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A review by lejoy
Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham
3.0
Once again I am thwarted by Goodreads' insistence on not allowing half stars. Clearly this book is much better than three stars, yet I didn't enjoy it enough to allow it to share a shelf with others I have rated four.
Death Of A Ghost starts with a kind of disclaimer from Allingham that this book is more serious than the previous instalments in the Campion series. She likens it to Police At The Funeral, but other than some superfluous similarities of a bunch of oddballs living under one roof and a theatrical loony of a murderer at large, I would not say the books are much alike. Up until now, Campion has not been much referred to as an investigator. He is a Deputy Adventurer and Universal Uncle. In this book, though the uncle title remains, he is repeatedly referred to as a sleuth. Previous stories are battles with crime-lords and adventurous treasure hunts. Police At The Funeral was the first proper murder mystery and Death Of A Ghost fits into that genre too, however, Police At The Funeral was still fun. Death Of A Ghost has barely any comedy in it at all. And considering that up until now Campion has been a comic character, this is a big and not entirely welcome change.
The book focuses much more on description than action. It might be described as literary fiction rather than adventure fiction, and that is clearly a deliberate choice by Allingham. Perhaps she wanted to mature as a writer. And that's okay. But Campion doesn't seem like the same man, and that's a problem. Very occasionally, we get gleams of his irreverent personality peering through, but for the most part it feels like he has been muted. Sidekick Lugg doesn't appear at all, because he only exists as a comedy character.
A more serious Campion could be tolerated, I guess, even though the reason people love him is because of his wit, but he seems physically and emotionally muted too. It's like if Campion suffered from depression. He just exists throughout the story and does very little. He happens to be present at a murder and then he hangs around for the rest of the book, hoping to keep his friends safe, but he does very little active investigating. What he does learn is mostly because his pal Inspector Oates invites him on police questioning trips. The trouble with all this is that Campion cares deeply for old lady Belle (also at first granddaughter Linda, but she drops almost entirely out of the story very quickly like Allingham forgot about her). This seems to be why he is in such a serious mood and why he is hovering around. But who the hell is Belle? If she is such an important and dear person to Campion, why has he never visited or mentioned her before? He spends weeks with her in this book and it just doesn't feel remotely earned. Allingham has an unfortunate tendency to have him hanging out with totally different groups of people in every novel, which means he must be close intimate friends with a couple thousand people.
The other awkward tendency of this book is for the narrator to be omnipotent and tell us things that haven't happened yet. I understand what foreshadowing is, and I deplore it. I'll take tension any day. We learn that a particular character is going to be murdered a full four chapters in advance of the event. Part of the book is littered with these little dry-witted or tragically satirical comments about people not realising what their future holds in store for them or being wrong about something they are sure of, and since only the author and the reader are in on these, I don't much see the point of them. Also, Campion realises who the murderer is less than halfway through the book, and this is confirmed as fact for reader on the same page. Odd choice really for such an ambling story. I guess it is there to show Campion's helplessness and let us share in his frustration and growing horror, because Allingham is clearly trying to do something a bit different, but I'm not sure how satisfying it is for the reader. Some kind of plan of action, or action of any kind would be appreciated.
It's a readable story and I can see that some readers will prefer this over some of the more silly Campion books. But I love Campion for his inane and irreverent wit, and while perhaps it is refreshing to see him more helpless than usual (he can be a bit too all-knowing and ultra-skilled at times), he does not feel like the hero I have come to adore and that is frankly disappointing.
Death Of A Ghost starts with a kind of disclaimer from Allingham that this book is more serious than the previous instalments in the Campion series. She likens it to Police At The Funeral, but other than some superfluous similarities of a bunch of oddballs living under one roof and a theatrical loony of a murderer at large, I would not say the books are much alike. Up until now, Campion has not been much referred to as an investigator. He is a Deputy Adventurer and Universal Uncle. In this book, though the uncle title remains, he is repeatedly referred to as a sleuth. Previous stories are battles with crime-lords and adventurous treasure hunts. Police At The Funeral was the first proper murder mystery and Death Of A Ghost fits into that genre too, however, Police At The Funeral was still fun. Death Of A Ghost has barely any comedy in it at all. And considering that up until now Campion has been a comic character, this is a big and not entirely welcome change.
The book focuses much more on description than action. It might be described as literary fiction rather than adventure fiction, and that is clearly a deliberate choice by Allingham. Perhaps she wanted to mature as a writer. And that's okay. But Campion doesn't seem like the same man, and that's a problem. Very occasionally, we get gleams of his irreverent personality peering through, but for the most part it feels like he has been muted. Sidekick Lugg doesn't appear at all, because he only exists as a comedy character.
A more serious Campion could be tolerated, I guess, even though the reason people love him is because of his wit, but he seems physically and emotionally muted too. It's like if Campion suffered from depression. He just exists throughout the story and does very little. He happens to be present at a murder and then he hangs around for the rest of the book, hoping to keep his friends safe, but he does very little active investigating. What he does learn is mostly because his pal Inspector Oates invites him on police questioning trips. The trouble with all this is that Campion cares deeply for old lady Belle (also at first granddaughter Linda, but she drops almost entirely out of the story very quickly like Allingham forgot about her). This seems to be why he is in such a serious mood and why he is hovering around. But who the hell is Belle? If she is such an important and dear person to Campion, why has he never visited or mentioned her before? He spends weeks with her in this book and it just doesn't feel remotely earned. Allingham has an unfortunate tendency to have him hanging out with totally different groups of people in every novel, which means he must be close intimate friends with a couple thousand people.
The other awkward tendency of this book is for the narrator to be omnipotent and tell us things that haven't happened yet. I understand what foreshadowing is, and I deplore it. I'll take tension any day. We learn that a particular character is going to be murdered a full four chapters in advance of the event. Part of the book is littered with these little dry-witted or tragically satirical comments about people not realising what their future holds in store for them or being wrong about something they are sure of, and since only the author and the reader are in on these, I don't much see the point of them. Also, Campion realises who the murderer is less than halfway through the book, and this is confirmed as fact for reader on the same page. Odd choice really for such an ambling story. I guess it is there to show Campion's helplessness and let us share in his frustration and growing horror, because Allingham is clearly trying to do something a bit different, but I'm not sure how satisfying it is for the reader. Some kind of plan of action, or action of any kind would be appreciated.
It's a readable story and I can see that some readers will prefer this over some of the more silly Campion books. But I love Campion for his inane and irreverent wit, and while perhaps it is refreshing to see him more helpless than usual (he can be a bit too all-knowing and ultra-skilled at times), he does not feel like the hero I have come to adore and that is frankly disappointing.