Collection of short stories from Margery, only every other one seemed to feature Albert, and even then sometimes he was just a foil for various police officers to recount tales too. The better stories were those were he played an active part. For the time there's an almost surprising degree of female agency, rather than sitting around waiting to be rescued, although this creeps in too. Some of the 20s settings are life in a different world now. ( )

A fairly enjoyable collection of mystery shorts by an author whose other work I haven’t (yet) explored. Probably better appreciated if you don’t read them back to back.

I don’t know whether it was the time period or social setting, but everything felt very cosy and safe. After the first couple of stories, I was pretty sure that no innocents would come to harm, and that the villains would always get their comeuppance before they did any damage.

By around halfway through, I was getting a distinct sense of similarity between the stories, even though the intricacies of each plot varied. And they were indeed intricate: contrived, even. But that’s fine, because these mysteries are puzzles rather than portrayals of realistic human behaviour.

I like the novels featuring Campion better than this collection of short stories. I thought several of these were confusing, or strange, or not explained well enough.

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. ( )

A collection of Allingham’s short stories, including a number involving Albert Campion, her aristocratic amateur detective featured in a series of novels.
Very much light relief, or a palate cleanser between more substantial books, these are enjoyable and also provide interesting details of London’s social history in the mid-twentieth century, for example the description of the quiet of Holborn at the weekend in the story/anecdote The Lieabout.
Although the glimpses of Albert Campion in these stories are brief, they are warming for readers of Allingham’s Campion novels, with the final short story, The Snapdragon and the CID, being an enjoyable Christmas flourish, heralding the imminent retirement of Campion stalwart, Superintendent Stanislaus Oates. ( )

Honestly, there's not a tremendous amount to say about this collection. I've been fond of Margery Allingham's writing for a very long time, and of Albert Campion; not all these stories are about him, but I like the Campions best, of course. Some I remembered; some felt new to me – and they're all very enjoyable, and very clever.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review. ( )