The White Cottage Mystery


Book Description

Seven people might have murdered Eric Crowther, the mysterious recluse who lived in the gaunt house whose shadow fell across the white cottage. In this novel Detective Chief Inspector Challenor and his son Jerry travel across Europe to unravel a chaos of clues.




The White Cottage Mystery


Book Description

Classic Crime from the Golden Age. Margery Allingham is J.K. Rowling's favourite Golden Age author. Eric Crowther collected secrets and used them as weapons. Delighting in nothing more than torturing those around him with what he knew, there is no shortage of suspects when he is found dead in the White Cottage. Chief Inspector Challenor and his son Jerry will have to look deep into everyone's past – including the victim's – before they can be sure who has pulled the trigger. The fact that Jerry is in love with one of the suspects, however, might complicate things. The White Cottage Mystery was Margery Allingham's first detective story, originally written as a serial for the Daily Express in 1927 and published as a book a year later. With a country house, blackmail and murder, The White Cottage Mystery is a classic of the Golden Age of detective fiction.




More Work for the Undertaker


Book Description

“A top-notch mystery full of keen characterization, humor, old English atmosphere, a charmingly decadent family, and a few sudden deaths.” —The New York Times A beggarwoman on a bench arouses Albert Campion’s curiosity—and helps Scotland Yard lure him into a case of family dysfunction. The seemingly destitute woman is none other than a member of the eccentric Palinode family, which has recently lost two of its members. The police suspect a poisoner is on the loose, which is why Campion is willing to go undercover as a lodger in the boardinghouse where they live. As the recently deceased are exhumed, Campion becomes acquainted with the old-fashioned, out-of-the-ordinary family members, who talk in crossword puzzle clues, sneak out at night, and cook vats of stinky food in the basement to save money. And if that’s not enough to keep Campion on his toes, the local undertaker seems to be digging himself into a hole . . . Praise for Margery Allingham “Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light.” —Agatha Christie “The best of mystery writers.” —The New Yorker “Don’t start reading these books unless you are confident that you can handle addiction.” —The Independent “One of the finest Golden-Age crime novelists.” —The Sunday Telegraph “Spending an evening with Campion is one of life’s pure pleasures.” —The Sunday Times




The Crime at Black Dudley


Book Description

THE FIRST CAMPION MYSTERY 'Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light' Agatha Christie A suspicious death and a haunted family heirloom were not advertised when Dr George Abbershaw and a groupof London's brightest young things accepted an invitation to the mansion of Black Dudley. Skulduggery is most certainly afoot, and the party-goers soon realise that they're trapped in the secluded house. Amongst them is a stranger who promises to unravel the villainous plots behind their incarceration - but can George and his friends trust the peculiar young man who calls himself Albert Campion?




The Fashion in Shrouds


Book Description

A custom-made killer shocks the fashionable London set in “one of the finest murder books ever written” featuring gentleman sleuth Albert Campion (The New Yorker). Albert Campion’s sister is a success in her own right. A top fashion designer, she works for a legendary couturier and dresses Georgia Wells, the best-dressed actress in the world. Albert also has a connection to Georgia, but his is based on failure, not success. Georgia’s former fiancé disappeared nearly three years ago, and Campion has never been able to find him. Until now . . . The victim’s remains—discovered by Campion in a deserted country house—point to suicide. But the man’s father assumes it was foul play. In a rarified world of wealth and privilege where silence and secrets can be bought, the investigation won’t be easy, especially when another death takes center stage. This time, the victim is Georgia’s current husband—and starring in the role of prime suspect: Albert’s sister. “Top ranking whodunit in Dorothy Sayers tradition . . . Plus sale for non-mysteryites as first rate novel of fashionable London. Suspense—humor—well planned, well written.” —Kirkus Reviews 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




Hide My Eyes


Book Description

Private detective Albert Campion hunts a serial killer in London’s theatre district, in this crime novel from “the best of mystery writers” (The New Yorker). A spate of murders leaves Campion with only two baffling clues: a left-hand glove and a lizard-skin letter-case. These minimal leads, and a series of peculiar events, set the gentleman sleuth on a race against time that takes him from an odd museum of curiosities hidden in a quiet corner of London to a scrapyard in the East End. Margery Allingham shows her dark edge in Hide My Eyes and evokes the sights, sounds, and inimitable atmosphere of 1950s London, once again proving herself “one of the finest ‘golden age’ crime novelists” (Sunday Telegraph). “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 “Allingham’s characters are three-dimensional flesh and blood, especially her villains.” —Times Literary Supplement




Mystery at the Blue Sea Cottage


Book Description

This “fast-paced, thoughtful true-crime” examines the cultural shifts of Jazz Age America through a beautiful dancer’s mysterious and scandalous death (Kirkus, starred review). In January 1923, twenty-year-old Fritzie Mann left home for a remote cottage by the sea to meet a man whose identity she had revealed to no one. The next morning, the dancer’s barely clad body washed up on Torrey Pines beach, her party dress and possessions strewn about the sand. The scene baffled investigators, and abotched autopsy created more questions than it answered. However, the investigation revealed a scandalous secret. When a Hollywood A-lister was arrested for Fritzie’s murder, it led to the most sensational trial in San Diego’s history. Set against the backdrop of yellow journalism, Prohibition Era corruption, and a lively culture war, Mystery At The Blue Sea Cottage tells the intriguing story of a beautiful dancer, a playboy actor, a debonair doctor, and a tragic mystery that remains unsolved to this day.




Philomel Cottage


Book Description

Alix falls in love with a perfect stranger: Gerald Martin; and despite the opposition of her friend Dick Windyford, she marries him. The couple decides to buy and live at Philomel Cottage; a nice cabin lost in the country. Suddenly, Alix begins to think that her husband is a murderer who wants to keep her money and desperately must find the way to escape without arousing his suspicions. Will she make it?




Coroner's Pidgin


Book Description

“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




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