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Albert Campion #12
Coroner's Pidgin
“Allingham has that rare gift in a novelist, the creation of characters so rich and so real that they stay with the reader forever.” —Sara Paretsky
World War II is limping to a close and private detective Albert Campion has just returned from years abroad on a secret mission. Relaxing in his bath before rushing back to the country, and to the arms of his wife, Amanda, Campion is disturbed when his servant, Lugg, and a lady of unmistakably aristocratic bearing appear in his flat carrying the corpse of a woman.
The reluctant Campion is forced to put his powers of detection to work as he is drawn deeper into the case, and into the eccentric Caradocs household, dealing with murder, treason, grand larceny, and the mysterious disappearance of some very valuable art.
“Margery Allingham deserves to be rediscovered.” —P.D. James
“Margery Allingham was one of the greatest mid-20th-century practitioners of the detective novel.” —Alexander McCall Smith
World War II is limping to a close and private detective Albert Campion has just returned from years abroad on a secret mission. Relaxing in his bath before rushing back to the country, and to the arms of his wife, Amanda, Campion is disturbed when his servant, Lugg, and a lady of unmistakably aristocratic bearing appear in his flat carrying the corpse of a woman.
The reluctant Campion is forced to put his powers of detection to work as he is drawn deeper into the case, and into the eccentric Caradocs household, dealing with murder, treason, grand larceny, and the mysterious disappearance of some very valuable art.
“Margery Allingham deserves to be rediscovered.” —P.D. James
“Margery Allingham was one of the greatest mid-20th-century practitioners of the detective novel.” —Alexander McCall Smith
241 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1945
457 people are currently reading
1077 people want to read
About the author
Margery Allingham
267 books597 followersAka Maxwell March.
Margery Louise Allingham was born in Ealing, London in 1904 to a family of writers. Her father, Herbert John Allingham, was editor of The Christian Globe and The New London Journal, while her mother wrote stories for women's magazines as Emmie Allingham. Margery's aunt, Maud Hughes, also ran a magazine. Margery earned her first fee at the age of eight, for a story printed in her aunt's magazine.
Soon after Margery's birth, the family left London for Essex. She returned to London in 1920 to attend the Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), and met her future husband, Philip Youngman Carter. They married in 1928. He was her collaborator and designed the cover jackets for many of her books.
Margery's breakthrough came 1929 with the publication of her second novel, The Crime at Black Dudley . The novel introduced Albert Campion, although only as a minor character. After pressure from her American publishers, Margery brought Campion back for Mystery Mile and continued to use Campion as a character throughout her career.
After a battle with breast cancer, Margery died in 1966. Her husband finished her last novel, A Cargo of Eagles at her request, and published it in 1968.
Also wrote as: Maxwell March
Margery Louise Allingham was born in Ealing, London in 1904 to a family of writers. Her father, Herbert John Allingham, was editor of The Christian Globe and The New London Journal, while her mother wrote stories for women's magazines as Emmie Allingham. Margery's aunt, Maud Hughes, also ran a magazine. Margery earned her first fee at the age of eight, for a story printed in her aunt's magazine.
Soon after Margery's birth, the family left London for Essex. She returned to London in 1920 to attend the Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), and met her future husband, Philip Youngman Carter. They married in 1928. He was her collaborator and designed the cover jackets for many of her books.
Margery's breakthrough came 1929 with the publication of her second novel, The Crime at Black Dudley . The novel introduced Albert Campion, although only as a minor character. After pressure from her American publishers, Margery brought Campion back for Mystery Mile and continued to use Campion as a character throughout her career.
After a battle with breast cancer, Margery died in 1966. Her husband finished her last novel, A Cargo of Eagles at her request, and published it in 1968.
Also wrote as: Maxwell March
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 178 reviews
September 7, 2024
Margery Allingham and her continuing character Albert Campion are one of the cornerstones of the Golden Age of Mystery and I have read several of them. Albert's background is somewhat of a mystery as he appears to be wealthy and has very powerful "connections" in His Majesty's government. And he has a servant/batman,Lugg, who is a quirky character.
This story is set near the end of WWII in London and Albert has just returned from an apparent secret mission on the continent. Of course, he immediately gets involved in a murder investigation which involves one of his close friends who is one of the suspects.
I couldn't possible try to explain the murder and the numerous characters involved as it is just a little too complicated for my tastes......too many characters and too many suspects. It is interesting but not one of the best of the Allingham stories. I rounded it up to 3.5. Give it a try and see what you think!
This story is set near the end of WWII in London and Albert has just returned from an apparent secret mission on the continent. Of course, he immediately gets involved in a murder investigation which involves one of his close friends who is one of the suspects.
I couldn't possible try to explain the murder and the numerous characters involved as it is just a little too complicated for my tastes......too many characters and too many suspects. It is interesting but not one of the best of the Allingham stories. I rounded it up to 3.5. Give it a try and see what you think!
May 14, 2020
This is number twelve in the Albert Campion series, published in 1945 and set at the end of WWII. Albert Campion has returned from a secret, wartime mission, and is relaxing in his bath (presumably Lugg had removed the 5 inch water line round the bath at this point – a little hard to wallow in shallow water) when he hears a noise. Of course, being Campion, this has to be something more than a little unusual and turns out to be Lugg and Lady Carados (mother of Campion’s old friend, Johnny Carados) bringing a dead body up the stairs. With Johnny’s wedding, to the young widow of one of his pilots, due to happen shortly, Lady Carados is amazed to find the body of a young woman dead, in his bed. Has she committed suicide? Panicked, Lady Carados involves Lugg in removing the evidence and now an unwilling Campion finds himself involved.
For much of this novel, Campion seems to be asking what something means, or Allingham tells us that a piece of information results in another, small piece of the jigsaw being slotted in. Like Campion, I felt quite lost throughout this mystery and it seems to be the situation in many of the Campion series. Allingham writes good characters, but has a tendency to introduce too many, too quickly, and confuse Campion – and the reader – as to their relevance to the plot.
One of the things I did like about this mystery was the link between wartime London and the society between the wars. There are mentions of those ‘Bright Young Things,’ and how they seem so light-hearted in the current, wartime situation. As well as a body, we have missing art valuable and even wine. Everything seems to point to the involvement of Johnny Carados, but things are definitely not that simple. Overall, I found this a cluttered, and confusing, mystery, even though I liked the characters. Rated 3.5.
For much of this novel, Campion seems to be asking what something means, or Allingham tells us that a piece of information results in another, small piece of the jigsaw being slotted in. Like Campion, I felt quite lost throughout this mystery and it seems to be the situation in many of the Campion series. Allingham writes good characters, but has a tendency to introduce too many, too quickly, and confuse Campion – and the reader – as to their relevance to the plot.
One of the things I did like about this mystery was the link between wartime London and the society between the wars. There are mentions of those ‘Bright Young Things,’ and how they seem so light-hearted in the current, wartime situation. As well as a body, we have missing art valuable and even wine. Everything seems to point to the involvement of Johnny Carados, but things are definitely not that simple. Overall, I found this a cluttered, and confusing, mystery, even though I liked the characters. Rated 3.5.
November 28, 2022
Albert Campion returns from the war in 1945 after three years on some secret squirrel mission. He is immediately embroiled in a murder mystery when a dead woman is found in his flat and bed. A nasty shock after he has just had a nice hot bath. All he wants is to catch a train to go home.
A class orientated mystery with the obvious suspect being Calvados. Appearances are deceiving. A few red herrings with the attempted murder of Bush a wine connoisseur. The restauranteur and his dodgy partner as well as a few others. Some very odd marriages in this yarn.
In the end the mysterious murder is solved and some stolen treasures returned. Campion also finally gets to catch his train. A nice cosy mystery.
A class orientated mystery with the obvious suspect being Calvados. Appearances are deceiving. A few red herrings with the attempted murder of Bush a wine connoisseur. The restauranteur and his dodgy partner as well as a few others. Some very odd marriages in this yarn.
In the end the mysterious murder is solved and some stolen treasures returned. Campion also finally gets to catch his train. A nice cosy mystery.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 16, 2020
All the big sparkly stars for me! Previously the other World War II Albert Campion novel, Tiger in the Smoke, was my favorite of Allingham's books (all of which I love), but on this reading I think this book has supplanted it.
Any competent murder mystery can be a satisfying read, stringing you along with suspense and speculation till it all winds up neatly in the end and Right is restored. But then there are the great mysteries, which rise above the norms of the genre and become classic human dramas. For my taste, this is one of those books.
We begin with our hero returning from overseas when he is finally released from unspecified but undoubtedly hazardous and vital spy duties as the war is winding down. He enters his London flat and sinks happily into the bath, relaxing a bit before catching a train into the countryside to be reunited with his wife, whom he hasn't seen for several years. Naturally, he's not allowed to rest there. He hears people entering the flat and when he emerges into his bedroom, wrapped in a towel, he finds a dead body on the bed! And with that he is dragged reluctantly into a mystery that challenges his mind and his innermost feelings and drags him reluctantly away from the reunion he yearns for.
The story takes him into blitzed London, a landscape he knows intimately and doesn't know at all, and into a set of people who are trying desperately to cling to the life and ideas they had before the war, even though everything has changed. They are all living, symbolically enough, in a half-bombed-out mansion, where by staying in the few undamaged rooms they can pretend that nothing has changed even though they know better. All around Campion he finds such relics of a destroyed past, the cognitive dissonance of people who don't quite know what has hit them and are trying vainly to remember whatever it was they considered verities before the destruction. It is a powerful setting and Campion struggles through his exhausted attempts to absorb it all and keep his mind on track.
The mystery, which seems small, almost familial, at first gradually takes on enormous dimensions, and suspicions of the mastermind's identity cause Campion a great deal of misery in his attenuated state. I felt tremendous sympathy for him as he navigated this wreck of the world he has been risking his life to protect, and the misery of it all nearly brings him to his knees. I loved this triple storyline, where the implications of the mystery are echoed in the physical surroundings which are in turn echoed in the emotional drama. Allingham doesn't dwell on the devastation, but her very matter-of-factness makes it all the more powerful.
As is often the case with Allingham's mysteries, there is a large and colorful cast of characters, all using jargon and behaving in ways I have to strain to follow. But the vividly described setting and all the emotional resonances dragged me along and raised the stakes to an intense level.
I don't ordinarily put spoilers in my reviews, but here I have to say that
Aside from the stray dated moment, this was for me a perfect model of its type. In Britain the title of this book is Coroner's Pidgin.
Any competent murder mystery can be a satisfying read, stringing you along with suspense and speculation till it all winds up neatly in the end and Right is restored. But then there are the great mysteries, which rise above the norms of the genre and become classic human dramas. For my taste, this is one of those books.
We begin with our hero returning from overseas when he is finally released from unspecified but undoubtedly hazardous and vital spy duties as the war is winding down. He enters his London flat and sinks happily into the bath, relaxing a bit before catching a train into the countryside to be reunited with his wife, whom he hasn't seen for several years. Naturally, he's not allowed to rest there. He hears people entering the flat and when he emerges into his bedroom, wrapped in a towel, he finds a dead body on the bed! And with that he is dragged reluctantly into a mystery that challenges his mind and his innermost feelings and drags him reluctantly away from the reunion he yearns for.
The story takes him into blitzed London, a landscape he knows intimately and doesn't know at all, and into a set of people who are trying desperately to cling to the life and ideas they had before the war, even though everything has changed. They are all living, symbolically enough, in a half-bombed-out mansion, where by staying in the few undamaged rooms they can pretend that nothing has changed even though they know better. All around Campion he finds such relics of a destroyed past, the cognitive dissonance of people who don't quite know what has hit them and are trying vainly to remember whatever it was they considered verities before the destruction. It is a powerful setting and Campion struggles through his exhausted attempts to absorb it all and keep his mind on track.
The mystery, which seems small, almost familial, at first gradually takes on enormous dimensions, and suspicions of the mastermind's identity cause Campion a great deal of misery in his attenuated state. I felt tremendous sympathy for him as he navigated this wreck of the world he has been risking his life to protect, and the misery of it all nearly brings him to his knees. I loved this triple storyline, where the implications of the mystery are echoed in the physical surroundings which are in turn echoed in the emotional drama. Allingham doesn't dwell on the devastation, but her very matter-of-factness makes it all the more powerful.
As is often the case with Allingham's mysteries, there is a large and colorful cast of characters, all using jargon and behaving in ways I have to strain to follow. But the vividly described setting and all the emotional resonances dragged me along and raised the stakes to an intense level.
I don't ordinarily put spoilers in my reviews, but here I have to say that
Aside from the stray dated moment, this was for me a perfect model of its type. In Britain the title of this book is Coroner's Pidgin.
January 13, 2023
'Coroner's Pidgin' was my first time reading an Albert Campion novel. Normally, I wouldn't jump into a series at the twelfth book, but this was a group read, so I grabbed a copy of the audiobook from my local library and dived in.
I wasn't sure what to expect. My only experience of Campion was in short stories, most of which seemed to portray him as a slightly down-market Lord Peter Wimsey.
The book took me completely by surprise because it has so much more depth than the short stories. The opening of the book was unconventional and quite funny. It reminded me of the opening of the first Wimsey novel, 'Whose Body' except the pace was better and the lines funnier. About twenty per cent in, the tone changed and things took a much darker turn, with Campion finding himself kidnapped and assaulted and then discovering that the body that was being hidden in his flat without his permission, was that of a woman who had been murdered.
From there on in I lost myself in the mystery, which became ever more complex as Campion became more sombre.
Several things distinguished 'Coroner's Pidgin' from other Golden Age Mysteries that I've read.
Firstly, Campion feels both grown-up and compassionate. He sees people clearly but tries not to judge them harshly. Beneath the veneer of charm and unflappability, Albert Campion seems to be a compassionate man. He's not a hunter like Poirot or an ambush predator like Marple. He's someone who tries to smooth things out and make things right while causing the minimum amount of harm.
Part of the being a grown-up thing seems to come from Campion's secret and undisclosed work in the war. One of the strong themes of the book is the dislocation experienced by Campion and one of the other key characters when they try to live in civilian London at the same time as surviving while fighting in a war. Campion comes back to a London so bomb-damaged that he has difficulty navigating it and with a restless population that moves more quickly and takes more risks than he was used to. One of the other characters is struggling to reconcile being a Wing Commander in the RAF with its high rates of pilot attrition and his pre-war lifestyle as a patron of the arts and the head of found-family household of talented, unconventional people.
Secondly, the police were not only competent but they were firmly in charge of the investigation. I thought this made the whole story more interesting and more credible. For once, the amateur sleuth knew less about what was going on than the police did and was also clear that his role was to assist, not to lead.
I also liked that the way the book showed some of the aristocracy as becoming out of step with the mood of England in 1945. They were still trying to exercise privileges that placed them above the law at a time when the law had become more draconian and not at all forgiving.
The plot was clever if a little elaborate. I enjoyed the exposition and I thought the characters were well-drawn, I especially admired the way the book showed the dynamics of a clique that had started to sour and was failing to adapt to changing circumstances.
Although the pace worked in most of the book, I felt the ending, at least the part at the Inquest dragged a little.
I'm glad that 'Coroner's Pidgin' was part of a reading challenge. Without that, I'd have missed out on a good book and on finding another author to read
I wasn't sure what to expect. My only experience of Campion was in short stories, most of which seemed to portray him as a slightly down-market Lord Peter Wimsey.
The book took me completely by surprise because it has so much more depth than the short stories. The opening of the book was unconventional and quite funny. It reminded me of the opening of the first Wimsey novel, 'Whose Body' except the pace was better and the lines funnier. About twenty per cent in, the tone changed and things took a much darker turn, with Campion finding himself kidnapped and assaulted and then discovering that the body that was being hidden in his flat without his permission, was that of a woman who had been murdered.
From there on in I lost myself in the mystery, which became ever more complex as Campion became more sombre.
Several things distinguished 'Coroner's Pidgin' from other Golden Age Mysteries that I've read.
Firstly, Campion feels both grown-up and compassionate. He sees people clearly but tries not to judge them harshly. Beneath the veneer of charm and unflappability, Albert Campion seems to be a compassionate man. He's not a hunter like Poirot or an ambush predator like Marple. He's someone who tries to smooth things out and make things right while causing the minimum amount of harm.
Part of the being a grown-up thing seems to come from Campion's secret and undisclosed work in the war. One of the strong themes of the book is the dislocation experienced by Campion and one of the other key characters when they try to live in civilian London at the same time as surviving while fighting in a war. Campion comes back to a London so bomb-damaged that he has difficulty navigating it and with a restless population that moves more quickly and takes more risks than he was used to. One of the other characters is struggling to reconcile being a Wing Commander in the RAF with its high rates of pilot attrition and his pre-war lifestyle as a patron of the arts and the head of found-family household of talented, unconventional people.
Secondly, the police were not only competent but they were firmly in charge of the investigation. I thought this made the whole story more interesting and more credible. For once, the amateur sleuth knew less about what was going on than the police did and was also clear that his role was to assist, not to lead.
I also liked that the way the book showed some of the aristocracy as becoming out of step with the mood of England in 1945. They were still trying to exercise privileges that placed them above the law at a time when the law had become more draconian and not at all forgiving.
The plot was clever if a little elaborate. I enjoyed the exposition and I thought the characters were well-drawn, I especially admired the way the book showed the dynamics of a clique that had started to sour and was failing to adapt to changing circumstances.
Although the pace worked in most of the book, I felt the ending, at least the part at the Inquest dragged a little.
I'm glad that 'Coroner's Pidgin' was part of a reading challenge. Without that, I'd have missed out on a good book and on finding another author to read
March 19, 2011
This volume has one of the most cluttered openings of any mystery novel I’ve ever read. Albert Campian returns from (unspecified, but heroic) war-work to find that his loyal assistant Lugg and a formidable Lady of the aristocracy are moving a dead female body into his apartment. They are swiftly joined by the Lady’s caddish son, his long-term lover, his young fiancée and the dutiful family secretary. That’s quite a lot of people to introduce in the first fifteen pages or so. A short while later we meet the wild circle which orbits the caddish son, as well as the warring proprietors of one of Soho’s best restaurants and a host of other individuals. The first hundred pages then are a whirl of different characters and different motivations, and it really is something of a mess. I’m all for ambition in fiction, but it is possible to be too ambitious. It’s not until the second half of the book that these characters are really given a chance to breathe and grow into themselves, so that the reader can relax and enjoy the story.
That whirlwind opening means that this isn’t as good as the last Campian novel I read (‘Police at the Funeral’’), but once it finds its feet it does have a great deal of charm. Allingham’s prose remains masterful and as well as a clever mystery, this is a really sharp evocation of lives changed by wartime(as well as an examination of the place of the aristocracy in English culture). In particular I liked that the character of Campian is not fixed in the way Poirot or Holmes are, but is instead getting older and feeling nostalgia for the world he once inhabited, which he realises has been smashed apart forever. It's not a question actually asked, but it is there between the lines - what on Earth is his place in this new world?
The first few chapters are head-spinning, but this one is worth persevering with.
That whirlwind opening means that this isn’t as good as the last Campian novel I read (‘Police at the Funeral’’), but once it finds its feet it does have a great deal of charm. Allingham’s prose remains masterful and as well as a clever mystery, this is a really sharp evocation of lives changed by wartime(as well as an examination of the place of the aristocracy in English culture). In particular I liked that the character of Campian is not fixed in the way Poirot or Holmes are, but is instead getting older and feeling nostalgia for the world he once inhabited, which he realises has been smashed apart forever. It's not a question actually asked, but it is there between the lines - what on Earth is his place in this new world?
The first few chapters are head-spinning, but this one is worth persevering with.
June 25, 2016
One of the best things about Margery Allingham's Campion series is that pretty much uniquely we follow his life from bright young thing in the 1920s to older and wiser in the 60s. In this book, set and written around 1944/5 he is on leave in a battered London and war weary.
The Campion books also have an impressive range of plots from straight crime to treasure hunt. This book is the purest kind of mystery in that for over half the book the reader doesn't know what's going on as odd events accumulate - both brilliant and ahead of its time.
What we have here is also an interesting examination of the class system in a state of change. An aristocratic central character is considered by some to be above investigation - but should he be?
All told, a classic of the genre.
The Campion books also have an impressive range of plots from straight crime to treasure hunt. This book is the purest kind of mystery in that for over half the book the reader doesn't know what's going on as odd events accumulate - both brilliant and ahead of its time.
What we have here is also an interesting examination of the class system in a state of change. An aristocratic central character is considered by some to be above investigation - but should he be?
All told, a classic of the genre.
December 21, 2020
Lying amid the crumpled tissue was a battered artificial rose around the stem of which was wound a string of unconvincing pearls. It was a curious trophy, possibly in bad taste, but by far the most interesting thing about it was its effect upon Johnny Carados. The man was outraged, he was so angry that it occurred to Campion that he must be also startled.
January 18, 2023
Humorous start, but the many characters and complications made it difficult to read.
April 26, 2018
After three years of service overseas during World War II, Campion returns home to enjoy two precious weeks of leave, and immediately gets drawn into murder.
This is a novel of change, of the wreck of the old world, and the formation of a new one, as the madcap attitudes of the 20s-30s generation give way to one coming of age during a time of bombing and deprivation. Also a solid mystery - though with the police a little inclined to fix on one suspect above all others.
This is a novel of change, of the wreck of the old world, and the formation of a new one, as the madcap attitudes of the 20s-30s generation give way to one coming of age during a time of bombing and deprivation. Also a solid mystery - though with the police a little inclined to fix on one suspect above all others.
January 23, 2023
You know that feeling when you come in halfway through a film and the other person is unconscious? Quite quickly you get the general gist – the genre, the location, the era – but the finer points of the plot and the relationships between the characters remain a mystery. And the sleeping partner isn’t exactly the best advertisement.
Now, I did listen to the audiobook – so perhaps I was to blame for my choice of a format that is not conducive to checking back, compounded by my lapses of concentration. And I did enjoy the company of Albert Campion and a cast of upper-class Londoners who populate this wartime tale of blitzed buildings and eccentric behaviour.
Campion arrives home on leave to find a in his bed a female corpse that has been literally lugged up the stair to his flat (by manservant Lugg and an eminent dowager). The first part of the mystery seems to concern the identity of the body and the explanation for its inconvenient appearance. But a subplot gains pre-eminence as valuable treasures are shipped out of the city for safety.
I think everything turned out alright on the night … but maybe I dropped off before the end, too.
Now, I did listen to the audiobook – so perhaps I was to blame for my choice of a format that is not conducive to checking back, compounded by my lapses of concentration. And I did enjoy the company of Albert Campion and a cast of upper-class Londoners who populate this wartime tale of blitzed buildings and eccentric behaviour.
Campion arrives home on leave to find a in his bed a female corpse that has been literally lugged up the stair to his flat (by manservant Lugg and an eminent dowager). The first part of the mystery seems to concern the identity of the body and the explanation for its inconvenient appearance. But a subplot gains pre-eminence as valuable treasures are shipped out of the city for safety.
I think everything turned out alright on the night … but maybe I dropped off before the end, too.
May 19, 2020
Albert Campion returns from a wartime assignment overseas looking forward to a rest. His plans are dashed when he finds the dead body of a woman in his room, and the police expect him to stay in London. Before long, he realises the death may form only a small part of a wider criminal conspiracy and that his aristocratic friend Johnny Carados may be involved.
After the dramatic beginning, this mystery settles down into a quieter and more complex investigation, with plenty of twists and turns. Campion is more subdued than in earlier books, both from physical exhaustion as the investigation takes him from pillar to post, and from the mental strain of his wartime experiences.
There is a sense of the changing political and social structures of the time, but this is kept in the background and not allowed to overshadow consideration of the crimes. The plot is quite complicated and the strands are not pulled together until late in the day, but this was an intelligent and engaging story.
After the dramatic beginning, this mystery settles down into a quieter and more complex investigation, with plenty of twists and turns. Campion is more subdued than in earlier books, both from physical exhaustion as the investigation takes him from pillar to post, and from the mental strain of his wartime experiences.
There is a sense of the changing political and social structures of the time, but this is kept in the background and not allowed to overshadow consideration of the crimes. The plot is quite complicated and the strands are not pulled together until late in the day, but this was an intelligent and engaging story.
September 5, 2015
Good mystery book, nothing special. From like 1/3 of the way through the plot moves along at a very good pace and it was very "just one more page". But by the end I felt kind of confused. There's a *lot* of elements introduced and most of them tie together but it's not completely neat and I felt there were some things unexplained, and I feel like there's no way it's a "fair play" mystery (although that might just be me not being very smart). Ending spoilers re what I didn't understand
Otherwise pretty solid - nothing special to recommend it, although the setting of near the end of the war was pretty interesting and I liked the period details a lot.
Otherwise pretty solid - nothing special to recommend it, although the setting of near the end of the war was pretty interesting and I liked the period details a lot.
March 26, 2020
Albert Campion gets his first leave since the War started, but before he can return to his wife he finds a dead body in his London apartment, and the Dowager Marchioness and his man, now working in Civil Defense, apologizing for smuggling in the corpse. Willy nilly, he's involved in the affairs of his old friend Johnny Carados, who is supposed to marry a young widow, although he doesn't love her and she doesn't love him. Campion is also startled to discover that Carados is suspected by the police of a series of crimes--there's no proof, but everywhere the police look, they seem to see Carados' shadow. Campion's uncle, the Bishop of Devizes, also has a cameo, helping a young American soldier. True to the title, Allingham gives her readers both pearls and a swine.
November 12, 2011
This was my first Margery Allingham mystery. It features Albert Campion as the protagonist. At times I thought it got a bit convoluted, but on the whole, I enjoyed the pace, the story and the characters. The mystery was interesting and I must say the ending caught me by surprise. I now have a couple of other Allingham mysteries in my bookshelf to read and I'm looking forward to them.
December 14, 2018
Margery Allingham is an amazing writer. Even today her 1930s books are complex, interesting and filled with cultural references. I recommend any of her books written in the 30s.
July 11, 2022
Highly enjoyable plot, complex enough to keep Mr Campion and the reader on their toes.
Read
January 10, 20232.5 Stars
July 6, 2025
Another brilliant and sombre—almost semi-noir—entry in the Albert Campion series. Campion, war-weary and on leave, returns briefly to his familiar Bottle Street flat before heading off to what he hopes will be a peaceful retreat. Instead, he’s immediately thrown into another murder caper—thanks to a bit of facetious mischief from Lugg and an elderly but formidable matriach (a recurring Allingham type).
What follows is a wonderfully intricate plot involving vintage wines, stolen art, historical relics, and, of course, the Nazis—whose shadowy presence grows more ominous as the truth slowly unfolds. The cast is large, and while at times it seems unruly, Allingham’s prose gives each character personality and weight.
At the heart of the story is a very Edwardian “set,” led by the scion of an ancient family. He’s not particularly sympathetic on the surface, but as the story develops, his struggles draw the reader in. The war’s impact on this once-idle and eccentric group gives the novel both atmosphere and tension. Their bohemian ways are rendered with Allingham’s usual sharpness and without heavy moralizing—a modern touch I appreciate.
The solution is clever and satisfying, culminating fittingly at the desk of the titular coroner.
But the real highlight is the novel’s wartime setting. The damage London has suffered—physical, emotional, spiritual—seeps through every page. Even without the mystery, the toll the war has taken on everyone, including Campion, is palpable. Combined with the previous book in the series, this confirms my view that Allingham was the finest of her peers when it came to portraying the war and its aftermath in detective fiction. Not surprising from the author of The Oaken Heart, a semi-biographical, though now sadly forgotten, masterpiece of home-front literature.
What follows is a wonderfully intricate plot involving vintage wines, stolen art, historical relics, and, of course, the Nazis—whose shadowy presence grows more ominous as the truth slowly unfolds. The cast is large, and while at times it seems unruly, Allingham’s prose gives each character personality and weight.
At the heart of the story is a very Edwardian “set,” led by the scion of an ancient family. He’s not particularly sympathetic on the surface, but as the story develops, his struggles draw the reader in. The war’s impact on this once-idle and eccentric group gives the novel both atmosphere and tension. Their bohemian ways are rendered with Allingham’s usual sharpness and without heavy moralizing—a modern touch I appreciate.
The solution is clever and satisfying, culminating fittingly at the desk of the titular coroner.
But the real highlight is the novel’s wartime setting. The damage London has suffered—physical, emotional, spiritual—seeps through every page. Even without the mystery, the toll the war has taken on everyone, including Campion, is palpable. Combined with the previous book in the series, this confirms my view that Allingham was the finest of her peers when it came to portraying the war and its aftermath in detective fiction. Not surprising from the author of The Oaken Heart, a semi-biographical, though now sadly forgotten, masterpiece of home-front literature.
July 23, 2024
5+++ stars. My favourite of all my favourite Campions and I'm so glad to be reading these in order. This was an extraordinary book, set in "pre-post-war" London, it is a complex, confusing but absolutely fascinating story. Starts off almost farcical but soon becomes deadly serious. The characters are all stunning (including London) and I felt so much for a war-weary Albert who just wanted to catch his train home. (What an ending!)
January 2, 2025
The beginning of this book is a lot. So many characters all reacting to the corpse that was picked up somewhere(?/!), which, I’m telling you now, we don’t get the full story on until much further in.
A lot of names get thrown at you very quickly, and there wasn’t really an easily searchable character reference online.
In spite of that, I found this novel enjoyable, though I did predict the villain—still, more pleased with that than anything.
Allingham continues to impress.
A lot of names get thrown at you very quickly, and there wasn’t really an easily searchable character reference online.
In spite of that, I found this novel enjoyable, though I did predict the villain—still, more pleased with that than anything.
Allingham continues to impress.
March 11, 2025
Not a first rate Campion story. He seems to have lost his zip and verve. I know he’s getting older and there’s a war on. But he’s much more fun when he is charging around the place. Felt a bit passive here. Plus the ending seems to complicated and I was left feeling I had not really understood the motive for the murder. Frustrating. But still fun.
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June 5, 2024I continue to be impressed with Allingham's books. You read along and think that a lot has happened only to discover that you're not even half way through the book! The plots are complex, the people are interesting and far less class-conscious than other writers of this golden age.
May 27, 2024
This one was fun. Great plot, lots of twists and turns.
August 9, 2017
Margery Allingham was a contemporary of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers during the 'golden age' of detective fiction and I read lots of her books as a teenager, although I don't think I'd read Coroner's Pidgin before. It's one of Allingham's later books, taking place towards the end of the Second World War. Her detective hero, Albert Campion, has been overseas for most of the war but has returned briefly to his flat at Piccadilly simply to wash and change before catching a train for a mysteriously urgent but unspecified reason not revealed until the end of the novel. While he's there, he's suddenly interrupted by his servant Lugg and Lady Carados, the dowager of a local aristocratic family, carrying the dead body of a woman into Campion's bedroom. Who is this unfortunate victim, and how did she die?
There's a great deal of wit in Margery Allingham's writing, far more than you'll find in most crime fiction of her period, and although Campion is, like Lord Peter Wimsey, a maverick aristocrat with a seemingly limitless supply of leisure time, I find him far more likeable and entertaining as a character. Campion, thankfully, lacks Wimsey's snobbery (intellectual and otherwise) and appears far more at ease in the company of people outside his social class. His relationship with former burglar Lugg is more that of a pair of old friends than master and servant and he enjoys something of a love-hate relationship with his old sparring partner Inspector Oates of Scotland Yard.
That's not to say that this isn't, essentially, a book about ridiculous posh people - that is in fact exactly what it is. However, one thing I found interesting about this book was the way that Allingham explores the effects of the war on the characters and their status. The dead woman was one of a group of 'bright young things' whose way of life has effectively been curtailed by war. Lady Carados and cockney servant Lugg, a former burglar, are volunteer fire wardens together with equal status. Lord Carados is now an RAF officer whose equally well-to-do fiancee's head has been turned by an American GI. Campion himself, it's heavily hinted, has had his former career as a sort of gentleman adventurer curtailed by a stint working as a spy. The frivolous parties and society gossip that once occupied the Carados family and their circle of friends are now very much over, their favourite exclusive restaurants and glittering parties have been hit by either bombs or rationing, their country homes are being requisitioned and there's a strong sense that things will never quite be the same for these people again.
In terms of plot this is a straightforward who (and why) dunnit, with multiple suspects and various potential motives, although in common with a lot of Allingham's novels it's as much an adventure story as a mystery and the reader isn't really given enough clues to have a chance of working out who the murderer is for themselves, so if you treat your detective stories as puzzles to be solved, you might find this tiresome. I generally don't, so I was happy to enjoy the somewhat improbable plot and eccentric characters and to be reminded of just how good Allingham really is.
There's a great deal of wit in Margery Allingham's writing, far more than you'll find in most crime fiction of her period, and although Campion is, like Lord Peter Wimsey, a maverick aristocrat with a seemingly limitless supply of leisure time, I find him far more likeable and entertaining as a character. Campion, thankfully, lacks Wimsey's snobbery (intellectual and otherwise) and appears far more at ease in the company of people outside his social class. His relationship with former burglar Lugg is more that of a pair of old friends than master and servant and he enjoys something of a love-hate relationship with his old sparring partner Inspector Oates of Scotland Yard.
That's not to say that this isn't, essentially, a book about ridiculous posh people - that is in fact exactly what it is. However, one thing I found interesting about this book was the way that Allingham explores the effects of the war on the characters and their status. The dead woman was one of a group of 'bright young things' whose way of life has effectively been curtailed by war. Lady Carados and cockney servant Lugg, a former burglar, are volunteer fire wardens together with equal status. Lord Carados is now an RAF officer whose equally well-to-do fiancee's head has been turned by an American GI. Campion himself, it's heavily hinted, has had his former career as a sort of gentleman adventurer curtailed by a stint working as a spy. The frivolous parties and society gossip that once occupied the Carados family and their circle of friends are now very much over, their favourite exclusive restaurants and glittering parties have been hit by either bombs or rationing, their country homes are being requisitioned and there's a strong sense that things will never quite be the same for these people again.
In terms of plot this is a straightforward who (and why) dunnit, with multiple suspects and various potential motives, although in common with a lot of Allingham's novels it's as much an adventure story as a mystery and the reader isn't really given enough clues to have a chance of working out who the murderer is for themselves, so if you treat your detective stories as puzzles to be solved, you might find this tiresome. I generally don't, so I was happy to enjoy the somewhat improbable plot and eccentric characters and to be reminded of just how good Allingham really is.
July 3, 2023
Really enjoyed this. Good for a mini televsion series.
July 11, 2018
Margery Allingham is an exceptional Writer. Her plots are sophisticated, as are her characters. The last one I read- I thought this is my favorite and then I felt the same with the next one. She has the ability to describe characters in a pre-war or post-war setting- in an England none of us knew. Charming, intelligent, people who get themselves in a bad situation and among the group- one is a killer.
Albert Campion has come home from doing intelligence work for the Government and is headed home to his wife and son. He stops off at his London flat for a luxurious soak in the tub- representing beauty, luxury and civilization to him. A body has been brought up the stairs and laid in his bedroom. A Woman, he has never seen, reposes there and has been brought by Lugg, his butler, and the Dowager Marchioness of Carados. The situation is ludicrous and he bows out determined to go home. The Taxi Driver has other plans. He wakes up chloroformed with a Policeman standing over him. His clothes, have been strewn over an empty building and himself drugged. Despite his best intentions of catching the train home he has to solve the mystery.
The characters are stunning in this book... consisting of a group of people collected together by Johnny Carados, Marquess and RAF Pilot. Two of these are Peter Onyer and his wife, Gwenda. Peter, managed his financial affairs and Gwenda, acted as her husband's secretary. Ricky Silva, petulant and artistic, did the flowers. Captain Gold ruled the household servants, and a plump, cheerful Dolly, went about putting everything right. Then there is Eve Snow, Johnny's girlfriend and Susan, who Johnny is to marry despite that fact. Don Evers is in love with Susan.
Allingham is amazing at the way she collects the characters and sews them into a complicated plot but does it in a way in which you stay fascinated. One of the writers from the golden era of mysteries she is equal with Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers. I finished this book in one night and it stayed with me for several days. If you like charming and evocative- along with sophisticated people from another Era, then this is for you. I loved it.
Albert Campion has come home from doing intelligence work for the Government and is headed home to his wife and son. He stops off at his London flat for a luxurious soak in the tub- representing beauty, luxury and civilization to him. A body has been brought up the stairs and laid in his bedroom. A Woman, he has never seen, reposes there and has been brought by Lugg, his butler, and the Dowager Marchioness of Carados. The situation is ludicrous and he bows out determined to go home. The Taxi Driver has other plans. He wakes up chloroformed with a Policeman standing over him. His clothes, have been strewn over an empty building and himself drugged. Despite his best intentions of catching the train home he has to solve the mystery.
The characters are stunning in this book... consisting of a group of people collected together by Johnny Carados, Marquess and RAF Pilot. Two of these are Peter Onyer and his wife, Gwenda. Peter, managed his financial affairs and Gwenda, acted as her husband's secretary. Ricky Silva, petulant and artistic, did the flowers. Captain Gold ruled the household servants, and a plump, cheerful Dolly, went about putting everything right. Then there is Eve Snow, Johnny's girlfriend and Susan, who Johnny is to marry despite that fact. Don Evers is in love with Susan.
Allingham is amazing at the way she collects the characters and sews them into a complicated plot but does it in a way in which you stay fascinated. One of the writers from the golden era of mysteries she is equal with Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers. I finished this book in one night and it stayed with me for several days. If you like charming and evocative- along with sophisticated people from another Era, then this is for you. I loved it.
February 21, 2022
Book Six of my Golden Age Detective Fiction mini-challenge
We are initially greeted with the chaotic scene in wartime London of the mystery body of a middle-aged woman, an apparent suicide, bundled into private detective Albert Campion's flat by his steely-eyed Cockney manservant Lugg, and Lady Carados, a household name in the gala-halls and drawing rooms of London high society. Albert Campion is at the centre of events from the outset, and, in the background of a thorough police investigation in which all are implicated, he attempts to make sense of the young woman's death in the context of a series of increasingly baffling events and crimes that rapidly ensue.
"Coroner's Pidgin" was unusual for me in that, whilst I found the beginning of the novel to be a real chore to get through, by the end of the novel I found myself well and truly hooked. The early and mid- sections of the novel were marred by far too many characters, the relevancy of many of which I questioned even by the end of the novel, and far too many disorientating subplots. At times, it was difficult to know what the story was even about. It is also worth adding that although I appreciate that ridiculous character names are a standard feature in Golden Age Detective Fiction, Allingham seems to make more liberal use of this feature than most. Despite this, in roughly the last third of the novel, once Allingham narrows in on the substance of the story, the ambitious scope of the crime, Campion and Scotland Yard's ingenuity and the slipperiness of the primary suspects come to the fore. Lastly, as other reviewers have mentioned, the unintended effect of the war as a great leveller of class in wartime London society is a theme that Allingham peppers throughout the novel with just the right amount of subtlety, providing a muted, yet thought-provoking foreground to the behaviour of certain characters.
We are initially greeted with the chaotic scene in wartime London of the mystery body of a middle-aged woman, an apparent suicide, bundled into private detective Albert Campion's flat by his steely-eyed Cockney manservant Lugg, and Lady Carados, a household name in the gala-halls and drawing rooms of London high society. Albert Campion is at the centre of events from the outset, and, in the background of a thorough police investigation in which all are implicated, he attempts to make sense of the young woman's death in the context of a series of increasingly baffling events and crimes that rapidly ensue.
"Coroner's Pidgin" was unusual for me in that, whilst I found the beginning of the novel to be a real chore to get through, by the end of the novel I found myself well and truly hooked. The early and mid- sections of the novel were marred by far too many characters, the relevancy of many of which I questioned even by the end of the novel, and far too many disorientating subplots. At times, it was difficult to know what the story was even about. It is also worth adding that although I appreciate that ridiculous character names are a standard feature in Golden Age Detective Fiction, Allingham seems to make more liberal use of this feature than most. Despite this, in roughly the last third of the novel, once Allingham narrows in on the substance of the story, the ambitious scope of the crime, Campion and Scotland Yard's ingenuity and the slipperiness of the primary suspects come to the fore. Lastly, as other reviewers have mentioned, the unintended effect of the war as a great leveller of class in wartime London society is a theme that Allingham peppers throughout the novel with just the right amount of subtlety, providing a muted, yet thought-provoking foreground to the behaviour of certain characters.
May 24, 2020
AKA Pearls Before Swine, the title under which it was published in the U.S. Why publishers feel the need to change titles when the books cross the Atlantic is the biggest mystery of the genre. Under either name, this is another of Allingham's wartime Albert Campion novels, taking place in a bombed, blacked-out London with the issue of the war still in doubt and the threat of enemy subversion providing anxiety and plot lines.
Campion returns from three years on active service (unspecified, presumably clandestine) on the continent and is relaxing in his bath when he hears noises out in his flat; he emerges to find that his man Lugg and an elderly lady have wrestled a corpse up the stairs and deposited it on his bed. The corpse is that of a young woman in her nightdress and the old lady is the Dowager Marchioness of Carados. There's a reason for all this, but Campion isn't interested; he has a train to catch to get back home to his wife and child. He tells Lugg to sort it out. Then things start happening.
Needless to say, Campion misses his train. The deceased woman is the key to a plot involving the clique of eccentrics around the dashing figure of John Carados, pre-war patron of the arts and RAF ace. There are secret hatreds, emotional and financial intrigues, a truckload of valuables that vanished in the Blitz and the inevitable enemy plot.
It's not the strongest entry in the series, but all the usual touches are there, the deft sketching of character, the clever dialogue, the evocation of an England battered by twentieth-century catastrophes while remembering grander times. Allingham was one of the best of the Golden Age writers.
Campion returns from three years on active service (unspecified, presumably clandestine) on the continent and is relaxing in his bath when he hears noises out in his flat; he emerges to find that his man Lugg and an elderly lady have wrestled a corpse up the stairs and deposited it on his bed. The corpse is that of a young woman in her nightdress and the old lady is the Dowager Marchioness of Carados. There's a reason for all this, but Campion isn't interested; he has a train to catch to get back home to his wife and child. He tells Lugg to sort it out. Then things start happening.
Needless to say, Campion misses his train. The deceased woman is the key to a plot involving the clique of eccentrics around the dashing figure of John Carados, pre-war patron of the arts and RAF ace. There are secret hatreds, emotional and financial intrigues, a truckload of valuables that vanished in the Blitz and the inevitable enemy plot.
It's not the strongest entry in the series, but all the usual touches are there, the deft sketching of character, the clever dialogue, the evocation of an England battered by twentieth-century catastrophes while remembering grander times. Allingham was one of the best of the Golden Age writers.
March 24, 2021
This was quite an exciting Campion novel because I didn't know anything about the story going in. Set towards the end of WWII, Campion is home on leave for the first time in three years. Before he can jump on a train to start his well-earned rest however, a corpse in dumped in his bed and a taxi kidnaps him, and so he becomes embroiled in what starts as a suspicious suicide and quickly expands into an enemy plot to steal swathes of Britain's art and antiques.
Having read a lot of the series now (this is book 12) I was a little tired of Allingham's archetypes and tropes. As usual we have a socialite crowd of aristocracy and artistes circling some God-figure in their midst and all totally out of touch with reality and the law. Campion ping-pongs between protecting his friends and helping the police, but I can never really understand how these people could be his friends and why he doesn't just yell 'tell the police the truth' at them. Also he is exhausted and gets very little sleep or food throughout the story, which I realised is often the case. Poor guy.
The whodunnit was actually not glaringly obvious for once, although I feel that wasn't a terribly interesting reveal. Maybe this was not the most intriguing tale, but it was readably interesting and the late-war setting, with a hero who has been away from home a long time, worked well. Going forward into the post-war era, I would prefer it if the books moved further away from the upper classes, but kept Campion in the spotlight. We shall see.
Having read a lot of the series now (this is book 12) I was a little tired of Allingham's archetypes and tropes. As usual we have a socialite crowd of aristocracy and artistes circling some God-figure in their midst and all totally out of touch with reality and the law. Campion ping-pongs between protecting his friends and helping the police, but I can never really understand how these people could be his friends and why he doesn't just yell 'tell the police the truth' at them. Also he is exhausted and gets very little sleep or food throughout the story, which I realised is often the case. Poor guy.
The whodunnit was actually not glaringly obvious for once, although I feel that wasn't a terribly interesting reveal. Maybe this was not the most intriguing tale, but it was readably interesting and the late-war setting, with a hero who has been away from home a long time, worked well. Going forward into the post-war era, I would prefer it if the books moved further away from the upper classes, but kept Campion in the spotlight. We shall see.
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