds of Witness is IMO a perfectly good manor house mystery that goes a bit deeper into the personal angle than pretty much any other you’ll read (though the ending is…divisive).
(To be clear, I love the Harriet Vane subseries but I genuinely think they’re better/easier to appreciate if you’ve read and enjoyed solo Lord Peter first.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll probably do them in order – I think whichever is the “love story with detective interludes” or whatever might cause me problems…
LikeLike
Ha yes, that’s the last one, Busman’s Honeymoon, and I’d say skippable if you’re reading Sayers for the mysteries- if you’re there for the characters of Peter and Harriet by that point (hey, never say never!) then it’s pretty enjoyable IMO.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve read some of her books, including her acclaimed masterpiece The Tiger and the Smoke. I just can’t deal with how Albert Campion feels like a marionette that Allingham is manipulating. He never feels like a fully realized creation. I recently read The Case of the Late Pig and found that this book was written in the first person and was much better. However, Allingham went back to writing in the third person for the rest of the series, so I’m not rushing back to it any time soon.
LikeLike
Long time lurker, first time commenter…
I was tipped off that your Book Club would be reading this book and moved it higher up the TBR list so I could interact with the reviews. Reading more Allingham was my New Year’s Resolution and I am very glad that I did. Fashion in Shrouds is not my favorite of the Campion books I have read – I preferred both Death of a Ghost and Flowers for the Judge – but I think what I have surmised about most of her books is that she was writing “crime fiction” long before it was vogue. Her books are more akin to thrillers or psychological stories than Golden Age-standard detective stories which may account for your lukewarm reaction to them. As I have broadened my reading tastes lately, and calibrated my expectations accordingly, I have found Allingham to be a very rewarding author and deserving of her Queen title (along with Ngaio Marsh…but that’s a debate for another time).
LikeLike
Hi, Nick. I appreciate everyone has different tastes, but regarding this one, I would say that everyone in my book club (consisting of fellow bloggers) was lukewarm at best on this one.
I’ll try one of her better received books at some point – I thought Ghost was ok – but no rush…
LikeLike