Margery Allingham

The imperious Great Aunt Caroline Faraday runs her old Cambridge residence like a Victorian fiefdom, unconcerned with the fact that it's 1931. Furniture and meals are heavy and elaborate, both motorcars and morning tea are forbidden on account of vulgarity. The Faraday children--now well into middle age--chafe at the restrictions, but with no money of their own, they respond primarily by quarreling amongst themselves. The illustrious Faraday family endless squabbling is tedious, but the tense tranquility is punctured when Nephew Andrew vanished without trace one Sunday morning after church, only to be found dead in a secluded stream. Matters are complicated further by the murder of Julia, his petulant and whining sister, poisoned by her morning cup of tea. Though neither will be much missed, decency demands that Caroline Faraday hire the nearly respectable Albert Campion to investigate away from the bustle of Piccadilly,their untimely ends. Mr. Campion must untangle a web of family resentments, little does he expect to be greeted by a band of eccentric relatives all at daggers with each other. He must unravel a chillingly ingenious plot, strewn with red herrings to get to the real secret of the Faradays. Unfortunately, what Mr. Campion discovers will force the modern world relentlessly into Mrs. Faraday's stuffy Victorian parlor.

John Sebastian Lafcadio, is one of the greatest painters of the Edwardian period, and his ambition to be known as the greatest painter since Rembrandt was not to be thwarted by a matter as trifling as his own death. Lafcadio was not only a brilliantly talented, it appears, a bit psychic: Certain that his reputation would improve dramatically after his death, he left aset of twelve sealed paintings with his agent, along with the instruction that her widow should wait a suitable interval and then begin doling out the work to a newly ravenous public at the rate of one per year. Lafcadio's widow unveil the eighth canvas to a carefully selected audience. Albert Campion, an old friend of the widow's, is among the cast of gadabouts, muses and socialites gathered for the latest ceremony. The event is a success for all but one of the attendees--a young artist who is brutally stabbed while others are sipping champagne. The art is the last thing on the sleuth's mind whenl the wife of another painter is poisoned. The first killing took place at a crowded art show, in full view of the cream of London society. For the second killing, only the victim and the murderer were present. The first killing took place at a crowded art show, in full view of the cream of London society. For the second killing, only the victim and the murderer were present. Now the scene was set for the third--a lavish dinner party with vintage wines, and with Albert Campion's death as the main course. Mr. Campion must employ all his tact as well as his formidable intelligence to trap the killer, and dodge death.

The Gyrth family had guarded the Gyrth Chalice for hundreds of years. It was held by them for the British Crown. Its antiquity, its beauty, the legends that were connected with it, all combined to make it unique. It was irreplaceable. No thief could hope to dispose of it in the ordinary way. And indeed no ordinary thief would dream of trying. Kept in a windowless chapel, and protected by a fearsome curse, the Chalice should be impervious to thievery. But this is 1930, and the crooks have all the advantages of the modern world. Chief among these is the craving for publicity, to which at least one member of the Gyrth clan has succumbed. Her careless chatter about the Chalice seems to have called up all manner of misfortunes - of which larceny is just the beginning. Finding himself the victim of a botched kidnapping attempt, Percival St. John Wykes Gryth, current heir to the Gyrth family and guardian-elect of the Chalice, suspects that he might be in a spot of trouble. Unexpected news to him - but not to the mysterious Mr Campion, who reveals that the ancient Chalice entrusted to Val's family is being targeted by a ruthless ring of wealthy thieves intent on supplementing their own private treasure trove. The vague, bespectacled Albert Campion doesn't look like he'll be much help against them. But looks can be deceptive. Fleeing London for the supposed safety of the village of Sanctuary, in Suffolk, Campion and his trusty assistant Luggand come face to face with events of a perilous and puzzling nature. When Val's aunt is found dead with an expression of terrified - and terrifying - shock upon her face, Campion must preserve not only the safety of Chalice, but also that of the Gyrth family. Campion might be accustomed to outwitting criminal minds, but can he foil supernatural forces?

A red chess piece... An improbable suicide... A disappearing judge... These were the clues to a killer whose victims never escaped. Judge Lobbett has found evidence pointing to the identity of the criminal mastermind behind the deadly Simister gang that is terrorizing New York. After four attempts on his life, he seeks the help of enigmatic and unorthodox amateur sleuth, Albert Campion, during his travel to England. For safety, Campion sends the Judge and his family to a secluded house in an island on the Suffolk coast. But that safety is illusory: it seemed fitting that odd things should happen in a town called "Mystery Mile". Soon after their arrival the local vicar is killed - a clear message from the gang. Its a race against time for Campion to get the judge to safety and decipher the clue to their mysterious enemy's name.But even a connoisseur of crime as Scotland Yard's Albert Campion had never encountered such elusive clues. He had to trace a mastermind of crime in time to save his client's life--and his own. Luckily for Judge Lobbett, underneath his constant stream of banter, Campion displays a diamond-sharp intelligence and a natural detective's instinct... Blackmail, abduction and sudden death bring matters to a climax.

An Albert Campion mystery

In this, Ms. Allingham's last novel, the action revolves around Saltey, for centuries a hidey-hole for all manner of villains. Astonishingly, it is the early 1960s, and Saltey, like many English coastal towns, is being over-run by teenage gangs. But that's not why Albert Campion — now, astonishingly, in late middle-age — has persuaded Lugg to take up residence. His interest lies in part with the just-out-of-prison thief who has (in time-honored tradition) gone to ground in Saltey. But his most passionate interest is reserved for the curious, newly revived story of the Saltey Demon.

A proper family butler is called upon to discreetly turn away an unexpected and wholly unwelcome caller. An apparently harmless female ghost is seeking something in an old farmhouse. An unlikely gatecrasher shakes up the guests at an expensive, respectable and very dull English seaside hotel. A selection of Allingham's short stories not included in previous anthologies. Although several feature her aristocratic sleuth, Albert Campion, the rest contain surprising twists and more than a hint of the supernatural. Clever, amusing...and occasionally very unsettling.

This volume includes: - an introduction by the author's husband, Philip Youngman Carter, with a biographical view of Allingham and her writings - the second Albert Campion novel: Mystery Mile (1930) - the 12th Campion: Coroner's Pidgin a.k.a. Pearls Before Swine (1945) - the 13th Campion: More Work for the Undertaker (1948)

The mysterious recluse Eric Crowther was murdered, he lived in the gaunt house whose shadow fell across the White Cottage, much as the man himself overshadowed the lives of the occupants of the little white house. Indeed, as Detective Chief Inspector W.T. Challoner soon discovered, seven people had good cause to murder him. Everyone ought to have done it, but by the evidence nobody had. The seven suspects, all with excellent motives for killing the hateful Eric Crowther. So it was not lack of evidence but rather a surfeit of it which sent Challoner and his son Jerry half across Europe in pursuit of the trail. He collected their secrets. And he used them. But whick of these long-time sufferers had found the courage to pull the trigger? And should this benefactor really be prosecuted? The White Cottage Mystery was Margery Allingham's first detective story, published initially as a newspaper serial in 1927.

In this collection of eighteen short stories, Queen of Crime Margery Allingham dabbles in the occult, the mysterious, and the murderous. Always the perceptive observer, Allingham fills these stories with astute characterisations, brilliant humour, and her classic wit. With a tribute by Agatha Christie, this Golden Age collection is sure to dazzle and delight fans of this master of detective fiction.

Eighteen highly entertaining mysteries will delight the connoisseur. Many of the stories here feature the famous detective, Albert Campion. Margery Allingham's skill at leading the reader through a wilderness of errors and misconceptions to a perfectly simple solution, and her power to disquiet the reader with the unexpected, are as much to the fore in these stories as they are in her classic novels of crime.

Way back during the crusades Richard I presented the Huntingforest family with the tiny Balkan principality of Averna but since then the kingdom has been forgotten, until circumstances in Europe suddenly render it extremely strategically important to the British Government. They hire unconventional detective Albert Campion to recover the long-missing proofs of ownership - the deeds, a crown, and a receipt - which are apparently hidden in the village of Pontisbright. On arriving in Pontisbright, Campion and his friends meet the eccentric, young, flame-haired Amanda Fitton and her family who claim to be the rightful heirs to Averna and join in the hunt. Mr. Campion and his two young friends, Eager-Wright and Farquharson, posted as the Hereditary Paladin of Averna and his entourage! Unfortunately, criminal financier Brett Savanake is also interested in finding the evidence of the oil-rich state's ownership for his own ends. Things get rather rough in the village as Savanake's heavies up the pressure on Campion to solve the mystery before they do. In the course of the hunt, Campion dresses in drag, takes refuge in a tree, is nearly drowned in a mill race, and his friends find themselves bound and gagged in sacks, shot at, and witnesses to a satanic ceremony led by the local doctor. The rural calm of Pontisbright is well and truly shattered.

Two schoolboys have discovered a miraculous gadget that enables them to read other people's minds. Then one of the children vanishes - and Albert Campion is called in to crack the case. Soon the intrepid sleuth becomes snared in a sinister web of conspiracy, violence, and assassination - and in a lethal power play for control of a devastating device that could shatter the world!

Aristocratic scion Timothy Kinnit is about to marry the girl of his dreams, until rumors circulate about his parentage, and the bride's father puts a stop to the wedding. When Timothy becomes chief suspect in a housebreaking and a suspicious death, Mr. Campion agrees to look into the situation, and finds that someone is willing to go to some very ugly lengths to keep Timothy from finding the answers he needs.