1933 classic English detective fiction; fifth of Allingham's novels of
Albert Campion. The Fitton family operate a run-down watermill in
Suffolk, but may be the forgotten heirs of Averna, a tiny European
principality that may suddenly be terribly important. US vtt Kingdom
of Earth and The Fear Sign.
That doesn't sound like much of a setup for a mystery, and it
isn't. Allingham continues to scatter her books widely around the core
concept of a whodunnit; here, as in Look to the Lady of which this
is very reminiscent, the game is much more "what's going on". There's
a puzzle to be solved, working out how young Hal Fitton can be shown
to be the true heir of Pontisbright based on clues found in an ancient
riddle before the bad guys do whatever they're going to do, and
there's the oddity of a corpse left out in a clearing which later
vanishes, but any element of criminal mystery is peripheral and
minimal. The bit with the bell is excellent; and the bit with the
doctor; and the evil financier. They just all seem as though they
should fit in three different books.
The book was written at the request of Allingham's American publisher
Doubleday, which hadn't been happy with sales of Police at the
Funeral and wanted another "plum pudding". She put aside Death of a
Ghost and jumped into this in a spirit of "what fun", particularly as
she'd just managed to move to Tolleshunt d'Arcy in Essex and didn't
have to live in London any more.
The Averna business is mostly an excuse to get Campion involved,
working as before for the Crown, and to provide an amusing
introductory sequence on the French Riviera. Gritty crime isn't
Allingham's strong suit any more than Ruritanian romance is, and with
another mid-book disappearance from Campion so that he can solve
everything off-stage the other events sometimes feel as though they're
stretched a little thin even in this fairly short book.
The real point of this story, I think, is Amanda Fitton: a Girl who
doesn't need to be kept out of the action (though Campion still
tries). She's the driving force of the Fittons' attempt to recover
their fortunes: organising a mill-driven dynamo to recharge the
villagers' wireless batteries (1933 seems a bit late for a village not
to be on the mains, but this is a pretty remote place), and taking in
paying guests. Once the criminality gets going she takes a practical
approach to dealing with that too, and generally makes things happen
in the book in a way that's normally reserved for Campion alone.
Allingham brought her back in several later books, and I'm looking
forward to her reapperances.
Followed by Death of a Ghost.
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