Hide My Eyes (Classic Crime) [Paperback]

Margery Allingham (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0140166157 | ISBN-13: 978-0140166156 | Publication Date: March 1993

Beginning with a murder on a rainy night near London's theatreland, this book features Inspector Luke and Mr Campion. A glove and a lizard-skin lettercase begin a trail which leads to a very strange scrap dump in the East End, and finally to the identity of the murderer.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Margery Allingham was born in London in 1904. Her first novel was published when she was seventeen. In 1929 she published The Crime at Black Dudley and introduced the character who was to become the hallmark of her writing - Albert Campion. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Penguin USA (P) (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140166157
• ISBN-13: 978-0140166156
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,781,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars caveat emptor, April 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tether's End (Paperback)

Beware -- this book is also published (by The Hogarth Press) under the title "Hide My Eyes." Don't make my mistake and buy the same book twice.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now You See Him ..., June 19, 2001

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Tether's End (Paperback)

"Tether's End" is one of Margery Allingham's more atypical works. Rather than take their normal place as main characters, Albert Campion and Charlie Luke appear only occasionally. In each case they serve to provide vital context and to move the plot along, but they do not take part in direct action until the book is almost over.

Instead the tale is about a seemingly unconnected series of killings which Luke is convinced are related somehow. A bus with a strange old couple in it is used to transport a victim from a crime scene and then vanishes. Another old couple sets out for South Africa and disappear. Jewelry from an unsolved murder turns up unexpectedly. All of these event seem to be related to Luke's old stamping grounds, Goff's Square, and Garden Green

While Campion and Luke try to fit the pieces together, the narrator moves on, shifting from the murderer's point of view to that of several important and delightful characters. Annabel Tassie has come t!o London at the invitation of her Aunt Polly. Polly runs a museum of peculiarities that were originally collected by her late husband. Having never met Aunt Polly, Annabel calls on her Richard Waterfield, an old friend to keep an eye out for her. Richard, who is starting out his professional life in the big city, hasn't seen Annabel since he failed to marry her sister and is greatly affected by the changes in his old chum. I believe it takes him about 5 seconds to fall totally under her spell.

It is Richard and Annabel who are the true main characters. Their separate adventures, Annabel with Aunt Polly, and Richard with the murderer that Luke and Campion are hunting, provide the main backdrop for the tense and chilling story of a killer who is gradually spinning out of control. Their paths weave through restaurants, clubs, barbershops, and city dumps until, at last, they come together in the small museum across from Garden Green.

"Tether's End" is an intricate an!d thrilling tale, a disturbing look into the mind of a charming sociopath, and an intriguing study of London life at the end of the 1950's. As she did in "Tiger in the Smoke," Margery Allingham turns from comfortable writing habits to show a rare expertise with psychological fiction. I like this book better than "Tiger in the Smoke," but I'm quite confident that the Allingham fan will find both irresistible.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ahead of its time, April 19, 2000

By 

Mr. John Bourn (Gateshead, Great Britain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hide My Eyes (Classic Crime) (Paperback)

Margery Allingham was an uneven writer but she hit a purple match in the early 50s, with the brilliant "Tiger in the Smoke" and this subsequent, similarly-themed novel. The calculating killer, who murders not out of madness or hate or bloodlust, but for simple convenience, is a terrifying creation and the opening of the story, as he plots his latest crime, is extraordinarily gripping - there is a real smell of evil as he methodically prepares to take a human life.

The atmosphere of postwar London is beautifully captured and the conclusion tremendously suspenseful. In many ways, Allingham was ahead of her time - she was a precursor to the Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine school of psychological suspense.