Coroner's Pidgin

An Albert Campion Mystery

By: Margery Allingham

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Just returned from years overseas on a secret mission, Albert Campion is relaxing in his bath when his servant Lugg and a lady of unmistakably aristocratic bearing appear in his flat carrying the corpse of a woman.

At first Campion is unwilling to get involved, but he is forced to bring his powers of protection to bear on the case, and to solve not only the mystery of the murdered woman but also the alarming disappearance of some well-known art treasures.

©2013 Margery Allingham (P)2013 David Thorpe

Critic reviews

"Miss Allingham is one of the few writers who can deal with art. Both her passions and her patterns are beautiful, accurate and serene" ( Daily Telegraph)

"Margery Allingham has worked her way up to a worthy place among the tiny hierarchy of front-rankers in the detective world" ( Tatler)

"The real queen of crime" ( Guardian)

An enjoyable entry in the series

I love the era just before WWI and between WWI and WWII. I had read most of the Albert Campion Books years ago but this was a new one for me. The narration was interesting....I'm still not sure about the "voice" used for Albert but it might have grown on me! The mix of characters was delightful. I did figure out who the baddie was early but it didn't take away my enjoyment of the book at all. The mindset is of the characters is old fashioned but not wrong. There was a big surprise at the end and I was delighted by it. I hope to see more Albert Campion books available.

Best. Ending. Ever.

Strong story, great comedy, and the aforementioned ending add up to a fabulous entry in the series.

Meh

Not her best. Too many characters. Both convoluted and forgettable. Much War Effort. No Amanda! (Boo Hiss!)

Great fun with lots of twists

A pleasantly confusing mixed group of mysteries well integrated into a single story. Overall, it is a bit light, but there are plenty of twists and turns that require close attention. Well worth reading. I was not thrilked with the performance, with Campion's voice sometimes going from sore-throat alto to screechy tenor. On the other hand, the overall performance handled multiple voices well, so the Campion issue was only mildly distracting.

master

author is a master of keeping you guessing until the end. interesting window into the period of world war II. how life goes on with a sub current.

Wonderfully exciting

Such an exciting and unusual
story well told. The best of Margery Allingham's great books. A great treat.

Great story

Witty, fast paced, excellent and amusing characters, very well read and a good mystery. Recommended.

Overdone narration

I like the interesting plots in the Albert Campion series. I've read a lot of them before but coming back to them at this point in history I can't help but be sensitized to the racism in the books although it is not a major thing, it just is an underlying note.

The narrator is a competent narrator, but the choice was made to really overact. I belong to the camp that is not looking for a fully dramatized story. I do like to know who is speaking and to have it phrased well. David Thorpe takes the description of Albert Campion's voice in the text and goes to town with it and it is pretty awful to listen to. Some of the other characters are awfully voiced as well.

Given those two issues I have, I still listened to the whole book, taking breaks to listen to other books when I couldn't stand the squeaks and squeals.

Terrible narrator!

Makes Campion sound like a shrill old woman. Reads too fast. So annoying that I abandoned the book mid way through.

boring detective and *meh* narration

Who is Albert Campion? Perhaps I should have started with book 1, but books 9 and 12 are the ones that are free included with membership, so those were my initiation into this series. I must say that after listening to both books, I have no idea who the main character is, what his personality is like, or what his motivations are for detecting. I can't even tell if he is particularly good at his job! He doesn't have any strong characteristics.

The narrator, David Thorpe, isn't bad exactly; he does a number of good voices and accents for other characters. However, the voice he uses for Albert Campion makes the detective seem like a silly idiot -- it is high, frivolous and inappropriately emotive in parts.

I'm not going to be spending any money or credits on other books in this series.