The Crime at Black Dudley

An Albert Campion Mystery

By: Margery Allingham

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

When George Abbershaw is invited to Black Dudley Manor for the weekend, he has only one thing on his mind - proposing to Meggie Oliphant. Unfortunately for George, things don't quite go according to plan. A harmless game turns decidedly deadly and suspicions of murder take precedence over matrimony. Trapped in a remote country house with a murderer, George can see no way out. But Albert Campion can.

About the author: Margery Allingham was born in London in 1904. Her first novel was published when she was 17. In 1929 she published The Crime at Black Dudley and introduced the character who was to become the hallmark of her writing - Albert Campion.

©2013 Margery Allingham (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Early Allingham

I listened to this story because it’s her first story to introduce Campion, who plays a minor roll in the overall story. The next book “mystery mile” features Campion in his developing roll that we enjoy so much. The reader juggles the many voices effectively and with nuance, but we have heard better.

The very beginnings of the Campion adventures

A surprise, as I'd read several later books. Here Campion is really just a bit player, with others doing the detecting and solving of the crimes. Campion comes across as far too silly for my tastes and it's hard to take him seriously given the voice used for him, despite the fact he does a good job doing the few things we know about.

I'll continue listening to the series, though, because I know he matures and grows to become the detective I know of old.

If you like Bertie Wooster, you'll like this!

What did you love best about The Crime at Black Dudley?

This is a period story in the tradition of Jeeves and Wooster, Her Royal Spyness, Blandings, The Poor Relation Books, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries, Anzac Girls, and other shows/stories set in the first half of the 20th century. I love books set during that period. The types of British Empire characters and the language expressions of the 20s and 30s are interesting and fun. I also like the bit of formality and melodrama offered by the style in which such stories are related.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Albert Campion's voice, at first, repelled me, but when I realized that he was a Bertie Wooster-type, but quite smart, that caused me to listen to it in a different light (is this a mixed metaphor?). Albert knows he appears an idiot ("vacuous" is the word oft-used in the books) and he knows that this helps him to get the information he requires to accomplish what he has set out to do.

Which scene was your favorite?

Albert's recitations of anything that happens are gems! His slang from the 1920s & 30s is hysterically descriptive.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Like I said, at first Albert's voice almost made me stop listening. It was very irritating, as was his personality. But I kept listening and soon understood that there was a method to his madness! When I realized that he HAD to sound and act the way he did, I relaxed and enjoyed it as much as I enjoy Bertie Wooster or Freddie Threepwood.

Any additional comments?

THE REVIEWERS WHO PANNED THIS BOOK DO NOT APPRECIATE THE HUMOR OF IT. It's a good mystery, but the period story demands melodrama and exaggeration. I felt like I was listening to an old radio serial (without sound effects or music). If you like the stories I mentioned to begin with, you should give this a try, keeping in mind my cautions about Albert's voice and personality.

Narrator rather annoying

I hated how the narrator voiced most characters, and especially Albert Campion. Very affected and set my teeth on edge.

Not her best effort

I was looking for Marsh's typical witty dialogue, interesting mystery twists. This doesn't have it, at all. It is just an apparent crime, and how a group of people held hostage attempt to get away. No mystery at all.

Oh, How I Would Love To Have More Campions

Would you listen to The Crime at Black Dudley again? Why?

Yes. Yes. Actually, I keep Listening to it. (I am a repetitive listener of books I like. I like books that I like the sounds and sentences of, that the words give me "fun" feelings.) Margery Allingham is a wonderful writer for audiobooks. She has marvelous descriptive powers where she implants a character or item that stamps right in your brain - and you can see them in your minds eye - such as - "and he was grossly fat, heavily jowled, and the living image of the little busts of Beethoven". And you can just imagine the person, sitting in the chair. This is so satisfying - or even creepily thrilling - in an old fashioned mystery! This one takes place in a dark wooded old, English mansion with a dank feeling and Oriental carpets all over the floors and candles hanging from the ceiling - she is wonderful at painting word pictures. You can visualize every person she describes.

This is the very first Campion mystery and the very first sentence describing Campion is "That", she said, " is a Lunatic". which admittedly made me spit my coffee all over my keyboard. (I listen at my computer). I just love the rich textures of Allingham. She's great, even in this, the first of the Campions which everyone keeps saying she is "just developing" his character.

What other book might you compare The Crime at Black Dudley to and why?

Very few, Allingham is different from most of the old cozy mystery writers. Campion is not suave or handsome. He is silly and when embarrassed will do a dance step or giggle. She describes Campion as having an idiotic voice so many times - it's hard to reconcile that with many other writers! Peter Davison - the TV detective that played him in the BBC series was much more cool than the book character, definitely! It is a classic cozy type mystery, well written, a touch of dark excitement (a ritual dagger), lots of character, very 20's. If anything, it reminds me of an old grade A movie mystery.

Which scene was your favorite?

I'm only halfway through this particular book, so I haven't picked one yet. But the idea of having a dinner party with everyone walking around in the dark with a glowing green 15th century dagger, passing it from hand to hand as some kind of party game, well that is something to imagine.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Don't Play With Knives in the Dark With Strangers....

Any additional comments?

My Lead Comment. There are so many Campion books, and Allingham is well acknowledged as one of the great mystery writers, but they are missing a lot of her audiobooks. I wish there were more! David Thorpe is an absolutely excellent narrator for Campion. Some people have said he does Campion a bit silly, but if you read the books, that's exactly how Allingham describes his voice - sort of ....then Albert broke in with his slightly high pitched, idiotic voice... that's how he is supposed to sound. I really enjoy them and hope they do more.

Excellent mystery & performance!

This is the first mystery in the Albert Campion series. If you like Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers, you will like this book. There is more physical peril in this book than in the Poirot or Wimsey mysteries, so it is quite exciting! I’ve read complaints about the narrator’s rendering of Campion’s high-pitched voice, but the book repeatedly refers to “Campion’s falsetto,” so I think the performance is true to the book.

A Mediocre Book, Not A Writer For Me.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Not really, not real meat in this story for me to remember details about it. I picked two by this author on a sale for series by other authors.

If you’ve listened to books by Margery Allingham before, how does this one compare?

No, and won't again after listening to the two I had.

Was The Crime at Black Dudley worth the listening time?

Not at all! Nothing memorable about the book.

I still re-listen to this one

Not only is it incredibly well written it is also very well read, 10 out of 10.

I LIKE this narrator quite a lot!!!!

What did you love best about The Crime at Black Dudley?

I am not going to answer all these questions, I'm just going to write my review. I am writing this review primarily in defense of the narrator, who I think does a very good job, and as of my writing there are nothing but complaints about him in the written reviews posted. He does Margery Allingham the courtesy of reading her work the way she wrote it, and I appreciate that in a narrator. I did not like the narration of Frances Mathews, who read the only unabridged versions of Allingham on Audible prior to the full series coming out with David Thorpe reading, and I think Thorpe is much better.
Some have complained that in this book, Campion has an annoying, high pitched voice as read by Thorpe. Allingham tells us clearly in this book, on multiple occasions, that Campions voice is annoying, high pitched, and falsetto and Thorpe has the integrity and courage to read the character the way Allingham wrote him. Additionally, I find it annoying in some readers when they aren't familiar enough with the work to give the lines of dialog that occur before the explanations of them the correct emotional tone, an error Thorpe never makes. An example of the kind of thing I mean is a character will say, "I'm coming back now" and the reader will read it in a cheery tone of voice, and then the next line in the book is "he said sadly", and there we are with the jolt of a line read incorrectly by a reader that didn't do his or her homework and prepare properly for reading the the story. Thorpe has done his homework, he doesn't' make mistakes like this, his delivery is completely true to what Allingham meant it to be. There is no higher tribute a reader can pay to an author and it's one as a listener I REALLY appreciate, especially when I am fond of an author as I am of Allingham. Also, Thorpe reads with energy and sounds as though he is enjoying and appreciating the story as he reads it, and finally and perhaps most importantly, he GETS THE JOKES and reads the text in such a way that we can get them too. There is nothing sadder with these lovely examples of English humor than a reader who doesn't get the subtle humor and ruins it for the listener by reading it wrong. Allingham has some very funny lines, and Thorpe gets them all perfectly.
I do concede that he's not very good at country accents, and there is a "yokel" character in this book that has quite a few lines and is really a bit hard to take overall what with the bad accent and the unfortunate tone of voice used as well, but still I feel he does a great job overall for the reasons mentioned above, and does not deserve the hammering he's been taking here in the review section.
However, I've listened to almost the entire series now, and this is my least favorite, so all but the truly obsessed should probably skip this one and move on to the next in the series (Gyrth Challice) as a start. This book is clearly not the best Allingham has written by a long shot, though it's interesting to have because it IS the first in the series, and Campion was not meant to be the hero when she started writing, the series hero was meant to be the Doctor Abbershaw. If you do decide to start with this one, you can see why Campion became the series hero instead, he's far and away the character with the most pep, humor, interest, and energy, and a great deal smarter than the doc as well.
Overall I gave both the book and the performance four stars for the problems mentioned above, the rest of the series gets five stars for performance and story from me. Thorpe does tone down the falsetto voice on Campion as he goes on with the series, since Allingham does not continue to insist on it, and I find this fidelity to the author completely admirable in a reader.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Crime at Black Dudley?

see above

Which scene was your favorite?

see above

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

see above

Any additional comments?

see above