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Margery (Louise) Allingham |
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Margery Allingham is preeminent among the writers who brought the detective story to maturity in the decades between the two world wars. She created an aristocratic, unassuming detective called Albert Campion, who matured from "just a silly ass" of the 1920s to an eminent intelligence veteran forty years later. He ranks high among the great detectives of fiction but does so unobtrusively, disdaining self-advertisement. Other recurrent characters contribute richly to the Campion series: Campion's wife, Amanda; his manservant, Lugg; and his police associates, Stanislaus Oates and Charlie Luke. The novels and stories in which they appear are among the most distinguished in the genre--vivacious, stylish, observant, shapely, intricate, and witty. They are unfailingly intelligent and imaginative, even when they do not wholly succeed.
Allingham regarded the mystery novel as a box with four sides-"a Killing, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it." Once inside the box, she felt secure: the genre gave her the discipline she felt she needed, while allowing her imagination full play to provide the "Element of Satisfaction." This she abundantly did, from her first crime novel in 1928 to her last in 1968.
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