Reviews

The Case of the Late Pig by Margery Allingham

bookpossum's review against another edition

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3.0

This was enjoyable. It marked a change in Allingham's method of telling the story, because it was Mr Campion himself who was the narrator. I worked out who the villain was, though of course not all the whys and wherefores.

Mr Campion made me smile occasionally in his descriptions, as for example this description of the local police Inspector:

He looked proudly puzzled, I thought, like a spaniel which has unexpectedly retrieved a dodo.

Good fun.

peiman198913's review against another edition

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4.0

آگهی ترحیم همکلاسی خیلی قدیم کارآگاه همراه شده با رسیدن یک نامه‌ی بدون امضا خیلی مشکوک و مبهم. تقارن همین دو اتفاق باعث میشه کارآگاه در تشییع جنازه‌ی پیترز شرکت کنه. تشییع جنازه در یک دهکده برگزار میشه که چندان بزرگ نیست. فضای تشییع جنازه و آدمهای شرکت کننده مشکوک هستند اما اتفاق خاصی نمی‌افته و کارآگاه کم کم داره موضوع رو فراموش میکنه که حدود ۶ پس از تشییع جنازه رییس پاسگاه پلیس یکی از دهکده‌های اطراف از کارآگاه درخواست می‌کنه فورا به اونجا بره و وقتی می‌رسه متوجه یک قتل میشه و مقتول کسی نیست جز پیترز! حالا کارآگاه نه تنها باید قاتل رو پیدا کنه بلکه باید به راز اینکه چطور یک نفر دو بار مرده هم پی ببره.ه
تقریبا تا اواخر داستان خیلی راحت نمیشه حدس زد ماجرا چیه و همین به جذابیت کتاب کمک کرده. در کل سرگرم کننده هست کتابش.ه

carolsnotebook's review

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This is a short read but there’s a lot going on, mistaken identities, a missing corpse, and odd villagers. Entertaining enough, but not my favorite of the series.

frances_ab's review

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3.0

While I do enjoy Margery Allingham's Campion series, this one was shorter and a bit more lightweight than most. Still, a fun read and, if reading sequentially, more of a village/country house mystery than the criminal gangs sort of mystery found in the earlier books.

smcleish's review

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4.0

Originally published on my blog here in April 1998.

This is an unusual member of Allingham's Campion series, as it is told in the first person from Campion's point of view. This, to me, makes it immediately more successful than some others in the series, by avoiding what I consider to be Campion's most annoying fault. In many of the books, I find there is too great a credibility gap between Campion's silly-ass public persona and the true, intelligent crime fighter underneath. ("Mild mannered janitor by day, Hong Kong Fuey...")

Campion receives a cryptic anonymous note which invites him to the funeral of a man he knew from school (and disliked), R.I. Peters, known as "Pig". (Few other writers would name the corpse in a detective novel with the initials RIP - this is before the days of Reginald Iolanthe Perrin.) He attends the funeral, intrigued by the note.

A few months later, Campion receives another note, and then is asked by a friend to go to the village of Kepesake where a man has been murdered. The corpse turns out to be Pig, who is already dead. So Campion has to work out how he was buried the first time round, how he came back to life, and why he died again. And then the corpse goes missing...

janetlun's review

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Camion & Lugg up to their usual tricks. Not as convoluted as some.

aliibera's review

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3.0

Good classic Campion murder mystery.
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