The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham

The Black Dudley is an ancient, remote mansion inhabited by recluse, Colonel Combe, but owned by Waytt Petrie, a young academic who decides to revive his property with a weekend party to which he invites his friends and colleagues. Among the guests is George Abbershaw, a renowned doctor and pathologist who is occasionally summoned by Scotland Yard to help with consulting mysterious deaths. Abbershaw hopes that the leisurely weekend at Black Dudley will help him to get acquainted with red-haired Meggie Oliphant whom he quietly admires. Little does he suspect that instead he will be involved in a series of extraordinary and dangerous incidents which unravel one by one in the gloomy mansion and split the party. No sooner have the guests assembled than talk turns to the sinister Black Dudley Dagger and the ritual that accompanies this ancient relic. It all derives in a seemingly innocent ritual-game, played in Black Dudley for generations, in which a jewelled dagger is passed between the guests in the darkness. The young visitors are intrigued and eager to play, but when the lights are restored... the host is discovered brutally slain. A murder always spoils a party, but the group soon find out that not only is there a killer in their midst, but the secluded house is under the control of notorious criminals. Trapped and at their mercy, George must find a way to thwart their diabolical plans while getting himself and Meggie out alive. Luckily for Abbershaw, among the guests is a stranger who promises to unravel the villainous plots behind their incarceration - but can George and his friends trust the peculiar young man who calls himself Albert Campion? He is a garrulous and affable party-crasher with a great knack for solving mysteries and interrogating suspects.

I got about 40% before my library hold expired. I just didn't enjoy it after the first bit. I may go back to it, but it's not for me right now.

Overall, I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit more than the latest instalments I've been reading from Dorothy Sayers and Ngaio Marsh. It's got the action and adventure and dark mysteries reminiscent of some early Christies. The writing style is generally easy to follow, to the point where I'm really wondering why I took this long to start on Allingham.

What probably dragged the rating down a bit for me was the mystery being just a tad bit too convoluted and the solution of the mystery packing a little less oomph than I would've wished. I was frankly pretty lost during many parts of the story especially when there's a lot of action going on (I generally can't visualize action very well so fight scenes or car chase scenes really go over my head).

The series is named after Albert Campion but tbh he's not exactly the main sleuth in this one. He does make major contributions to the mystery solving but George Abbershaw was undoubtedly the main protagonist in this one. Campion is interesting but I don't think we really saw him with enough depth for me to feel particularly invested in him as a character.

About the ending: I really really spent half the book convinced that Meggie had been the murderer. She was behaving a little suspiciously cool when George and her were speaking with Mrs Meade and I always thought her little expressions here and there or just how quiet she's being at certain moments, all seemed so well placed for her to be hiding something. Honestly, Wyatt was a pretty disappointing solution, and the motivation was a bit unrealistic, with a random love affair and a really exaggerated sense of self-righteous vigilantism trying to right a wrong that he perceives to have been done to a woman he fell in love with, just cos he thinks this criminal society is responsible for miseducating her and making her dumb? Just what??

I'd definitely still continue on to more Albert Campion mysteries and would recommend this one to anyone interested in golden era cozy mysteries, especially those with more action.

Very enjoyable read.
Exciting story. Though the solution doesn't quite work. I mean, how they discovered the murderer.
And it's a bit unsatisfactory.
And somewhat “deus ex machina”. It's nice when the hero has some luck, but I think these heroes had a bit too much luck.
The hunting scene was hilarious. I can just imagine it. :-D
Also... I wonder what people thought who read it 10 years after it was published... or 20 years.