More Work For The Undertaker (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
This was an interesting read. Because I've been enjoying the Lord Peter Wimsey books, these books were recommended to me, and I agree they are in the same genre. Very British, very tongue-in-cheek,very procedural mysteries. This is my introduction to Campion, a detective who has his own ways of finding things out. In this case, a very old family of eccentric brainiacs seem to be being killed off, in their home. So Campion moves in with them as a tenant to find out what's going on. Campion has an underling move in with the undertaker who has buried two of the family members of the Palinodes, because he is obviously up to something...but what, Campion isn't sure. Not only does Campion have to deal with outside people who may have it in for the Palinodes, but the family members themselves have strange habits and motives that leave them up for suspicion. One sister unfortunately likes to make strange teas out of 'natural' components, which could possibly make people quite ill. The niece disappears and reappears at strange hours of the night, crawling through upper story windows. None of them ever quite seem to make sense to Campion, or anyone else for that matter. Partly because they are so smart, and partly because they have their own family 'language' that they use. Apparently Margery Allingham introduces a new character, Charlie Luke, in this novel who becomes a partner to Campion in further myteries of hers. The two work well together, and Campion admires the young man's abilities in detecting. My only problems with this book was quite frankly the language. It was so British that some of it went quite over my head. Perhaps if I read more of Allingham's books I will understand more of what is being said. I'm not sure the dialect is cockney or just 1940's British, but I had a hard time understanding some of what was being said...Other than that, fun read!
Albert Campion has been asked to help in a case which is puzzling his old boss. The Palinodes are a wealthy family which has fallen on hard times and two of them have died in what may or may not be suspicious circumstances. Campion has also been offered a job abroad which he is in two minds about whether to accept. In the end the lure of police work is something he cannot resist. The house in which all the remaining Palinodes live is situated in Apron Street which seems like a throwback to an earlier age. In the same street there is a very old fashioned bank, and undertakers and a chemist. The Palinode house is run as a lodging house by an old friend of Albert’s and she welcomes him like the long lost cousin he is pretending to be. It soon becomes clear that there is a lot more going on beneath the surface than is at first apparent and Campion’s contact in the police force – Charlie Luke – is becoming more and more confused by what Campion has uncovered. This is the first one of Margery Allingham’s Campion novels I’ve read and I found it entertaining reading. Campion himself is an interesting character and all the other characters are well drawn and believable.I thought the plot was extremely good and complex with lots of strands and plenty of people making oblique remarks whose meaning only becomes clear gradually. I didn’t work out what was happening before the tense denouement though the clues are there for an observant reader. Clearly I wasn’t sufficiently observant! Having said that I do like crime novels where I don’t manage to work out who the murderer is. Overall this is a very well written example of the Golden Age of British crime fiction. It is a tense and atmospheric read with many strange and eccentric characters. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys crime novels written in the classic mould.
What do You think about More Work For The Undertaker (2007)?
I blow hot and cold with the Campion mysteries.......this one is lukewarm. I like the character of Albert Campion and his man-of-all-work, Lugg but sometimes their conversations leave me wondering exactly what they said or what they meant. This book visits the home of the eccentric Palinode family (which I kept reading as "palindrome") where a murder by poison has occurred and it is Campion's job to pull all the clues together to expose the villain or villains. In fact, there are several murders and the final solution strains credibility. Myriads of characters come and go and may or may not be connected to the crimes. The street dialect of London can sometimes be disconcerting and some of the characters' behaviours are surreal to say the least. The Campion books are an acquired taste and this one is not for the first-time reader. Too much plot, too many incidental characters.....but for the Campion fan, it is good enough to add to your list.
—Jill Hutchinson
Nicola Humble’s book about the feminine middlebrow novel guided me to this 1948 title in one of my mother’s Detective Book Club triples. If I had read it before, it didn’t sound at all familiar. At any rate, I wouldn’t have noticed how vague the references to World War II and the London setting are. Allingham’s invented streets seem not to have suffered in the Blitz, and their features could be located in many cities, not specifically London. I found it difficult to sustain interest in either the characters (too many to keep straight in bedtime reading) or the puzzle, which involves wildly improbable combinations of eccentric family members, state secrets, and gangsters. Appropriately, a horse-drawn vehicle and a “wireless” police car are involved in the climactic chase. Instead of being intrigued by Mr. Campion’s habit of thinking unspecified thoughts about the case, I was annoyed. So I probably won’t be revisiting this series any time soon.
—Candy Wood
One of Allingham's later mysteries, and a clear favourite of mine. Set right after the end of the Second World War, it is peopled by an extraordinarily eccentric Palinode family of Apron Street, and introduces Charlie Luke, the third and perhaps the most engaging of Allingham's trio of policemen. Someone is apparently killing of the Palinodes one by one. Campion, back from his wartime service, is contemplating taking up a governorship of an unnamed island paradise. But when three calls for his help come - from the police, from the Palinodes' landlady and from Lugg's brother-in-law the undertaker - he cannot ignore the call of the "third crow." Why does someone apparently want the Palinodes dead? And why are the local criminals terrified of being 'sent up Apron Street'.Funny, charming and intriguing - this is vintage Allingham.
—Catriona Troth
