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A review by bev_reads_mysteries
Pearls Before Swine by Margery Allingham
3.0
Pearls Before Swine by Margery Allingham is the last book of my projected choices for the Vintage Mystery Challenge "Dangerous Beasts" Theme....and also, by the way, one really eccentric book. It opens with this scene:
The man and the woman carried the body cautiously up the stairs. Although it was still early evening, the narrow way was grey and shadowy, and it was very cold, colder even than it had been outside amid the thin traffic of a wartime London. The two who were alive in that grim little group which writhed and breathed so hard in the gloom were both elderly people. they were an unexpected couple in any situation; the man was a large, blank-faced Cockney without any pretensions and the woman was out of place beside him, her delicate aristocratic grace accentuating both his clumsiness and the horror of her present task.
And just gets odder as things go on. The man and woman in question are transporting the body to the apartment of Albert Campion, amateur detective and adventurer....and a man who is not supposed to be at home. However, Campion has just returned to England after spending three years doing top-secret war stuff (see quote below) and is making a stop at the London apartment before heading to his country hearth and home (not to mention wife and babes) for some well-deserved R&R. He is lounging in a nice warm bath when he hears footsteps and whisperings in the outer rooms. And makes the mistake of investigating.
He discovers that his old retainer, Magersfontein Lugg and the Dowager Marchioness of Carados, are the whisperers and that they have deposited the body of a woman on his bed. Not only will he miss his train--but he will be chloroformed and kidnapped, become involved in a search for a gang of art thieves, see two more of the Carados entourage nearly killed, and find himself feeling at odds with his friends in the police department. The police are quite sure that the mastermind behind it all is Campion's old friend, Johnny Carados (the Marquess of Carodos)...and although all indications seem to point that way Campion just can't believe it.
There are way too many characters introduced in the opening chapters for me to keep track of. I kept having to regroup and think out who was who and how they connected with the story. And everybody seemed to talk in non sequiturs...or made cryptic remarks that everyone in the story seemed to understand, but I didn't. But even with these two complaints, this is still a very enjoyable story. It was refreshing to have a war-time mystery that didn't focus on a spy ring. And full marks to Allingham for having laid the clues out and completely confusing me with all the characters and conversational hocus-pocus. I didn't see the ending coming. It's worth the price of admission just to meet Miss Dorothy Pork in a little village called Chessing. She's a marvelous upper-class, small village spinster and one of the more delightful speakers in the piece. Three and a half stars.
This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting any portion. Thanks.
The man and the woman carried the body cautiously up the stairs. Although it was still early evening, the narrow way was grey and shadowy, and it was very cold, colder even than it had been outside amid the thin traffic of a wartime London. The two who were alive in that grim little group which writhed and breathed so hard in the gloom were both elderly people. they were an unexpected couple in any situation; the man was a large, blank-faced Cockney without any pretensions and the woman was out of place beside him, her delicate aristocratic grace accentuating both his clumsiness and the horror of her present task.
And just gets odder as things go on. The man and woman in question are transporting the body to the apartment of Albert Campion, amateur detective and adventurer....and a man who is not supposed to be at home. However, Campion has just returned to England after spending three years doing top-secret war stuff (see quote below) and is making a stop at the London apartment before heading to his country hearth and home (not to mention wife and babes) for some well-deserved R&R. He is lounging in a nice warm bath when he hears footsteps and whisperings in the outer rooms. And makes the mistake of investigating.
He discovers that his old retainer, Magersfontein Lugg and the Dowager Marchioness of Carados, are the whisperers and that they have deposited the body of a woman on his bed. Not only will he miss his train--but he will be chloroformed and kidnapped, become involved in a search for a gang of art thieves, see two more of the Carados entourage nearly killed, and find himself feeling at odds with his friends in the police department. The police are quite sure that the mastermind behind it all is Campion's old friend, Johnny Carados (the Marquess of Carodos)...and although all indications seem to point that way Campion just can't believe it.
There are way too many characters introduced in the opening chapters for me to keep track of. I kept having to regroup and think out who was who and how they connected with the story. And everybody seemed to talk in non sequiturs...or made cryptic remarks that everyone in the story seemed to understand, but I didn't. But even with these two complaints, this is still a very enjoyable story. It was refreshing to have a war-time mystery that didn't focus on a spy ring. And full marks to Allingham for having laid the clues out and completely confusing me with all the characters and conversational hocus-pocus. I didn't see the ending coming. It's worth the price of admission just to meet Miss Dorothy Pork in a little village called Chessing. She's a marvelous upper-class, small village spinster and one of the more delightful speakers in the piece. Three and a half stars.
This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting any portion. Thanks.