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

One-time read, not a classic

The sound quality of this recording was superb.

The narrator left a lot to be desired in my opinion. I will not be purchasing more books by this narrator if it can be avoided. Some of his voice work was fabulous, but a lot of it was less than appealing. His tone was often wrong in terms of matching what was happening in the story and many of his character voices were so annoying I lost track of what he was actually saying. Ironically there were moments when his character voices were also extremely good. It made me very conflicted through the first half of the story as to whether or not I liked his narration but by the end of the book I simply could not wait for it to be over so I would not have to listen to him any more.

The characters in the story were not very fleshed out. Even the main characters, Dr. Abernathy, Albert Campion, and Meggie were not overly developed. Most of Dr. Abernathy's character development was centered on how amazed he was to have human-like feelings for Meggie. Not exactly riveting revelations of his character or personality. Albert Campion was really more of a side character in this one, but since this is the book that started his series I would have expected a bit more development there, but perhaps it was not written with the intent to make a new story star. The villains in this piece were almost like random bit parts that would appear and then disappear for long stretches. This is not uncommon for this type of mystery, however, the fact the villains were just a bit too over the top to be believed did not help the story keep reader interest.

The story itself was very typical of the genre and time period. A house party where sinister activity happens resulting in a mysterious death is tried and true plot for this type of book. There were several aspects of this particular story which made it slightly different, some of them were good and some not so much. I try not to spoil the story, so I will not say much except there were true moments of brilliance in my opinion (I love the mad cook scenes) and many moments of boredom as I listened to it as well. Anytime the characters as a group were involved it became almost farcical to a point where I again felt myself being annoyed. I felt the ending was very disappointing and when the murderer and reason behind it were revealed I almost wanted to reach out and smack the author. I saw the true murderer coming for a long time, but I was appalled and the flimsy backstory on why the murder happened.

It was an interesting book and I am glad to have listened to it once, but it will never be a classic in terms of books I enjoy listening to again and again.

Terrible story, so so performance.

Not my sort of mystery even for 1929....after all Agatha Christi wrote then. The ending really stunk.

I have heard better readers of this series!

I enjoy many of Marjorie Alingham’s stories. I was sorry to find that this one is poorly read.

Not the best introduction to Albert Campion

Any additional comments?

This is not the best novel to start with as an introduction to the Albert Campion character. I like Margery Allingham, but have read her works out of sequence and this one just didn't capture me at all.
Don't use this volume as any indication of how the Campion character or mysteries progress. Instead dive into one of the later novels ("Flowers for the Judge" or "Death of a Ghost") to get a much better introduction to the craft of this writer and the pleasures of her more developed skill.

A Vintage Curiosity

Allingham hadn't begun to hit her stride with this first Campion mystery, and the reader makes Albert just a little more idiotic than necessary. It's fun to see the roots of the series, but it's not nearly the level of writing or plotting that we can expect in later works.

great story, horrible narrator

As always the story and the characters hold you completely in thrall, but the new narrator, David Thorpe, makes virtually everyone sound like a complete idiot. Once you screen out the voices, the book comes through fine, but the previous narrator, Francis Matthews, did an infinitely better job.

hope for all writers of first novels

This was Allingham's first novel. she quickly came to write masterpieces. This is not one of them. Save for the voice of Albert Campion, the narrator does an excellent job.

If Bertie Wooster were in an Agatha Christie

mystery, this is what you'd get.

A cracking good story, but a bit brainy, what? And I say, they never cleared up that bit about the uncle's mask. Or did they? Must ask Jeeves ... He'll know.

Must read/hear this in context

Margery Allingham supposedly was the inspiration for Agatha Christie, so when one embarks on
an Allingham book, one must step back from modern-day, fast moving mysteries that feature
clever fast-talking and wild situations. Allingham writes of a different era, when life was much
slower-paced, and social roles where defined to the extreme. The plot unfolds very slowly,
Campion (the 'detective' this series is based on) isn't the main character and only comes to life
after the mystery unfolds. The best scene in the whole book is how the 'house party ' guests
who'd been locked up in an upstairs room by an evil extremist get redeemed by a horrified hunt party.
Hilarious... I don't know if I'll venture into another Campion book but I never say never.

Enjoyable mystery combined with excellent narration

I had read this book several years ago as an introduction to Margery Allingham. It is interesting that The character who was to become her main detective was only a minor character here. It is just as enjoyable the second time through, especially with such excellent narration. Enjoy!