The Fashion in Shrouds

By: Margery Allingham

Narrated by: Francis Matthews

Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Leaves a nasty taste in one's mouth

Any additional comments?

There I was, making my way slowly through this series, enjoyable the affable, comical and thoughtful Albert Campion when suddenly this story rears its ugly head. While the plot is adequate, the author has gone out of her way to write some seriously weird dialogue that makes every character (except for the young boy) obnoxious in the extreme.

The female characters seem to be written solely for the author to set up in humiliating situations and the male characters are SO misogynist that it would almost be laughable if it wasn't so insulting to men and women. Yes, I know the book was published in 1938 but surely even then it would be considered shocking and revolting for a brother to suggest to his sister that she needs "a good rape"!

One of the men dumps his girlfriend to have a blatant affair with her friend and then, without a word of explanation or apology, returns to her to propose marriage, or perhaps indentured servitude would be a better description. She is a highly successful designer and the romantic bastard tells her he'll marry her on the condition that she gives up her entire life to him, become his possession (his exact words) and that this arrangement will be strictly a one-way street. She simply cannot wait to agree to this wonderful bargain. These are just a couple of examples; there are plenty more.

Francis Matthews does an excellent job of narrating, and he has my sympathy. There is not nearly enough story to distract from the grotesque relationships. I don't know what Ms. Allingham was ingesting while composing this one but I am going to do my best to forget it and hope that the next in the series will return to some semblance of reality.Thoroughly NOT recommended.

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.

Mindbogglingly Misogynist

Decent mystery. But the hero's offer of marriage to Campion's sister is an offer to become a concubine in a gilded cage, with no power, no input into the relationship, no career, no autonomy of any sort. He is to be all to her, but she's just an adjunct to him. And she--a wildly successful career woman--jumps at it. It's appalling. It's also a recipe for a disaster of a marriage. Allingham says she needs it because she needs to be "shielded from her own femininity". ???? The whole book (and all her others) is profoundly anti-woman. It's a period-piece, of course, but also written at the same time as Sayers, who is deeply respectful of women and their various choices, in spite of being a deep-dyed political conservative. Makes me wonder what kind of perverted psychology Allingham, a career woman herself, must have had.

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.

You have to work a bit at this one

If I treat this as background accompaniment to my routines, I find I have go back and listen again. It’s the opposite of Traitors Purse, which grips you in anxious suspense from the first page. This one slowly develops personalities through what appears to be trivial conversation, while the crime and its causes and perpetrators slowly become evident as the horrendous but logical consequence of the very things—self-interest, triviality, ennui, cynicism—that dominate the culture of the time and place. A brilliant plot in many ways, not gripping till the end, where truth breaks out, so to speak, in response to Campion’s willingness to risk all. And of course Amanda’s courage in hanging in with him to do it.

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.

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.

Painful read: sexism, classism & racism

I have enjoyed so many of Allingham’s stories, but the titled white male culture of 1930s England in this one was appalling. I wanted a paper version just to black out certain parts, the “N” word features prominently, Lug is made a laughing stock, and when a human-negating marriage proposal was accepted it really hurt.
The character of Amanda reappears, and she st least is powerful: I was grateful for her being there. I found myself reading it as a reminder of how blind us humans can be.

Hard to like

The plot wanders about going nowhere in particular. The central female characters are mostly so self involved and/or preoccupied with each other’s relationships that none are likable in the least. Albert doesn’t really shine at all. Amanda is in there for no good reason that I could see. Not much left to enjoy.

Old fashioned - well maybe

Really enjoyed the telling of this story - have read all Marjorie Allingham's books previously but often enjoy books being read to me that I already know. Somehow adds an extra dimension. Steady who/how dunnit without too many alarms and excursions - good bedtime listen. Will now seek out some further titles and renew my acquaintance with Mr Campion.

Well read but not for me

Although I love a good classic age mystery and the narrator is excellent I found this tale hard going and unpleasant.
It is overwritten -much exposition and telling you what every character is thinking. There is a large cast of fanciful characters and comes off as a bit affected So far so Allingham, However some of the writing in this particular book really jarred on current sensibilities which I have not noticed in other Campion tales. I appreciate this was written in very different times but this tale really was not for me.

Another wonderful story and reading

I have loved the Campion books for decades and have read and re read them all time and again. Francis Matthews does the best readings of them...never over the top, characters easily identified and Albert s perfect ......so many readers overplay him.
The books are excellent crime stories, give fascinating insights into the 30s.....and also good psychological insights.
Would strongly recommend listening to them in the right order.

A good listen.

I love Margery Allingham's Campion stories and this one didn't disappoint. The narration was a bit laboured in parts but Allingham's style is sometimes quite difficult to follow so I think the very deliberate delivery was probably don on purpose to ensure the listener didn't get lost in the more dense passages. I enjoyed it, however, and have listened to it twice now, so would recommend.

Very much of its time

Well plotted but so racist, anti Semitic and snobbish that it was quite a shock to modern values and attitudes. At times I thought the reader was on autopilot but overall OK.

Highly entertaining - Great story - very Un PC !

Great story - highly entertaining and a good Margery Allingham. Lots of Lugg and Amanda Fitton which was great and a good twisty plot.
I would warn potential readers though that there are some extremely dated and unpalatable parts - with regards to racism and feminism attitudes which are possibly only OK (?) if you can take them as a historical view of the time written. These views were not displayed in rest of the series so not sure why they were so forceful in this story - but they were very uncomfortable.
Francis Matthews as usual makes a great job of narrating.

You will never guess

This is a great story with so many surprises and intrigues. Very entertaining. Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Not for me

I'm a great fan of vintage crime fiction. I turned to Margery Allingham as I'd not read books before. I'm very disappointed. There is such a lot of unnecessary chatter and sophistry between the characters. It's all a bit too arch and artificial for me. The story gets rather lost in all the dialogue. I really want to be a fan but can't recommend her.

Unique

Now sadly dated ,making it difficult to tolerate the opinions expressed,possibly written jointly with her husband and reflecting his extra marital affairs.
Catches the brittle fashion world and a particular "set" with all their flaws and attributes. Amanda and Campion's next step brilliantly evolved.
Superb narration by Francis Matthews,atmosphere,pace and plot outstanding.

Good, but…

Enjoyable whodunnit - but the racist and sexist language and ideologies are nauseating. Spoils it somewhat.