#chronological campion reread 2022

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I just love the introduction to the Personage of Amanda Fitton, and how immediately curious and impressed he is

#chronological campion reread 2022

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TV Hal is vastly superior to Book Hal, who considers himself the head of the family even though he’s a child and also the only one who’s doing literally nothing to contribute to their livelihood. Amanda and Scatty bring in 100 a year with the mill, Mary weaves, Aunt Hatt cooks and basically took over the household within a week of meeting her distant cousins and Hal basically exists to inherit and maybe show the innate good breeding of the nobility against all odds.

Book Hal is one year younger than Amanda and talks down to her. TV Hal looks more like 12-14 and actually acts like a kid of that age. He actually seems like Amanda’s brother, albeit not as interesting as her, but he’s young, he’ll have time.

#upon reading further I think we’re meant to roll our eyes at him fondly #described as so precocious in some things and such a child in others #and his pomposity a pose #if the show had more time they’d probably have done something with that #but since he never shows up again who cares right? #I still like him better younger though #chronological campion reread 2022

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A memorable introduction! The first hint of mystery!

A facetious fool, light of my life

Albert Campion hijacked this book and then hightailed it outta there 40 pages before the end when the mystery hadn't been solved. An icon. #notmyproblem

But slightly infuriating because there's an earlier but where George realizes where he knows his face, which is never really explained and doesn't totally fit with him asking this now/his amazement, though presumably it all means Albert's from like, the most prominent noble family or something and there's a strong family resemblance.

I forgot that this book introduced the Simister gang and that Guffy Randall has a cameo. I forgot pretty much all but Campion's existence, the fact that he wasn't the lead, and the main couple being gingers. I'm assuming Allingham liked gingers, between them and the entire Fitton fam. Good on her, and excellent taste.

#chronological campion reread 2022

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Moved on to Look to the Lady, though I still have thoughts about Mystery Mile that I need to sort out.

But in the meantime, look at this good boy who looks entirely different in the show. They chose the most frail, dark haired pale boy they could find, someone you want to wrap in a blanket and feed roast beef sandwiches.

Several times in the past few days this same uneasy feeling has swept over him in the most crowded streets at the height of noon, or at night in the dark alleyways of the city where he had tried to sleep. Experienced criminals recognize this sensation as the instinctive knowledge that one is being “tailed,” but young Gyrth was no criminal, nor was he particularly experienced in anything save the more unfortunate aspects of matrimony.

Such a good description: I love that saying he’s being followed without actually saying it. I love the hint at his love life.

I also love that the start of this book is nonsensically coincidental. How did Val happen to be where he needed to be to find the envelope? Is Lugg always at that diner just in case he shows up? The atmospheric work in those first pages sets the tone perfectly given the supernatural themes in this book: you get the impression that Forces are at work here, in a way that the last book, with its organized crime, didn’t attempt.

And then there’s Albert, our hero and comic relief in one, breaking the mood as he does best.

#chronological campion reread 2022

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I love how old mysteries talk about people having “brainstorms.” Dad isn’t making any sense? It’s a brainstorm! What a great term.

#chronological campion reread 2022

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Oh, that’s got to be a Black Dudley reference

#chronological campion reread 2022

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“Mr Gyrth knows ‘oo I am. I told ‘im I’d been a cutthroat when I shaved ‘im this morning.”

#chronological campion reread 2022 #lugg the understated comedic genius

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“You’re a bit hard to swallow, you know, especially after the way you hooked me in here. How did you do it?”

“Conjuring,” said Mr Campion simply and unsatisfactorily. “It’s all done with mirrors.”

#chronological campion reread 2022 #this is the jerk who always uses MAGIC as an explanation

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Campion: *talks about a ring of wealthy stolen-art collectors* “I dare say it sounds rather like a ‘Pre-Raffleite Brotherhood’ to you”

Did he just

#chronological campion reread 2022 #that pun is so good I’m mad

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I love that Campion's first very personal villain is a man who pretends to be stupid, fitting for a detective who feigns stupidity.

I've been looking forward to the climax of the book throughout my read, noting the mentions of soft mud and thinking about how similar that is to the mud in The Moonstone, and wondering if that was intentional.

But the mud is really only part of what kills him, it's actually way more horrifying. I think in the show he gets in the mud and just struggles and sinks and Campion can't get him out (like Neverending Story). WELL. In the book he sinks a ways and then the tide comes in. And he's already shot Albert, who's over bleeding out on the grass so there's no help to be had, so he just stays there stuck watching the tide come in to drown him. I have mixed feelings about villains getting conveniently killed but not by the hero -- I don't want them to have to kill but it feels like a cop-out so often -- but this was very well-earned, in multiple steps, and also chilling.

#chronological campion reread 2022 #spoilers I guess idk man it's not a new book #at least I'm not naming the dude

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The fact that we never see Albert impersonating a European royal is criminal

#chronological campion reread 2022

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How do I have no memory of this page, I’ve read this book twice already

But his name is really Rudolph and his brother, Herbert, just proposed and they’re still close enough that he knew this was happening (and knew he’d be able to borrow the car off him) even though Campion himself was disinherited… because of his career choice, or did he choose to be disinherited because he wanted to do all this and his brother had no such plans? He does sound like an older brother here. Of course, there could be other brothers. He has at least one sister too, we meet Valentine later.

But I’m later books it’s implied that he inherits a title (presumably his brother dies in WW2 or something because authors love doing that, Dorothy Sayers)

#chronological campion reread 2022

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The Unspeakable Thos:

He was an undersized young man with a broken snub nose and an air of indefatigable jauntiness. His clothes must have been the pride of the Whitechapel Road: fantastically cut garments, they comprised a suit of a delicate shade of purple, together with a fancy tie designed in shot silk by a man with a warped imagination, and the enemble nearly finished off by bright yellow toes of incredible length and narrowness.

I love him

#i could've sworn he was old though #chronological campion reread 2022

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"I shall wear a black band round me 'at for yer. The funeral cards'll cost a bit, 'avin' all your different names on 'em." - M. Lugg, loyal valet and friend

On which note!!!

No idea who this WT is but more importantly, is that another pseudonym I see?

Hewes?? Seriously? I've never seen that on a list! I've never noticed it! But it's got to be, right?

(Also, Barber? Same tbh)

#chronological campion reread 2022

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"Four murders in his house within a month? That ought to be stopped. He's been told about it, I suppose?"

Mystery Mile's off to an excellent start. I think the show skipped the mouse, which was a good choice (animal cruelty not my idea of a fun plot device). But the show also started with Look to the Lady, flipping these in order. If you're not going to introduce Campion with The Crime at Black Dudley, that's probably the best intro. He may be holding a balloon but he's still more mysterious.

I like the implication that he vanished off to America for a few months after Black Dudley. More work? More Simister stuff? I can't remember, but I guess someone bought him the dagger while he was gone (for use as a paper knife??)

"...a Rembrandt etching over the bureau, a Steinlen cat, a couple of original cartoons, and a lovely little Girtin."

I know it's just setting the scene, but I'm trying to picture what type of etching would be recognizably Rembrandt. I tend to think of his portraits so I like the idea of him having a self portrait or a random person just going about their life, simple but lively. Especially since Girtin did landscapes, and the Steinlen could be like this or like this, and why mention all of them if they weren't meant to show variation in style?

#chronological campion reread 2022