Series
Publication
Audible Studios (2013)
Original publication date
1945-03
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Description
Campion returns from three years' work for the War Office in Europe to find that Lugg, his manservant, has brought him an unusual gift: the black silk nightdress-clad body of a dead woman, an apparent suicide. Wanting only to get away to a well-deserved rest, Campion must instead assist Detective Chief Inspector Oates and Superintendent Yeo in unravelling a tangled plot of deception and murder as the war draws to its conclusion.
User reviews
LibraryThing member cmbohn
Campion gets a brief leave during WWII and comes home to find a dead man in his flat. His first impulse is to go off and leave him there, as he really wants to get to his country home and see his wife. But someone else turns up and he realizes he won't get any peace until he solves the whole thing.
Lugg and his pig are one of my favorite parts in this whole series.
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Lugg and his pig are one of my favorite parts in this whole series.
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LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
In this latest installment of the adventures of Mr. Albert Campion, we find our hero as he is returning from three years of work for the British crown. His plan is to arrive in London, take a hot bath at his Bottle Street flat and catch a train home to the lovely Amanda. While soaking in the tub,
Not as up to par as some of the previous books of the series, but still a very decent read and Campion fans will enjoy it. If you're planning to try this series, do start with book #1 or you will definitely be lost.
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however, he is interrupted by voices in his flat; he goes out to check and there is the faithful Lugg and a couple of other people hauling in the body of a dead woman. Needless to say Campion misses his train, and the police investigation leads him into the world of stolen art.Not as up to par as some of the previous books of the series, but still a very decent read and Campion fans will enjoy it. If you're planning to try this series, do start with book #1 or you will definitely be lost.
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LibraryThing member JustAGirl
Excellent detective novel set in 1945 wartime London. Some of the characters are rather flightl and overwrought, which gets a bit tiresome but I think that's how some people really were.
Issues of class and expectations complicate the case while all Campion wants is to be left alone to catch his
Issues of class and expectations complicate the case while all Campion wants is to be left alone to catch his
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train out of London to enjoy his first home leave in a long while. Show Less
LibraryThing member otterley
Campion at war. The detective story doesn't really matter, but gives us humour and pathos, glamour and a view of society London at the end of the long haul of war.
LibraryThing member antiquary
I read this and a lot of other Allngham when young. I like the short stories best, but this is all right.
LibraryThing member saroz
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
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.
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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.
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LibraryThing member randalrh
If you're looking for one or two Campion books to read, as opposed to all of them, this is a good choice.
LibraryThing member EricCostello
Set in war-time London, Albert Campion gets some well-deserved (so we're led to believe) home leave, only to be interrupted by the fact that someone is bringing a body into his apartment. I didn't find this easy to follow, and it was even more absurd when you got into the issue of stolen art and
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bright young things. Give this a pass. Show Less
LibraryThing member Matke
This seems to be the Year of Allingham for me. Once I got started, after two or three failed attempts, I found that I quite like her spiky sense of humor and her (mostly) lack of romance.
Here find Campion on his first home leave since WW 2 called him to service. As he’s taking a relaxing bath he
Naturally he is disconcerted.
The plot has almost too many threads, but they all untangle at the end. It’s a very clever, well-told tale.
Highly recommended.
Here find Campion on his first home leave since WW 2 called him to service. As he’s taking a relaxing bath he
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hears voices and footsteps in his empty apartment. He soon discovers that Lugg and a couple of women have put a dead woman’s body in his bed.Naturally he is disconcerted.
The plot has almost too many threads, but they all untangle at the end. It’s a very clever, well-told tale.
Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member ivanfranko
A complex plot, (a bit too complex and odd for me) but nonetheless well paced and a strong enough story to keep a reader engaged. The nineteen forties is a distant world now; nobody lives, thinks or talks that way now.
LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
Pearls Before Swine by Margery Allingham is the 12th book in the Albert Campion series and was first published in 1945.. Albert Campion has been on the continent involved in undercover war work and now has returned to England for some well deserved leave. He is therefore flabbergasted when he steps
Thus kicks off this 12th mystery and we find Campion, who only wants to enjoy his leave, caught up in a twisty, complex mystery that will see him chloroformed, kidnapped, involved in a hunt for art thieves and encounter more near murders before he assists the police in finding the true culprit behind all these nasty deeds. Although there were too many characters to keep track of, Pearls Before Swine gives the reader an interesting look at war-time London.
As this series advances we find Campion changing. Originally when introduced he was a 20 something bright young thing, now he is a war-weary 40 year old who yearns for the company of his loved ones amid peace and quiet. Still sharp and well able to out-think most people, especially the criminals, he has the ability to see beneath people’s outer veneer. Although he doesn’t relish the hunt he does truly seem to want to help people. Pearls Before Swine was a little too complex to make for an easy read but it definitely adds to the overall series.
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from his bath only to find the corpse of a woman on his bed. Apparently Lugg and the dowager Marchioness of Carados, not knowing that he was home, thought this was a good place to stash the body that she found in her about-ti-be-married son’s bed. Thus kicks off this 12th mystery and we find Campion, who only wants to enjoy his leave, caught up in a twisty, complex mystery that will see him chloroformed, kidnapped, involved in a hunt for art thieves and encounter more near murders before he assists the police in finding the true culprit behind all these nasty deeds. Although there were too many characters to keep track of, Pearls Before Swine gives the reader an interesting look at war-time London.
As this series advances we find Campion changing. Originally when introduced he was a 20 something bright young thing, now he is a war-weary 40 year old who yearns for the company of his loved ones amid peace and quiet. Still sharp and well able to out-think most people, especially the criminals, he has the ability to see beneath people’s outer veneer. Although he doesn’t relish the hunt he does truly seem to want to help people. Pearls Before Swine was a little too complex to make for an easy read but it definitely adds to the overall series.
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LibraryThing member Helenliz
This next entry in the Campion series was somewhat darker than its predecessors. Campion has been overseas on undercover work and returns to London towards the end of the war. Instead of the warm welcome, he finds a Lugg and a lady smuggling a corpse into his bedroom. The corpse was, in life, a
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hanger on in the circle of Johnny Carados, and all the clues point to him having murdered her, in his bed, a few days before he;s due to be married to someone else. The body count racks up and there are complications in the shape of stolen goods. Campion comes into this almost in the middle and finds it hard to adjust to the conditions in post blitz London as well accept the facts of the case. Oates, having been on it since the beginning. There's a lot going on in here. Campion seems to be less the gad fly man about town, the events of the past few years seem to have sobered him. That's not a bad thing. Show Less
Language
Original language
English