A review by saroz162
Coroner's Pidgin by Margery Allingham

4.0

I'm not sure why this entry in Allingham's Campion series isn't a little bit better known. After almost ten years and a couple of novels that try to pull the series in new directions - sometimes feeling as if Campion himself is only included as a necessary marketing measure - Allingham manages to fuse her darker, wartime sensibility with both a plot and a set of characters who are more recognizably of a classic caliber. In fact, one might even be tempted to accuse Allingham of stepping backward if it didn't work so well: Albert Campion is distinctly Albert Campion, but older, more hesitant, and with less of a spring in his step; he and Chief Inspector Oates are growing old together and a little more tired of the "game" they play as talented amateur and established professional. It's probably unforgivable that Lugg appears basically unchanged, there mostly to provide light entertainment, but nobody really minds. Campion's wife, Amanda, is kept at bay until the final page - and that's intentional. This is a book about the old order going grey.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last time we see a "traditional" Campion. It's obvious that Allingham sees the war as a turning point, and the time of Bright Young Things has now passed. Campion spends the entire novel trying to abandon the responsibility thrust upon him and get home on his leave, but it becomes clear by the end that (athough he does get back to Amanda) there's no escape. Something has changed, and there's no turning back.