Flowers for the Judge, Death of a Ghost, and The Case of the Late Pig


Book Description

Three Albert Campion mysteries in one volume reveal why “Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light” (Agatha Christie). Flowers for the Judge Scandal hits the prestigious publishing house of Barnabas when one of the directors is found dead in a locked cellar. All eyes are on the other partners at the firm—cousins of the dead man with much to gain from his demise—and rumors hint at a connection to the long-ago disappearance of another director. Desperate to salvage their reputation, the cousins turn to Albert Campion—but will his investigations clear the Barnabas family name, or besmirch it forever? “One of her best . . . vivid and witty.” —The New York Times Death of a Ghost John Sebastian Lafcadio’s ambition to be known as the greatest painter since Rembrandt was not to be thwarted by a matter as trifling as his own death. A set of twelve sealed paintings is left in the hands of his widow, together with the instruction that she unveil one canvas each year before a carefully selected audience. Albert Campion is invited to join a cast of gadabouts, muses, and socialites to witness the eighth unveiling—but instead the lights go down and a young man is stabbed to death. Campion must get to work on the baffling case, with its long—suspiciously long—line-up of possible killers, and soon finds himself having to face his dearest enemy. “Wonderfully plotted . . . Allingham was a rare and precious talent.” —The Washington Post The Case of the Late Pig Private detective Albert Campion is summoned to the village of Kepesake to investigate a particularly distasteful death. The body turns out to be that of Pig Peters—freshly killed five months after his own funeral. Soon other corpses start to turn up, just as Peters’s body goes missing. It takes all of Campion’s coolly incisive powers of detection to unravel the crime. Mixing high drama and pitch-perfect black comedy, The Case of the Late Pig is, uniquely, narrated by Campion himself. “Allingham captures her quintessential quiet detective Albert Campion to perfection.”—Daily Express




Flowers for the Judge


Book Description

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Flowers for the Judge" by Margery Allingham. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.




The Case of the Late Pig


Book Description

A man is killed five months after his funeral, in a tale by “one of the greatest mid-20th-century practitioners of the detective novel” (Alexander McCall Smith). Private detective Albert Campion is summoned to the village of Kepesake to investigate a particularly distasteful death. The body turns out to be that of Pig Peters, freshly killed five months after his own funeral. Soon other corpses start to turn up, just as Peters’s body goes missing. It takes all Campion’s coolly incisive powers of detection to unravel the crime. The Case of the Late Pig is, uniquely, narrated by Campion himself. In Allingham’s inimitable style, high drama sits neatly beside pitch-perfect black comedy. A heady mix of murder, romance, and the urbane detective's own unglamorous past make this an Allingham mystery not to be missed. “My very favourite of the four Queens of Crime is Allingham.”—J. K. Rowling “Margery Allingham deserves to be rediscovered.”—P.D. James




Flowers for the Judge


Book Description

Gentleman sleuth Albert Campion tries to solve the murder of a prominent publisher in this “vivid and witty” British mystery (The New York Times). Scandal hits the prestigious publishing house of Barnabas when one of the directors is found dead in a locked cellar. All eyes are on the other partners at the firm—cousins of the dead man with much to gain from his demise—and all rumors hint at a connection to the disappearance of another director decades earlier. Desperate to salvage their reputation, the cousins turn to Albert Campion—but will his investigations clear the Barnabas family name, or besmirch it forever? “My very favourite of the four Queens of Crime is Allingham.” —J. K. Rowling “Ms. Allingham has a strong, controlled sense of humour and is never dull.” —Times Literary Supplement




Death of a Ghost


Book Description

An artist’s legacy lives on—through murder in this Albert Campion mystery masterpiece from “one of the finest Golden-Age crime novelists” (The Sunday Telegraph). To vex his rival from the grave, a famous artist has left twelve paintings to be sold after his death. Each year, one painting is revealed to kick off London’s art season. But this release party—bringing family, friends, critics, and collectors together—devolves into scandal. A power outage leaves everyone in the dark, and when the lights come back on, a man lies dead—stabbed through the heart with bejeweled scissors. Family friend Albert Campion is present during the deadly crime. The too obvious suspect is the artist’s granddaughter, Linda Lafcadio, who was engaged to the victim until he brought back a model from Italy and married her. Linda didn’t take his suggestion of a ménage à trois well, to say the least. But was she angry enough to kill him? Campion thinks not. He’s actually quite sure he knows who did the dastardly deed, but there’s no evidence to prove it. And though he’s one step behind a diabolical killer, Campion just might be next on the list of victims . . . “Uncommon merit in every direction . . . honestly, you can’t go wrong with Death of a Ghost.” —Boston Evening Transcript Praise for Margery Allingham “Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light.” —Agatha Christie “The best of mystery writers.” —The New Yorker “Allingham was a rare and precious talent.” —The Washington Post “Don’t start reading these books unless you are confident that you can handle addiction.” —The Independent




Watteau's Shepherds


Book Description

Detective stories should be examined from a literary point of view, with special attention to literary history and to materials and patterns from which the writers created their fictions. This book sheds new light into the fascinating field of detective fiction.




The Case of the Late Pig


Book Description

A man is killed five months after his funeral, in a tale by “one of the greatest mid-20th-century practitioners of the detective novel” (Alexander McCall Smith). Private detective Albert Campion is summoned to the village of Kepesake to investigate a particularly distasteful death. The body turns out to be that of Pig Peters, freshly killed five months after his own funeral. Soon other corpses start to turn up, just as Peters’s body goes missing. It takes all Campion’s coolly incisive powers of detection to unravel the crime. The Case of the Late Pig is, uniquely, narrated by Campion himself. In Allingham’s inimitable style, high drama sits neatly beside pitch-perfect black comedy. A heady mix of murder, romance, and the urbane detective's own unglamorous past make this an Allingham mystery not to be missed. “My very favourite of the four Queens of Crime is Allingham.”—J. K. Rowling “Margery Allingham deserves to be rediscovered.”—P.D. James




Women of Mystery


Book Description

In this remarkable book, Martha Hailey DuBose has given those multitudes of readers who love the mystery novel an indispensable addition to their libraries. Unlike other works on the subject, Women of Mystery is not merely a directory of the novelists and their publications with a few biographical details. DuBose combines extensive research into the lives of significant women mystery writers from Anna Katherine Green and Mary Roberts Rinehart with critical essays on their work, anecdotes, contemporary reviews and opinions and some of the women's own comments. She takes us through the Golden Age of the British women mystery writers, Christie, Sayers, Marsh, Allingham and Tey, to the leading crime novelists of today, focused on the women who have become legends of the genre. And though she laments, "so many mysteries, so little time," she makes a good effort a mentioning "some of the best of the rest." When DuBose writes of the lives of her principal players, she relates them to their times, their families, their personal situations and above all to their books. She subtly points out that Sayers, whose experience with the men in her life was inevitably disastrous, created in Lord Peter the ideal lover -- one who is all that a woman desires and needs. DuBose gives us the curriculum vitae that Dorothy Sayers created to help her bring Peter Wimsey to a virtual actuality. Ngaio Marsh would give up an active presence in the theatrical world she loved, but she recreated it for herself as well as her readers in many of her novels. The biographies of these woman are as engrossing as the stories they wrote, and Martha DuBose has shined a different, intimate and intriguing light on them, their works, and the lives that informed those works. This book is so full of treasure it's hard to see how any mystery enthusiast will be able to do without it. And what a gift it would make for anyone on your list who has been heard to announce "I love a mystery." Some of the treats inside: In the Beginning: The Mothers of Detection Anna Katherine Green Mary Roberts Rinehart A Golden Era: The Genteel Puzzlers Agatha Christie Dorothy L. Sayers Ngaio Marsh Margery Allingham Josephine Tey Modern Motives: Mysteries of the Murderous Mind Patricia Highsmith P.D. James Ruth Rendell Mary Higgins Clark Sue Grafton and more!!




Literary Afterlife


Book Description

This is an encyclopedic work, arranged by broad categories and then by original authors, of literary pastiches in which fictional characters have reappeared in new works after the deaths of the authors that created them. It includes book series that have continued under a deceased writer's real or pen name, undisguised offshoots issued under the new writer's name, posthumous collaborations in which a deceased author's unfinished manuscript is completed by another writer, unauthorized pastiches, and "biographies" of literary characters. The authors and works are entered under the following categories: Action and Adventure, Classics (18th Century and Earlier), Classics (19th Century), Classics (20th Century), Crime and Mystery, Espionage, Fantasy and Horror, Humor, Juveniles (19th Century), Juveniles (20th Century), Poets, Pulps, Romances, Science Fiction and Westerns. Each original author entry includes a short biography, a list of original works, and information on the pastiches based on the author's characters.




Police at the Funeral


Book Description

From the Golden Age mystery author comes “a richly detailed and entertaining romp, with a fascinating resolution and an unconventional and winning sleuth” (Chicago Tribune). Albert Campion heads to Cambridge as a favor to a friend, whose fiancée is employed by the elderly Faraday family, to investigate the disappearance of her uncle Andrew. What the self-proclaimed “Deputy-Adventurer” finds is foul play of the most heinous kind: murder. Andrew is found floating in a river, bound and shot in the head. Needless to say, in a household of unlikable characters—presided over by an authoritarian widow—he’s not sorely missed. But fear has pervaded the dour family, bringing up decades of suppressed hatreds, petty jealousies, and nasty impulses—all of which lead to a second shocking killing. As the number of Faradays dwindle, so should the number of suspects. But Campion discovers that in a family this dysfunctional, it’s hard to stop what hatred has set in motion. Praise for Margery Allingham “Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light.” —Agatha Christie “The best of mystery writers.” —The New Yorker “Allingham was a rare and precious talent.” —The Washington Post “Margery Allingham deserves to be rediscovered.” —P. D. James, New York Times–bestselling author “Don’t start reading these books unless you are confident that you can handle addiction.” —The Independent From the Golden Age mystery author comes “a richly detailed and entertaining romp, with a fascinating resolution and an unconventional and winning sleuth” (Chicago Tribune). Albert Campion heads to Cambridge as a favor to a friend, whose fiancée is employed by the elderly Faraday family, to investigate the disappearance of her uncle Andrew. What the self-proclaimed “Deputy-Adventurer” finds is foul play of the most heinous kind: murder. Andrew is found floating in a river, bound and shot in the head. Needless to say, in a household of unlikable characters—presided over by an authoritarian widow—he’s not sorely missed. But fear has pervaded the dour family, bringing up decades of suppressed hatreds, petty jealousies, and nasty impulses—all of which lead to a second shocking killing. As the number of Faradays dwindle, so should the number of suspects. But Campion discovers that in a family this dysfunctional, it’s hard to stop what hatred has set in motion. Praise for Margery Allingham “Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light.” —Agatha Christie “The best of mystery writers.” —The New Yorker “Allingham was a rare and precious talent.” —The Washington Post “Margery Allingham deserves to be rediscovered.” —P. D. James, New York Times–bestselling author “Don’t start reading these books unless you are confident that you can handle addiction.” —The Independent