Dancers in Mourning: Albert Campion #8

This is the ninth Albert Campion mystery, first published in 1937. I am, slowly, working my way through the Campion books but I regret that, after having enjoyed the previous two in the series, I really struggled with this. <br /><br />Campion visits the theatre with ‘Uncle’ William Faraday, who has found his memoirs suddenly turned into a hit musical comedy. The star is dancer Jimmy Sutane, who is unsettled by a series of practical jokes. Campion and Faraday head to Sutane’s house, where they meet a group of odd people; including Chloe Pye, who has almost invited herself there. <br /><br />Allingham has fun with her group of musicians, dancers and theatre folk, although there is a rather sad side-story, with Sutane’s neglected and lonely young daughter and you breathe a sigh of relief with Lugg steps into the breach. You might think that Sutane’s rather pathetic little daughter would make you think amiss of the household generally, but Campion puts such domestic concerns aside in order to fall heavily for Jimmy Sutane’s wife, Linda. In fact, so heavily does he stumble that it affects his detecting and he is afraid to find out the truth – rather an issue in a mystery novel.<br /><br />Overall, this really failed to work for me. The characters were unlikeable and, despite one really good scene, where Allingham leads up to an event through a rumour which spreads through London, most of the writing – like the detecting – is somewhat mundane. So far, this series varies in quality so far, but I like Campion, and am warming to Lugg, so will continue. <br />

1920's British detective Albert Campion is my secret crush-of-all-crushes. If I could bring one fictional character to life so I could marry them, it would not be Indiana Jones or . . . okay, I don't really have a list, it's really just Albert Campion and Indiana Jones. But Campion wins in a landslide. <br /><br />I think, in order to love and adore Albert Campion as I do, you have to read the following Margery Allingham books in the following order:<br /><br />--"The Crime at Black Dudley," her first novel, where Campion is introduced via what I feel to be a highly creative technique; the story is told from the perspective of another character who intitially thinks that Campion (because his behavior is so nutty and bizarre) is the killer. He's odd and enigmatic and quirky and hilarious and utterly charming, yet still a totally kick-ass crime-solver who pulls it all together at the end to save the day.<br /><br />--"Sweet Danger," where Campion meets the woman he eventually marries, who kind of annoys me, but he's awesome in this book and his relationship with her is charming and adorable. It's a great creepy supernatural mystery with Campion in top form as a crime-fighting mastermind.<br /><br />--"The Return of Mr. Campion," a collection of essays and short stories which are mostly negligible except an amazing essay called "My Friend Mr. Campion," where Margery Allingham talks about Campion as if he's a real person who is a friend of hers, and how she doesn't invent stuff about him as much as she sort of finds it out as she goes along. There's another essay in the book in a similar style that takes the point of view that Campion and Allingham were secretly in love with each other, and it's very bizarre and romantic.<br /><br />--As soon as you're sold on Detective As Romantic Hero, it's time to move on to what is, for my money, her best book: "Dancers In Mourning." Our Mr. Campion travels to the country where a houseful of nutty London theater artists are being violently killed off one by one. Hired by musical theater superstar Jimmy Sutane to find the killer, he ends up inexplicably falling in love with Sutane's quiet, decidedly UN-theatrical wife, putting him in about ten different kinds of ethical quandaries as the evidence piles up to suggest that her husband is himself the killer. If you like British mysteries, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Dancers in Mourning is Margery Allingham at her best. This is classic Albert Campion at his most charming and his most fallible. Campion is called in by theatre giant and dazzling dancer, Jimmy Sutane to get to the bottom of a spate of cruel practical jokes which begin backstage at the Argosy Theatre and follow Sutane to his country estate. At first the pranks are merely annoying....garlic scented flowers, smashed glass on his photograph outside the theatre, and people wandering through his garden at night. But the pranks take on a more sinister look when members of the cast of his current musical are killed one by one. Campion is happy to try to sort things out--not only for Sutane, but for "Uncle" William Faraday, author of the book upon which the musical is based. That is, until he meets, and subsequently falls in love with, Sutane's wife. He finds himself caught in any number of ethical dilemmas and committing all sorts of sleuthing "sins"from suppressing evidence and misleading the doctor called in on the first "accident" to delaying the finale as long as possible. He becomes more miserable the more evidence is gathered--all because he thinks the evidence can point in only one direction.<br /><br />I think I found this mystery so delightful because of the dilemma in which Campion places himself. He is trying very hard to be the "good sportsman" and live up to British honor and all that...and all the while he really would like to have his host's wife. He doesn't feel like he can tackle the problem correctly since he is emotionally involved and takes himself off to London and out of the fray. That very wife comes to ask him to return and help them out of the mess. He can't refuse and risking personal heartache...as well as heartache for others...he returns to see the thing through. It was also endearing to see him misinterpret the evidence. I quite understand why he chose the culprit he did, but his involvement blinded him to the possibility that the facts could fit anyone else. I saw the other possibility well before Albert Campion-- a rare thing--and an added delight.<br /><br />I make it sound--oh, I don't know--kind of soppy with "delightful" and "endearing." It isn't that at all. The mystery is quite well done and there are plenty of suspects to sort through. Allingham has done a very good job showing the temperaments and petty quarrels of stage life. Overall, a very solid and interesting novel.

Set in 1930s London, <i>Dancers in Mourning</i> concerns a well-known West End performer Jimmy Sutane, who is systematically persecuted by a mysterious hand. Chief protagonist and upper-class sleuth Albert Campion is enlisted to get to the bottom of the odd business, and joins a cast of thespians and hangers-on at Sutane’s country mansion. Deaths ensue.<br /><br />If the book were an ocean voyage, I felt we were sailing aimlessly at times (and my attention to the plot drifted accordingly). The decks were manned by a cast of hard-to-tell-apart, largely unappealing fellow travellers, and I struggled to find a mast to which to pin my colours. Despite the title, those who went overboard were not in fact greatly mourned.<br /><br />However, narrator David Thorpe does such a sterling job of the audiobook that it is possible to enjoy each scene on its merits, without worrying too much about the entire production. In particular his characterisations of Campion and sidekick ex-burglar Magersfontein Lugg are a delight to the ear. Margery Allingham’s wordsmithery is always a pleasure.<br /><br />Overall, just about passes muster.<br />

I can't resist giving this 5 stars because I think it is just perfect of its kind - one of Allingham's masterpieces. Hoping to write a longer review soon.

Not a favorite – I can see why I haven’t reread this one in years. <br /><br />Started out promising, with Allingham’s usual wit and humor, as Campion is called in on a case of harassment - charismatic dancer Jimmy Sutane is starring in a hit show, beloved by theatergoers - but someone is out to get him, pulling vicious pranks. So far, it’s been petty, nasty stuff like a pin in his stage makeup stick, a bouquet of garlic, broken windows at the theater, but those around the star are fearful it will turn dangerous, and Sutane is becoming rattled. Being set among the theater crowd, there are several melodramatic and annoying suspects; when the action moves to Sutane’s country estate and a suspicious death occurs, it has all the makings of a satisfying Golden Age Country house murder mystery. <br /><br />Campion meets the local doctor, one of the eccentric, larger-than-life characters Allingham does so well, brings Lugg down to sub for the spooked butler, who understandably bails out of the chaotic household. Then, rather than delivering on this brilliant set-up, Allingham has Campion start freaking out because he fancies himself in love with the wrong woman; then, the action takes a decidedly somber and deadly turn with an explosion at a train station. No spoilers, but I frankly started losing interest - I skimmed the last few chapters. Allingham does serve up a twist at the end, but I really didn’t care much anymore, it just went on too long.<br /><br />So, beautiful writing with Allingham’s usual humor, but not a personal favorite, it just seemed like too much going on, for too long. For this reread, I read my paperback and listened to the Audible, and I didn’t enjoy the narrator, he made Campion sound like a flake! He did a better job with the other characters, but Campion came across as rather annoying and clueless.

A famous musical theater performer is being harassed by an unknown person in spitefully petty ways, and Albert Campion is called in to investigate. The case seems like small potatoes, but very rapidly matters become serious for Campion on a variety of levels. <br /><br />This is one of the longer Albert Campion mysteries, and it feels even longer than it is. For me, many of the characters are rather tedious--I am not fond of nervy artistic types in novels of this era--and the action grinds its way through far more mayhem than is usual in a novel by Margery Allingham. The body count is prodigious. The action also seems to unfold quite slowly, and it requires a number of incidental characters.<br /><br />As always with Allingham, however, the writing is superior, the characterizations are vivid, and the violence is taken seriously. Lugg is one of my favorite characters in fiction, and he is in fine form here. <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="2a22c14e-c158-4edb-9349-51effd2881c0" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="2a22c14e-c158-4edb-9349-51effd2881c0">Campion falls in love again, but this time quite seriously; his feelings interfere with his intellect, and for once he is behind the police in solving the mystery.</label><br /><br />A middling Allingham is generally better than your average murder mystery, so I did enjoy this novel even if it is not a favorite.

More like 2.5 stars for me. It was reasonably priced on Amazon, and I needed something to read although I knew I usually have not enjoyed Albert Campion books.<br />There are some amusing incidents; there are some outlandishly described characters; there is action on the stage and acquaintance with the company of performers; there is one lady in particular Albert has a fancy for; there are misdirections as to who the murderer is until the last drop.<br />Albert is asked initially to resolve the mystery of who is taunting a lead actor. <br />After spending time at a country house with the main characters he is also asked to assist Scotland Yard when there is a suspicious death amongst the houseguests.<br />More people do die, but the music continues.

Albert Campion is called upon to investigate a number of hoaxes being carried out against Jimmy Sutane, a star dancer who is appearing in a successful musical based on the memoirs of “Uncle William” Faraday whom we first encountered in Police at the Funeral. The hoaxes are very upsetting and are seriously affecting Sutane.<br /><br />Campion visits the Sutane’s country house and meets Jimmy’s wife, Linda . Between them, a very profound attraction develops which provides Campion with a moral dilemma and almost paralyses his ability to act in the investigation which follows the death of Chloe Pye, an actress in the show, while she is a guest of the Sutanes.<br /><br />Campion is sure that Jimmy Sutane is responsible for this, and the other more horrifying murders which follow, but lacks the will to pursue the investigation properly.<br /><br />“ If you are violently and unreasonably attracted to a married woman, to discover immediately afterwards that to the best of your belief her husband has killed, either by accident or design, a previous wife, in order, presumably, to retain his present ménage intact, do you involve yourself further in the situation, denouncing him for his crime and walking off with the lady? 'No, you don't,' said Campion…”<br /><br />Margery Allingham. Dancers in Mourning Ipso Books. Kindle Edition. <br /><br />As things turn out, most of Campion’s assumptions are wrong. <br /><br />I can’t help but think that one simple visit to Somerset House would have resolved things more quickly but that would be to miss several points. <br /><br />In this novel Campion grows up: there is none of the silly ass vacancy found in earlier books. Allingham adds immeasurably to our understanding of him as a human being while questioning the whole ethos of Golden Age crime writing.<br /><br />“Hitherto he had been an observer only in the many dramas which he had investigated and that circumstance had given him an unfounded sense of superiority. To-night he felt cold and disillusioned; no longer shocked but frankly despairing to find himself both so human and so miserably unhappy.”<br /><br />Margery Allingham. Dancers in Mourning Chapter XVII. Ipso Books. Kindle Edition. <br /><br />There is some fine writing here. In Chapter XVIII the description of how the news of further murders got out, is masterly, and the denouement in the final chapter is breathtakingly brilliant.<br /><br />This novel is all surface simplicity, but has deep layers of delicious complexity. Read it on whatever level you will, but do read it.<br /><br />Thank you to the Allingham Estate for my review copy.

I was terribly bothered when one of the characters confessed at the end that he knew all along who the murderer was but he allowed him to kill 4 or 5 more people because his honor demanded he not peach on his friend!