Customer Reviews

Coroner's Pidgin

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Be careful -- this book is also published (by Penguin) as "Coroner's Pidgin."

In the waning days of World War II Albert Campion has returned from Europe on leave. His intent is a quick stopover in his old London flat and then to take a train into the country to be with his wife Amanda and a child he only knows from letters. Unfortunately, he surprises Lugg and Lady Carados, the mother of his close friend Johnny, carrying a corpse into his rooms.

The corpse is that of a woman who apparently had the nerve to crawl into Johnny Carados' bed and take an overdose of sleeping salts. At first, Campion attempts to get things under control, but finally thinks the better of it and sets out for the train. Unexpectedly, he is kidnapped by the cab driver and returns mysteriously to consciousness in a garage. To add insult to injury, the police insist that he stay in London to help with the Carados problem. A much-disgruntled Campion starts digging into a suicide that is looking more and more like murder.

In short order the plot thickens. To the murder add a stolen bottle of rare wine, another murder attempt, and finally a series of art thefts. To make matters worse, the primary suspect is Johnny Carados himself, back in town to marry the widow of a war comrade in arms. Carados is motivated more by duty than love and the woman has fallen in love with a U.S. soldier on duty in London. There are even more complications to come, but if I told you about them I would start giving away the plot (maybe that should be 'plots').

"Pearls before Swine" is a perfect parlor puzzle, full of interlocking pieces that never quite seem to fit together. Not only has Allingham once again created a great detective story, but she also captures much of the atmosphere and psychology of wartime London. Early in the book Carados complains to Albert, "I'm living in two different worlds, Campion, two utterly different worlds." As, the reader will discover, are most characters in this novel. It is up to Campion to pierce through all the masks, and reestablish the rule of justice.

"Pearls Before Swine" provides a close-up look at wartime London. You get a real feel for how people thought and lived between the blackouts and the bombings. And within the realities of war, Allingham adds murders that involve wartime heroes, Civil Defense personnel, revue stars, minor royalty, connoisseurs of food and wine and, of course, Scotland Yard. It's a heady mix.

The action starts immediately. Albert Campion has returned to England after three war years abroad on a secret government mission. He stops at his London apartment on his way to the country. And finds a woman's body in his bed! The suspects in the crime are former friends and associates and his old acquaintances at Scotland Yard pull him unwillingly into the case.

There are a lot of relationships to examine. Characters are sharply drawn. And the story advances with lots of twists, turns and mis-directions. But you learn most of the evidence as it is revealed, so you can try to solve the case along with Campion.

This is a well-crafted, intellectual mystery that holds your attention and delivers a surprising, but satisfying, ending.

I'm working my way through Allingham's Campion series, and this one is set in 1945 as our hero returns from three years abroad working for British Intelligence. (This book is the 12th in the series and was also published as "Coroner's Pidgin"). Campion's mission was so secret "he wasn't even sure" of what the whole mission was; now he just wants desperately to catch a train home to his wife and family. He stops in his London flat for a quick bath before catching said train and finds his old retainer, Lugg, carrying in a dead body. Needless to say, he doesn't catch his train, the mystery deepens, and we're sucked in.

As always, Allingham weaves a fascinating thriller around sophisticated, upper class Londoners; what I found more interesting was the war-time atmosphere she created. Writing in 1945, she really brought to life for me how the war, the Blitz, the whole experience changed people; in one memorable scene Campion fondly recalls the things that seemed important before the war to people of his class. With typical stiff upper lip, Allingham in her dry, understated way lets us know things will never be the same again for anyone. I enjoy the fine writing of this series and the way Campion and his fellow characters age and develop believably. Reading the book in 2010, I couldn't help chuckling sentimentally over the efforts of the group of hangers-on surrounding one of the main suspects, Johnny Carrados (one of Allingham's "great men of the age") to prevent any hint of scandal from touching his aristocratic name; nowadays, the news crews would be searching his garbage cans and staking out his house!

In the waning days of World War II Albert Campion has returned on leave. His intent is to take a quick shower in his London and then take a train into the country to be with his wife Amanda and a child he never quite got to see. Unfortunately, he surprises Lugg and Lady Carados, the mother of his close friend Johnny, carrying a corpse into his rooms.

Discovering that the corpse is of a woman who had the nerve to crawl into Johnny Carados' bed and take an overdose of sleeping salts, Campion attempts to get things under control and then thinks the better of it and sets out for the train. When he is kidnapped by the cab driver and returns mysteriously to consciousness in a garage, the police order him to stay in London to help with the Carados problem. A much-disgruntled Campion starts digging into a suicide that now appears to be a murder.

In short order the plot thickens. To the murder add a stolen bottle of rare wine. Then another murder attempt. Then mix in some art thefts. To make matters worse, the primary suspect is Johnny Carados, who is back in town to marry the widow of a war buddy. But she's in love with an U.S. soldier on duty in London. It gets even more complicated, but if I told you any more I would start giving away the plot (maybe that should be `plots').

"Pearl Before Swine" is a perfect parlor puzzle, full of interlocking pieces that never quite seem to fit together. Not only has Allingham once again created a great detective story, but she also captures much of the atmosphere and psychology of wartime London. Early in the book Carados complains to Albert, "I'm living in two different worlds, Campion, two utterly different worlds." As, the reader will discover, are most characters in this novel. And it is up to Campion to pierce through all the masks.

In the 12th entry to this Golden Age mystery series, Allingham's serial detective, Albert Campion has just returned to London from a secret wartime mission when his shady manservant, Lugg shows up with an inconvenient corpse.

Campion could have been a bit more helpful, seeing as how Lugg helped save his life and his memory in the previous novel, Traitor's Purse (Albert Campion)(1941), but all he can think about is catching the train home to his wife, Amanda. When the police intervene, Campion has to stay in London to keep a friend of his from getting charged with the murder of an old girl friend, on the eve of his marriage to another woman. The suspect's autocratic mother doesn't help matters when she moves the corpse (with Lugg's assistance) out of her son's bed to a more innocuous location, i.e. Campion's bed.

Not only is Campion's friend, RAF Wing Commander Johnny Carados under suspicion of murder, the police also want to nail him for some of the biggest art thefts that took place during the war, when objects of great value were being evacuated from London.

Still, Campion wants to go home to Amanda. Much to his disgust, he is kidnapped on the way to the train station, and from that point on, he becomes a part of the mystery surrounding Lord Carados, as World War II is winding down in Europe.

I thought this was one of Allingham's best mysteries, and of course, there is the bonus subplot involving Lugg and his pet pig (the eponymous 'swine' in this book's title).

Here is a complete list of the Campion novels that Allingham wrote ("Cargo of Eagles" was completed by her husband after her death in 1966). There are also short story collections and Campion novels that were written by her husband, Youngman Carter, which I didn't include in this list.

1. The Black Dudley Murder aka The Crime at Black Dudley (1929)

2. Mystery Mile (1930)

3. Look to the Lady aka The Gyrth Chalice Mystery (1931)

4. Police at the Funeral (1931)

5. Sweet Danger aka Kingdom of Death aka The Fear Sign (1933)

6. Death of a Ghost (1934)

7. Flowers for the Judge (1936)

8. The Case of the Late Pig (1937)

9. Dancers in Mourning aka Who Killed Chloe? (1937)

10. The Fashion in Shrouds (1938)

11. Traitor's Purse aka The Sabotage Murder Mystery (1941)

12. Pearls before Swine (1945)

13. More Work for the Undertaker (1948)

14. The Tiger in the Smoke (1952)

15. Estate of the Beckoning Lady (1955)

16. Tether's End (1958)

17. The China Governess (1963)

18. The Mind Readers (1965)

19. Cargo of Eagles (1968)

What is it about post-WWII britain that seemed to stimulate so much x-cellent crime fiction? This one was great - so civilized, so mysterious, so... well... British. I loved it. Won't give it away. (the plot or the book)