The Fashion in Shrouds

De: Margery Allingham

Narrado por: Francis Matthews

Both the skeleton and the corpse have died with suspicious convenience for Georgia Wells, a monstrous but charming actress with a raffish entourage. Georgia's best friend just happens to be Valentine, a top couturière and Campion's sister. In order to protect Valentine, Campion must unravel a story of blackmail and ruthless murder....

©1938 Margery Allingham (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Not one of my favorite Campion

I enjoy Albert Campion but this was not one of my favorite. I found him more morose and moody in this one and not his usual jovial self. He was not as quick in the uptake as he usually is. I guess infatuation does that sometimes.

Great!

I’m generally partial to the David Thorpe-narrated narrated Campion novels, but this one is excellent.

Overall an Enjoyable Read

I love Albert Campion, so I enjoyed this book. However, many of the remarks about the nature and roles of women are offensive; I don’t remember that from the other books. The book includes racial and class characterizations that can be put down as dated; the characterizations of women are also that, but strangely exaggerated. That said, the fiendishly complicated plot, worthy of Allingham, and the reappearance of Amanda Fitton make it a worthwhile read, especially if you’re committed to the whole series.

Entrance to a world.

A fashion house in mid century England. Entwined romances. Beautifully drawn characters. Don't expect narration as it is now usually done in fiction, with "voices" for different characters. It's more like having your Form IV English teacher read to you.

The Fashion in Shrouds

Narration was spot on! Excellent. Francis Matthews is subtle, humorous and expertly expressive. So happy to have discovered him and look forward to listening to his other narrations.

Intriguing Mystery

A few years ago the fiancé of Georgia Wells, a famous actress and femme fatale, disappeared. She married another and continued with her career. Now, however, the missing man's body has turned up, bringing with it just a hint of sordid shadow. When another man in Georgia's life dies somewhat mysteriously, Georgia sees it as fate's helping hand, while others aren't so sure. Campion's sister Val, a brilliant and successful clothing designer, has her named linked to that death through an amusing anecdote shared by Georgia, making him decide that he must unearth the truth of Georgia's men to save Val's reputation.

The story is clever and interesting, with nicely fleshed characters and an intriguing mystery. Amanda Fitton, from Sweet Danger, makes a reappearance, and adds greatly to the charm of the novel. Campion's underemphasized courage and audacity feature nicely, and his success as a detective and adventurer are plain.

I need to note that modern readers will have to ignore the horrible outlook on rape, and some quite dated attitudes toward women. While not typical of all Golden Age mystery authors, these views do crop up in all artforms of that time occasionally, and have to be overlooked. The rest of the book is quite nearly a five-star read, and I certainly recommend it.

The narrator is excellent and perfectly voices Campion.

good mystery

narrator is awful - laughing is creepy and annoying. Repeated laughter too often for all characters

Wonderful performance, dated story

I loved Margery Allingham's mysteries as a girl - such style and elegance. While the narration of The Fashion in Shrouds is pitch perfect and a delight, sadly the writing and the social attitudes in the book are terribly dated. The prose now seems mannered and overly fussy and I found myself impatient at times. But the scenes with Albert Campion's valet, Lugg, are so brilliant that I always went back for again, hoping to hear more of that rasping voice croaking out his sly and cynical zingers.

great story

slightly slow for modern audiences but still a great classic mistery ... in interesting insight to the language and views on marriage from the early 1900's

Important volume in the series

If you are a reader of the Albert Campion series this is an important book to read. Most of the series makes very rare mention of his relatives and this one centers around his relationship with his sister, the only member of his family whom he seems to have a connection with. It reveals a little more about his family and adds dimension to his character.

In addition, this book sets the tone for Albert's love life in the books to come and is important from that aspect as well.

However, as for the actual story itself I found it to be one of my least favorites. One of the things I have truly enjoyed about Allingham's books is that the characters are generally likable and easy to connect with. In this book most of the supporting characters were little more than caricatures. Their character developments were very cliche and and without depth. Furthermore the plot had so many elements going at one time that it was very hard to keep track of what was happening, who was involved, and why you were supposed to care about it.

I also found the "lovesick" angles in this one to be a bit thick. Albert is nursing a heartache for a married woman he lost his heart to in the previous book, his sister is constantly having the man she is in love with flaunted in front of her by a "supposed" friend, and all in all it just made the plot rather annoying from time to time.

Another facet of the book that bothered me was how Albert kept referring to himself in terms of an "old" person and focusing on Amanda's youthfulness. It somehow just fell flat for me.

As for narration, it was adequate. I like Francis Matthews better as a narrator for this series than I do David Thorpe, however, sometimes his characterizations get a bit excessive.