Reading the Detectives discussion

Dancers in Mourning is the 8th Albert Campion novel by Margery Allingham, first published in 1937, in the United Kingdom; later U.S. versions used the title Who Killed Chloe? We have another GA mystery set in the theatre - this time, during a hit musical comedy and a series of malicious pranks that may lead to murder...

Please feel free to post spoilers in this thread.

I finished this last month so will need to go back and refresh a bit but I do remember getting a bit annoyed at Campion falling hopelessly in love once again with an unobtainable woman. It feels as if Allingham wants to keep him emotionally active until his true love grows up!

I wasn't so keen on this book as I have been on the other Campion's. I just don't see him as being totally infatuated with someone else's wife. Admiration yes , but not so taken over by it to make him unable to see what was going on.

I really like a romantic element in mysteries, and in this one I thought it was very well done (the couple of scenes where he nearly kisses her without thinking what he is doing are so believable!)

But for me the problem is that his feelings for Linda are so important in the story, it's quite hard as a reader to get over the fact that they don't actually get together.

This is one of the reasons why I feel this book comes after The Case of the Late Pig - (view spoiler)[ I never really believe in Campion's attraction to Janet in that one - and I can't believe he would go straight from Linda to another of these very tentative attractions. (hide spoiler)]

Yes, and at one point in Dancers in Mourning he refers to (view spoiler)[his friend from The Case of the Late Pig as married. (hide spoiler)]

I agree that the romance element is well done and adds tension to the story. It makes you wonder (at least on first reading) whether her husband will prove to be the murderer, allowing Campion and Linda to acknowledge their attraction. It seems as if Campion hopes that as well, without consciously admitting it, so his thinking about the case is biased. And Linda deserves better than the life she has!

That said, I found the book a little meandering, with too many minor characters jacked in for one or two scenes. Usually Allingham's mysteries feel tighter. And I don't love the nervy theatrical set so much.

Frances wrote: "I finished this last month so will need to go back and refresh a bit but I do remember getting a bit annoyed at Campion falling hopelessly in love once again with an unobtainable woman. It feels as..."

I remember feeling that years ago when I first read this! I would think it would’ve been emotionally draining for poor old Albert...

Abigail wrote: "Yes, and at one point in Dancers in Mourning he refers to [spoilers removed]

I agree that the romance element is well done and adds tension to the story. It makes you wonder (at least on first re..."

You summed it up perfectly- “nervy theatrical set” indeed!

This one was not a favorite years ago, and didn’t improve upon rereading. I felt it was kind of all over the place - first a workplace mystery, dealing with harassment at the theater, then the action moves to the estate and it feels like a setup for a country house murder mystery, then it veers off in a far darker direction with the bombing. It felt like Allingham maybe was overly ambitious, or didn’t know what she wanted to do with this one.

Abigail, thank you, I had missed the reference in Dancers you mentioned in your spoiler, which has some bearing on something that happened in Pig - possibly settles the puzzle of which comes first, and means we have done them the right way round!

I really like the way Jimmy is portrayed - I find myself visualising him as a British version of Fred Astaire. I do wonder if Allingham had Astaire in mind, from the descriptions of his appearance and his dancing - also all that work and practising.

The dance on the wheel sounds amazing! If I was Linda I would probably fall under Jimmy's spell too. :)

I also thought of Astaire, so that may well be who Allingham pictured. I don't think any aspects of Jimmy's life reflect Astaire however.

While I agree there were a few secondary characters who I never did keep straight, but one I really liked was the old country doctor with the rose garden. He seemed very real and very interesting. I would like to meet him in later books.

I got a bit tired of Campion's infatuation with Linda, but it added a tension to the story, affected Campion's reasoning and thus supported the twist at the end. So proved to be a clever plot device.

My very favorite relationship was between Lugg and the daughter, Sarah. I bet she will remember him always.

I listened to this as an audio book, so am unable to go back and check facts, but as I understood it the solution involved a character taking a quick break from a short stay in Paris, flying to Vienna, and having no difficulty in tracing a man who seems to have spent most of his time on the run across Europe, and persuading him to come to England and build a designer bomb, all in a few days.

Did I miss something about how he could find him so easily?

Rosina wrote: "I listened to this as an audio book, so am unable to go back and check facts, but as I understood it the solution involved a character taking a quick break from a short stay in Paris, flying to Vie..."

Campion, when talking to Sutane, says 'he is not hard to get a hold of now, for a man with friends among the intelligentsia abroad.' So I suppose we have to assume this was true.

Sandy wrote: "Rosina wrote: "I listened to this as an audio book, so am unable to go back and check facts, but as I understood it the solution involved a character taking a quick break from a short stay in Paris..."

Yes - perhaps it was so. But it is part of my unhappiness with the denouement: because Campion wasn't paying attention at all to the mystery for most of the book (even after the bomb atrocity), and with the wrong suspect to whom he was not paying attention, the explanation when it comes is rushed and relies not on evidence but on making assumptions - such as it not being difficult to contact an itinerant bomb-maker when one needs one unexpectedly.

I agree he was not giving it his best. I liked how remembering the porter's wife brought him back into focus.

Sandy wrote: "I agree he was not giving it his best. I liked how remembering the porter's wife brought him back into focus."

I did, too. I was quite shocked how for much of the book he seemed to be prepared to let a murderer get away with it.

Sandy wrote: "I also thought of Astaire, so that may well be who Allingham pictured. I don't think any aspects of Jimmy's life reflect Astaire however ..."

I think just the level of hard work and the brilliance as a dancer - not his personal life.

Judy wrote: "I really like the way Jimmy is portrayed - I find myself visualising him as a British version of Fred Astaire. I do wonder if Allingham had Astaire in mind, from the descriptions of his appearance ..."

Me, too - especially with the description of his looks, not really handsome, but warm and intelligent eyes, and talent and charisma out the wazoo. Definitely appealing, and I could see why fans and those in his orbit fell under his spell!

Sandy wrote: "I also thought of Astaire, so that may well be who Allingham pictured. I don't think any aspects of Jimmy's life reflect Astaire however.

While I agree there were a few secondary characters who I ..."

Yes - those other men hanging around the estate - a musician? Another a publicist type? Couldn’t remember who was who, why they were there. I almost wondered if it was intentionally done by Allingham, to represent all those hangers-on one often hears about clustering around really talented people, whether to catch some reflection of glory or just make money!

That doctor, on the other hand, was a very interesting character, as was Yeo. I also enjoyed Lugg and his interactions with the little girl - it was touching and sad, a case of Lugg’s earthy common sense cutting through all the massive aldult egos to help a child caught up as an afterthought in all the drama.

Sandy wrote: "I agree he was not giving it his best. I liked how remembering the porter's wife brought him back into focus."

Yes - otherwise, his self-centered navel gazing got old, fast!

I don't think Campion's reluctance was a matter of indifference to tragedy, but instead an unwillingness to accept the hospitality of a man whose wife he was in love with. The gentleman's code and all that, don't you know.

I have finished this now. I can't say it was one of my favourites, although I did warm to Lugg, as he was kind to Sutane's young daughter.

I liked the bits with Lugg and Sarah too - she certainly enjoyed learning his various skills, even if, as let's hope, she was never likely to need them!

I think the fact that Linda had a daughter also meant there was never much prospect of her actually leaving Jimmy, so helped to give a doomed feeling to Campion's love for her.

Frankly, Lugg's skills would probably be more useful than anything a governess would teach her :)