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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
This is the first Albert Campion mystery I've read. Considering this is an Albert Campion mystery, Albert Campion doesn't feature as prominently as I'd expected. In The Tiger in the Smoke, Meg Elginbrodde is engaged to be married to Geoffrey Levett but their plans run into a snag when Meg receives a series of photographs purportedly showing her late husband, Major Martin Elginbrodde, still very much alive. At the same time, Jack Havoc, an amoral and dangerous criminal and murderer escapes from prison. What is the connection between Havoc's escape and the spanner thrown into Meg and Geoffrey's nuptials?
The Tiger in the Smoke is full of twists and turns and the characters and their histories intersect in various, surprising, ways. There were times I confess when I struggled to keep track of these various threads. And The Tiger in the Smoke is less of a whodunnit, than it is a psychological thriller and a meditation on the existence, and nature, of evil.
Still, an engaging read overall.
The Tiger in the Smoke is full of twists and turns and the characters and their histories intersect in various, surprising, ways. There were times I confess when I struggled to keep track of these various threads. And The Tiger in the Smoke is less of a whodunnit, than it is a psychological thriller and a meditation on the existence, and nature, of evil.
Still, an engaging read overall.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Emotional resonance: 5 out of 5
Social awareness: 4 out of 5
Craft (structure/style): 5 out of 5
Novelty (plot/ideas): 5 out of 5
Accessibility: 3 out of 5
Reread this in Jan 2021. Allingham is a genius, even more so than the first time I read her.
Social awareness: 4 out of 5
Craft (structure/style): 5 out of 5
Novelty (plot/ideas): 5 out of 5
Accessibility: 3 out of 5
Reread this in Jan 2021. Allingham is a genius, even more so than the first time I read her.
Enjoyed the writing - Evoked a seemingly realistic atmosphere of 1950's Post-WWII London recovering from the war. Steeped heavily in fog, psychology-damaged veterans, common criminals and family trying to get on with life after losing their loved-ones fighting the Axis.
Wonderfully atmospheric…
Meg has just become engaged to Geoffrey Levett when she begins to receive photographs which appear to show her previous husband, Major Martin Elginbrodde, who was declared dead during World War One. Now the sender of the photographs has given her a time and place to meet, and Meg has asked family friend Albert Campion and Detective Chief Inspector Charles Luke of the police to accompany her. The police catch the man but he refuses to answer their questions and, having no grounds to hold him, they are forced to release him. Shortly afterwards he is found murdered, and the last person who was seen with him was Geoffrey. Meantime a violent prisoner has escaped from jail, a man named Jack Havoc, whom Luke’s boss, Superintendent Oates, says is one of the only three wholly evil people he has come across in his career. This would appear to be confirmed when three people are found brutally murdered in a lawyer’s office, showing all the signs of Havoc’s modus operandi.
This all takes place in the middle of one of London's famous pea-souper fogs that sometimes lasted for days. Because of these fogs London was nicknamed the Smoke, hence the title of the book. While there is a mystery at the beginning as to the photographs of the Major and why Havoc has chosen this time to break out of prison, we find out the answers to these questions fairly early on, and most of the book is really in the form of a thriller. Allingham uses the fog and some great characterisation to create a wonderfully threatening atmosphere and some truly tense suspense which kept me turning the pages long into the night.
It soon becomes clear that a group of men are involved, who have turned themselves into a band to busk the streets in order to scrape a living, though again for a long time we don’t know exactly what their involvement is. Some of the men are ex-Army, each of them has some kind of disability or deformity, and they are all led by the rather terrifying Tiddy Doll, himself an albino. I doubt a modern writer could or would use disability in the way Allingham does, to create a really creepy atmosphere reminiscent of freak shows in horror novels, so a reader has to be prepared to make allowances for the time of writing. It is, however, very effective, and serves as a reminder of how many men came back from war damaged physically or mentally.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Albert Campion and therefore I was quite happy that he plays a rather low-key role in this one, mostly because the mystery element isn’t huge. This also means that his loyal henchman (aka dogsbody) Magersfontein Lugg has very little presence on the page, and for that I’m devoutly thankful. Allingham’s horribly snobbish portrayal of Lugg as the common working-class servant, complete with comedy name and accent, devoted to his upper-class master, is one of the major reasons Allingham and I don’t get along as well as I’d like.
Instead, in the first two thirds or so, we mostly follow Geoff as he gets himself into deep peril, and Inspector Luke as he and his men try to catch up with Havoc. The tension wafts from the page in these scenes, and they are undoubtedly as thrilling as anything I’ve come across in crime fiction, old or new. Because of the air of horror, it reminded me a little of the atmosphere of decadence and Grand Guignol that John Dickson Carr creates in his early Bencolin novels.
The book was heading straight for the five-star bracket at this stage, but for me the main climax came too early, and the last section of the book felt needlessly long-drawn out. I haven’t mentioned Meg’s saintly father, Canon Avril, who has surrounded himself with various waifs and strays who form a kind of extended family (mostly of working-class people devoted to upper-class Canon Avril and Meg, but never mind). In the final section Allingham indulges in a, to me, rather tedious, lengthy theological discussion on what Havoc calls “the Science of Luck” and Avril refers to as “the Pursuit of Death”. Frankly I had no idea what it was about and cared even less. In practice it seemed to mean that Havoc felt luck comes to those who look for opportunities. Anyway it takes over in the final few chapters, dictating Havoc’s actions which become progressively unbelievable, as do Canon Avril’s. I’d rather authors stuck to showing good battling evil rather than pontificating about it, especially in religious terms.
I’ve swithered over a rating, and decided that sadly I can only give it four. Had it ended differently it would have been a five for sure, for the earlier excellently atmospheric thriller elements.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Meg has just become engaged to Geoffrey Levett when she begins to receive photographs which appear to show her previous husband, Major Martin Elginbrodde, who was declared dead during World War One. Now the sender of the photographs has given her a time and place to meet, and Meg has asked family friend Albert Campion and Detective Chief Inspector Charles Luke of the police to accompany her. The police catch the man but he refuses to answer their questions and, having no grounds to hold him, they are forced to release him. Shortly afterwards he is found murdered, and the last person who was seen with him was Geoffrey. Meantime a violent prisoner has escaped from jail, a man named Jack Havoc, whom Luke’s boss, Superintendent Oates, says is one of the only three wholly evil people he has come across in his career. This would appear to be confirmed when three people are found brutally murdered in a lawyer’s office, showing all the signs of Havoc’s modus operandi.
This all takes place in the middle of one of London's famous pea-souper fogs that sometimes lasted for days. Because of these fogs London was nicknamed the Smoke, hence the title of the book. While there is a mystery at the beginning as to the photographs of the Major and why Havoc has chosen this time to break out of prison, we find out the answers to these questions fairly early on, and most of the book is really in the form of a thriller. Allingham uses the fog and some great characterisation to create a wonderfully threatening atmosphere and some truly tense suspense which kept me turning the pages long into the night.
It soon becomes clear that a group of men are involved, who have turned themselves into a band to busk the streets in order to scrape a living, though again for a long time we don’t know exactly what their involvement is. Some of the men are ex-Army, each of them has some kind of disability or deformity, and they are all led by the rather terrifying Tiddy Doll, himself an albino. I doubt a modern writer could or would use disability in the way Allingham does, to create a really creepy atmosphere reminiscent of freak shows in horror novels, so a reader has to be prepared to make allowances for the time of writing. It is, however, very effective, and serves as a reminder of how many men came back from war damaged physically or mentally.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Albert Campion and therefore I was quite happy that he plays a rather low-key role in this one, mostly because the mystery element isn’t huge. This also means that his loyal henchman (aka dogsbody) Magersfontein Lugg has very little presence on the page, and for that I’m devoutly thankful. Allingham’s horribly snobbish portrayal of Lugg as the common working-class servant, complete with comedy name and accent, devoted to his upper-class master, is one of the major reasons Allingham and I don’t get along as well as I’d like.
Instead, in the first two thirds or so, we mostly follow Geoff as he gets himself into deep peril, and Inspector Luke as he and his men try to catch up with Havoc. The tension wafts from the page in these scenes, and they are undoubtedly as thrilling as anything I’ve come across in crime fiction, old or new. Because of the air of horror, it reminded me a little of the atmosphere of decadence and Grand Guignol that John Dickson Carr creates in his early Bencolin novels.
The book was heading straight for the five-star bracket at this stage, but for me the main climax came too early, and the last section of the book felt needlessly long-drawn out. I haven’t mentioned Meg’s saintly father, Canon Avril, who has surrounded himself with various waifs and strays who form a kind of extended family (mostly of working-class people devoted to upper-class Canon Avril and Meg, but never mind). In the final section Allingham indulges in a, to me, rather tedious, lengthy theological discussion on what Havoc calls “the Science of Luck” and Avril refers to as “the Pursuit of Death”. Frankly I had no idea what it was about and cared even less. In practice it seemed to mean that Havoc felt luck comes to those who look for opportunities. Anyway it takes over in the final few chapters, dictating Havoc’s actions which become progressively unbelievable, as do Canon Avril’s. I’d rather authors stuck to showing good battling evil rather than pontificating about it, especially in religious terms.
I’ve swithered over a rating, and decided that sadly I can only give it four. Had it ended differently it would have been a five for sure, for the earlier excellently atmospheric thriller elements.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Somewhere, in the murky depths of this utter shambles, a decent story is trying to climb its way out of the muck and fog. But as it stands, this is not a classic of any kind to my mind. The characters are as black-and-white as they come: the attractive, wealthy nobles and police are the unkillable good guys, whereas the villains are ugly, disfigured, working-class, war-torn, and poor.
It doesn't work as a mystery and it doesn't work as a thriller. The set pieces are incredibly unbelievable, the dialogue is in(s)ane, and the constantly switching perspective is a drag. Whoever edited this must have been on crack.
It doesn't work as a mystery and it doesn't work as a thriller. The set pieces are incredibly unbelievable, the dialogue is in(s)ane, and the constantly switching perspective is a drag. Whoever edited this must have been on crack.
Equal parts procedural thriller, sociological character study, post-war historical period drama and theological reflection on evil, The Tiger in the Smoke really does cover a lot of ground. And for the most part, it does so beautifully and with great insight. Allingham has a marvelous talent for characterization, creating a vivid supporting cast. The only place it stumbles is in a slightly exposition-heavy middle, stuck in the same location. But things pick up again, reach a climax in an incredible scene in a church and a lovely, anti-climactic, perfectly ironic ending. What is the one treasure that our villain can't possess, even when it's in his hands? The answer to the question is perfectly judged.