Dancers in Mourning: Albert Campion #8 (Volume 8)

I was all set to enjoy a classic mystery. I couldn't do it. The setting was the usual sojourn in the country with innumerable suspects. The characters were stock. I couldn't keep them straight, and I had no interest in doing so. Maybe I would have enjoyed the book if I could have stuck it out to the end, but it wasn't worth it.

Another Campion bites the dust. I determine not to read them and I then soften & decide to give them another try: The Case of the Late Pig, The Crime at Black Dudley, Death of a Ghost, Traitor's Purse -- and now Dancers in Mourning. The first half held the attention, despite longueurs -- but then the bomb in the silver-plated bike went off and so did my interest in the mystery of Chloe Pope's death. Too, too tedious -- despite the wonderful characters of Uncle William and Doctor Bouvier. No amountof 'fine writing' and 'psychological depth' can save such a plotless concoction. Down with Campion, says I -- Long Live Poirot, Alleyn and Inspector Grant!

Along with Raymond Chandler and Conan Doyle, Margery Allingham is my favorite mystery writer. Her style is superb and eases the reader into her enchanting world. Albert Campion is the Dickens hearty ale to Austen's tasty cup of tea. Despite his upscale upbringing, he and his working class cockney sidekick Lugg are an intriguing pair. I highly recommend the two Albert Campion BBC productions that capture so much of this Golden Age mystery master.

I love old British mysteries and few are better than the Albert Campion mysteries written by Margery Allingham. (Campion is described as "a peculiar young man with a knack for solving problems.")

In this particular book, written in the 1930s, the setting is the London stage, as all sorts of pranks are directed at London's leading song and dance man. Early on, these were more a nuisance than anything, for example, someone sent him flowers that smelled like garlic. Naturally, things get worse.

The Allingham mysteries are always clever and well-plotted, and, at least to me, always enjoyable. Highly recommended!!

"Dancers in Mourning" is one of my favorite Allingham mysteries. Although I'd read most of them almost 20 years ago, I decided to re-read them after watching my Campion DVD series. I have to admit that I'd forgotten how very well the author wrote.

The plot here is much like the DVD, [[ASIN:B00008DDXE Campion - The Complete First Season]] and [[ASIN:B0001DMUF4 Campion - The Complete Second Season]]. I'm often amazed at how faithfully PBS/BBC murder mysteries are. The respect for the original work is almost always apparent to anyone familiar with it. There are few minor changes here, with the heroine having a small child with whom Lugg develops a strong connection and whose exisitance complicates even more Campion's strong attraction for his hostess. There is also less focus on the theater itself as a venue, giving the actor's home the place of "manor house" in the mystery.

The mystery itself is well designed, although perhaps a little long by way of narrative which serves in place of red herrings to distract the reader from the solution. The clues are well placed but may have one or more interpretations. In the end it's a matter of understanding the psychology of the various suspects and following that and the clues to the logical conclusion. The reader should not feel "cheated" or "manipulated by an author who has written herself into a "spot" and had to use a fabricated "fix" to make the mystery come out right. It's a well mastered thing, and it shows.

As usual the author does a wonderful job of creating a visual and emotional environment for her characters; in this instance one of tension and angst. The plot is active, with the sleuthing taking place in the house, on the grounds, at a doctor's home, in London at Campion's home, at his club, at the police stations, on the highway, etc, with no sense of the "armchair" about it. It's a lot of work for the author, but it makes for a much more interesting and textured story. The little idiosyncrasies designed into each character makes each a masterpiece of individuality. I had not realized that there had been so much retrospective in the author's work when I first read them. Having re-read many recently one after the other, I find that the inclusion of earlier characters or the reference to them really fleshes out the identity of Albert Campion himself and that of the individual taken from the earlier episode. It lends the story more of a "family" ambiance. These are people known to the reader from other situations and now one sees that they had a subsequent history and that this history still intersects with the life line of the hero.

Very enjoyable.

A famous dancer being taunted and unnerved by anonymous, nasty little tricks;
a shocking death at the dancer’s weekend house party;
undercurrents of past relationships and secrets to be ferreted out;
theatrical personalities and jealousies;
more violent, mysterious deaths;
and an amateur detective, asked to help resolve those initial nasty tricks, finding himself enmeshed in heart-wrenching personal conflicts as his investigation proceeds.
What more could you ask of a page-turner of a mystery? Albert Campion’s integrity is on the line on more than one front, but friendship, loyalty, and love don’t deter him from doing the right thing. Campion and his police colleagues are closing in when the last puzzle piece suddenly slips into place at the last minute. Dear old Lugg, as always, provides great comic relief.

Allingham stories are always clean and very interesting. She brings in alot of historical info from the time that the stories were written.

Great edition of these wonderful vintage mysteries! Print is easy to read and paper is high quality. Very happy to find these stories in print.

I received this book. It was in great shape

Every wanna-be writer should read Margery Allingham's novel "Dancers in Mourning." Not for the plot, because the plot is ridiculous, but for the description and characterization.

In particular, a minor character, his roses, and his home are described so well you can smell the roses. That scene doesn't advance the plot, so any competent writing instructor or editor would've ordered it excised, but it saves the book. So much for the opinions of experts.

Newcomers to Campion and Margery Allingham should start with one of her better novels, such as "Coroner's Pidgin" which is also known as "Pearls Before Swine."