The Tiger in the Smoke

Rating:
Summary: Very boring English story
Review: Not nearly as good as other Albert Campion stories

Rating:
Summary: Havoc in London
Review: This is one of the authors better novels in my opinion, more thriller than who dunnit as other reviewers have said, but non the worse for that. The pace of the book is good moving you on through the pages and the story which I won't divulge keeps you interested all the way through.

In today's world the characters are a little hard to swallow, Albert Campion the hero is a gentleman detective with no apparent source of income, Lugg the ex con manservant is corny, the evil Jack Havoc doesn't come across as especially evil by todays standards and Meg the heroine is a tad pathetic although she is supposed to be a modern woman. The setting, a dank and fog bound London is also a little trite, but makes some of the twists and turns in the plot more believable.

That said if like me you enjoy the period and can mentally get in tune with the values and society of the time it's a really fun book to read. I am a sucker for the twenties through to the end of the fifties and could read books like this one after the other.

I agree with the reviewer who felt it would make a good movie, my only condition is that it would have to be in black and white.

Rating:
Summary: Finally! Available in America
Review: Tiger in the Smoke is the almost unbearably tense story of a homicidal maniac on the loose in fogbound London. Although her stock characters (Campion, Amanda, Lugg, Luke, et al) are all present, this story is utterly unlike Allingham's other mysteries (only Tether's End is even remotely similar). The villain, whose identity is known early on, is possibly the most terrifying in all of the classic British mystery genre.

I could go on, but you probably get my drift. It's astonishing that the same author who gave us leisurely, almost light-comedy mysteries such an More Work for the Undertaker and The Beckoning Lady (two more of her best) could, using the same cast of characters, produce such a taut, no-words-wasted chase tale as this. Allingham was certainly the most versatile, and probably the most gifted, of all the classic British mystery writers.

One last general comment for those of you unfamiliar with Allingham's work. Her cast of characters ages along with the author. Albert Campion was born in 1900; in the first book (The Crime at Black Dudley), published in the early 20s, he appears as a slightly silly recent college graduate. By the time of Ms. Allingham's death in the early 60s, Campion was in *his* 60s, and fading a bit. The other characters age correspondingly (except for the inimitable Lugg, who couldn't). We watch Campion fall in love, experience rejection, fall in love again, get married, raise a family, and become a grandfather - his character showing added depth and breadth all along the way. So, my second time through (which I just completed), I read them in order of publication, and I recommend that you do the same. You'll appreciate her extraordinary gift for character development all the more.

Rating:
Summary: Allingham's best, and I've read them all.
Review: Tiger in the Smoke is the almost unbearably tense story of a homicidal maniac on the loose in fogbound London. Although her stock characters (Campion, Amanda, Lugg, Luke, et al) are all present, this story is utterly unlike Allingham's other mysteries (only Tether's End is even remotely similar). The villain, whose identity is known early on, is possibly the most terrifying in all of the classic British mystery genre.

I could go on, but you probably get my drift. It's astonishing that the same author who gave us leisurely, almost light-comedy mysteries such an More Work for the Undertaker and The Beckoning Lady (two more of her best) could, using the same cast of characters, produce such a taut, no-words-wasted chase tale as this. Allingham was certainly the most versatile, and probably the most gifted, of all the classic British mystery writers.

One last general comment for those of you unfamiliar with Allingham's work. Her cast of characters ages along with the author. Albert Campion was born in 1900; in the first book (The Crime at Black Dudley), published in the early 20s, he appears as a slightly silly recent college graduate. By the time of Ms. Allingham's death in the early 60s, Campion was in *his* 60s, and fading a bit. The other characters age correspondingly (except for the inimitable Lugg, who couldn't). We watch Campion fall in love, experience rejection, fall in love again, get married, raise a family, and become a grandfather - his character showing added depth and breadth all along the way. So, my second time through (which I just completed), I read them in order of publication, and I recommend that you do the same. You'll appreciate her extraordinary gift for character development all the more.