In this delightful collection of mysteries, Albert Campion takes to the stage as he investigates crimes and murders plaguing in London’s West End. Dancer’s in Mourning finds Campion working a case of malicious practical jokes against a music hall darling that turn deadly. In The Fashion in Shrouds, Allingham’s charming sleuth is caught up in a family matter: while the death toll spirals around a femme fatale, Campion’s own sister could be next in line. And finally, Campion must track down a serial killer in the West End in a race against time in Hide My Eyes. Reviews for Margery Allingham ‘Dancer’s in Mourning and The Fashion in Shrouds were published in 1937 and 1938, and are the best examples of Allingham’s capacity to create the atmosphere, and machinery, and ideology, of enclosed worlds – the stage and the musical in Dancer’s in Mourning; the world of haute couture in The Fashion in Shrouds.’ – A S Byatt, The Telegraph ‘Allingham has that rare gift in a novelist, the creation of characters so rich and so real that they stay with the reader forever’ – Sara Paretsky ‘Allingham’s characters are three-dimensional flesh and blood, especially her villains’ – Times Literary Supplement ‘Always of the elect, Margery Allingham now towers above them’ – Observer
Author
Aka Maxwell March. Margery Louise Allingham was born in Ealing, London in 1904 to a family of writers. Her father, Herbert John Allingham, was editor of The Christian Globe and The New London Journal, while her mother wrote stories for women's magazines as Emmie Allingham. Margery's aunt, Maud Hughes, also ran a magazine. Margery earned her first fee at the age of eight, for a story printed in her aunt's magazine. Soon after Margery's birth, the family left London for Essex. She returned to London in 1920 to attend the Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), and met her future husband, Philip Youngman Carter. They married in 1928. He was her collaborator and designed the cover jackets for many of her books. Margery's breakthrough came 1929 with the publication of her second novel, The Crime at Black Dudley . The novel introduced Albert Campion, although only as a minor character. After pressure from her American publishers, Margery brought Campion back for Mystery Mile and continued to use Campion as a character throughout her career. After a battle with breast cancer, Margery died in 1966. Her husband finished her last novel, A Cargo of Eagles at her request, and published it in 1968.
