The Albert Campion Mystery Collection - Margery Allingham

Margery Allingham is one of the grand dames of British mystery fiction, usually ranked with Sayers, Marsh and Christie. Pretty heady company! Allingham has, for the most part, a lighter style than the others. Her hero, Campion has much in common with Lord Peter, but he lacks Wimsey's total perfection and flaunts his heritage (and education) a bit less. Initially cast as a 'zany', he has a great deal of fun in him. In later novels he will gradually mature into a genuinely remarkable character - [Marc Ruby]

#1. The Crime At Black Dudley [7 hours 16 mins] 1929
The gaiety of a weekend party in rural Suffolk is shattered when the host's uncle is murdered and a document is taken from the body. The house guests are held hostage until the paper is found. Dr George Abbershaw uncovers the killer, but even he is nonplussed by the mysterious young man - friend or enemy? - who calls himself Albert Campion. 'The Crime at Black Dudley' is not Allingham's best, but it foreshadows many of the novels to come. In her early work Allingham has a bright and distinctive approach to the problems and pleasures of the young men and women of post-war Britain. This gave her a tremendous and well deserved readership that grew up along with her and her erratic hero. She is still wonderful entertainment! (MR)

#2. Mystery Mile [8 hours 2 mins] 1930
With the Simister Gang out to get him, America is too hot for Judge Lobbett. He takes refuge on an island on the Suffolk coast, but even there life is far from peaceful. Blackmail, abduction and sudden death bring matters to a climax. It is Albert Campion, with the unorthodox help of his man Lugg, who masterminds the defence of Mystery Mile and uncovers the true face of Simister.

#3. Look to the Lady [8 hours 36 mins] 1931 - aka 'The Gyrth Chalice Mystery' - Thanks to ADM
The Gyrth family have guarded the Chalice for centuries in their ancient house in Suffolk, but they have never had an opponent like the Daisy before. Mr Campion's services are needed to save the treasure from a desperate and determined thief. He can cope with witches, gypsies and a mysterious ceremony, but he has not reckoned with the true guardian of the chalice...

#4. Police at the Funeral [9 hours 48 mins] 1931
At her mausoleum of a house in Cambridge, Caroline Faraday rules her family with a firm hand - but then murder strikes, and strikes again . In such an eccentric household, with such a legacy of evil, Mr Campion must tread very carefully indeed...

#5. Sweet Danger [7 hours 32 mins] 1933 - Also known as 'Kingdom of Death' or 'The Fear Sign'
The tiny East European State of Averna - a dead duck since the days of the crusades - has suddenly become an attractive proposition, and the race is on to prove ownership. In a treasure hunt that takes him from the Côte d'Azure to the sun-soaked Suffolk idyll of Pontisbright, Mr Campion and his team of willing helpers do battle with a foe both intelligent and ruthless.

#6. Death of a Ghost [8 hours 48 mins] 1934 - Thanks to meixiang.
John Sebastian Lafcadio, one of the greatest painters of the Edwardian period, left twelve pictures to be exhibited, one every year, after his death. But there is an unexpected event at the unveiling of the eighth painting - murder. Albert Campion must employ all his tact as well as his formidable intelligence to trap the killer....

#7. Dancers in Mourning [11 hours 27 mins] 1935 - Thanks to ADM.
Everyone fell under the spell of Jimmy Sutane, the charming and talented song-and-dance man. Everyone, that is, except the spiteful practical joker who put a pin in his stick of grease-paint and pasted 'Last Week' over the 'House Full' notices. Nothing too deadly. But as soon as Albert Campion is called in to investigate, people begin to die, and there's no shortage of suspects when the first victim's death is so convenient for so many...

#8. Flowers for the Judge [9 hours 13 mins] 1936 - Thanks to ADM.
Scandal hits the staid publishing house of Barnabas when one of the directors is found dead in the strong-room. Suspicion immediately falls on his wife's lover, the junior partner in the firm. But how does an unpublished Restoration comedy come to feature in the tragedy? And what of the odd disappearance of another director twenty years before? The trial of Mike Wedgwood for murder is nail-bitingly tense, and Campion needs all his resources to uncover the truth...

#9. The Case of the Late Pig [4 hours 5 mins] 1937
'Pig' Peters was the bully who had made Albert Campion's life a misery at prep. school. And Peters is definitely dead. Campion had attended his funeral. So how could he have died again, six months later? The investigation takes Campion back to rural Suffolk.

#10. The Fashion in Shrouds [12 hours 40 mins] 1938
No scandal attaches to the actress Georgia Wells. You couldn't call her a man-eater - not exactly - but other women are wary when she looks at their men. Especially the fashion designer Valentine Ferris, who happens to be Albert Campion's sister. Val and Alan Dell are very much in love, but things change when Georgia comes on the scene. And then Georgia's second husband is poisoned, and there is strange news of his predecessor.

#11. Coroner's Pidgin [8 hours 56 mins] 1940 - Also published as 'Pearls before Swine'
Albert Campion is home on leave after three years of wartime intelligence work overseas. His only thought is to get to his house in the country and his wife, Lady Amanda. How can his manservant Lugg have been so inconsiderate as to deposit a dead body in his London flat? Reluctantly, Campion is drawn into the intrigues of Lord Carados' eccentric household - none of them quite as eccentric as his Lordship's formidable mother. He must deal with murder, treason and grand larceny before he can can go home, and even then his troubles are not over....

#12. Traitor's Purse [8 hours 6 mins] 1941
He awoke in hospital, with no memory of how he came there or of who he was. He overheard a nurse say, 'They'll hang him, I suppose,' and a policeman replied, 'Bound to, miss . . .' He had to escape, though he didn't feel like a murderer, but freedom brought new problems and new dangers. He had a vital mission to accomplish in this strange wartime town, vital for himself and perhaps for the free world - but he had no idea what it was! Who was friend and who was enemy? And why did his own name mean nothing to him? Who was this Albert Campion ?

#13. More Work for the Undertaker [9 hours 14 mins] 1948
Apron Street is a quiet little thoroughfare in west London - and yet, Albert Campion is called in to investigate the death of Ruth Palinode, and he finds himself surrounded by as strange a family as he has ever encountered. Not that the other denizens of Apron Street are above suspicion. After all, the undertaker is Magersfontein Lugg's brother-in-law. But who is writing anonymous letters? Who killed Ruth Palinode? And why are hardened criminals frightened of the very name of Apron Street?

#14. The Tiger in the Smoke [9 hours 42 mins] 1952
Ranks as one of the great thrillers in English literature. And conveys an understanding of goodness and evil perhaps more assuredly than any of them. 'The Tiger' is the murderer known as Jack Havoc, out of jail and on the rampage. But what has he to do with Albert Campion's saintly uncle, Canon Avril? The old man's daughter Meg is happily engaged, so why is she afraid that her late husband has come back from the dead? And who has kidnapped her fiancé? The tension is almost painful...

#15. The Beckoning Lady [9 hours 38 mins] 1955
Old William Faraday is dead, apparently of natural causes. Another man is dead too, and it was certainly murder. Mr Campion and his family are back in Pontisbright, along with Magersfontein Lugg and DCI Charles Luke. Danger is hardly unknown in this idyllic Suffolk village, but it is a less romantic peril than on Mr Campion's first visit, more than twenty years ago. Mr Campion's friends Minnie and Tonker Cassands put on a cheerful face as they prepare for their annual party at Minnie's house, The Beckoning Lady, but Minnie has serious problems with the Inland Revenue - and the dead man in the ditch is a tax inspector!

#16. Hide my Eyes [6 hours 38 mins] 1958 - Also published as 'Tether's End' - Thanks to Shauna.
A quiet, ruthless killer strikes in London's theatreland. Superintendent Luke thinks he has seen the pattern before. Mr Campion wonders what became of the old couple in the country bus who must have witnessed the crime.The trail leads to an eccentric museum in west London, and to a scrapyard in the East End.

#17. The China Governess [10 hours 53 mins] 1962
Appearance and reality are not always the same. Timothy Kinnit is rich, handsome and well-bred. He seems to have everything. Then, on the eve of his elopement, he learns that he was adopted, and he is desperate to know who he really is. Someone seems no less keen to stop him finding out. Violence, deception and death bedevil the post-war housing estate that has grown from the ashes of the notorious Turk Street Mile, and the shadow of a long-forgotten murder hangs over it all - until Luke and Campion are finally able to dispel the darkness....

#18. The Mind Readers [9 hours 13 mins] 1965
Fact catches up with fiction when the secret of telepathic communication is discovered. But the device is in the possession of two schoolboys. Whether they stole it or invented it, there are powerful interests who will kill to get hold of it. Albert Campion faces as deadly a challenge as any in his career...

#19. A Cargo of Eagles [7 hours 58 mins] 1968 - Thanks to ADM.
Strange things are happening in Saltey, and the little village on the Essex coast is invaded by bikers and other strange visitors. A newly-released prisoner is rumoured to be in the area, Mr Lugg has bought a bungalow there, the Saltey Demon is on the loose again, and Albert Campion is looking for treasure. (This novel was incomplete at the author's death in 1966 and was completed by her husband).

Bonus:
The Allingham Casebook [2 hours 33 mins] Read by Bernard Archard.
An abridged collection of short stories first published in 1969 - not all of these feature Albert Campion.
Tall Story, Three is a Lucky Number, Little Miss Know-all, Is there a Doctor in the House? Mum Knows Best, They Never Get Caught and Joke Over.


Enjoy and Seed!!