Margery Allingham

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY Agatha Christie called her 'a shining light'. Have you discovered Margery Allingham, the 'true queen' of the classic murder mystery? Scandal, secrets and suspicions abound when one of the directors at the prestigious publishing house of Barnabas is found dead, locked in the company's strongroom. All eyes are on the other partners at the firm - cousins of the dead man with much to gain from his demise - and all rumours 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? As urbane as Lord Wimsey...as ingenious as Poirot... Meet one of crime fiction's Great Detectives, Mr Albert Campion.

Flowers for the Judge

Sajiya Chaudhary

Why isn't Albert Campion more famous than Poirot? He deserves to be. And Allingham should be read more, much more than Christie. With Christie, I find the prose is almost always interesting, but there's the hint of racism in her language, and while there's the trend of separating the work from the artist, I find it difficult to overlook the human being behind the work. And Allingham wins me over there, same as P.D. James, or Donna Leon, their stories touch upon human psych, and the motives behind the horrible act are always relatable. 
This particular story kept me guessing since the beginning, the fantastical start of a man vanishing in thin air was perfect to introduce the characters. And what a cast, why isn't this an adaptation? 
Allingham writes in third person which is the perspective I relate to the most, and all her characters get highlight in the course of the story, and we understand them as humans, how they look, the way they speak, all of them have a different way of speaking, and that's easily understandable through her writing, it never feels as if you're reading! And that's why I feel Margery Allingham should be counted amongst great writers, and not just Mystery geniuses, mysteries are as much a study of human nature, as any other fiction/non-fiction. 
Well, I loved this story and the ending made a lot of sense to me!

Albert Campion investigates the relationship between the murder of Paul Barnabas and the disappearance of his cousin, Tom, twenty years earlier.

Flowers for the Judge

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