HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Flowers for the Judge: #7 Albert Campion…
Loading...

Flowers for the Judge: #7 Albert Campion mystery (original 1936; edition 2008)

by Margery Allingham

Series: Albert Campion (7)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
7151331,548 (3.67)73
-- The New York Times Scandal hits the prestigious publishing house of Barnabas when one of the directors is found dead in a locked cellar. All eyes are on the other partners at the firmâ??cousins of the dead man with much to gain from his demiseâ??and all rumors hint at a connection to the disappearance of another director decades earlier. Desperate to salvage their reputation, the cousins turn to Albert Campionâ??but will his investigations clear the Barnabas family name, or besmirch it forever? â??My very favourite of the four Queens of Crime is Allingham.â?ť â??J. K. Rowling â??Ms. Allingham has a strong, controlled sense of humour and is… (more)
Member:Gillian-D
Title:Flowers for the Judge: #7 Albert Campion mystery
Authors:Margery Allingham
Info:Felony & Mayhem (2008), Paperback, 293 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:MYS (Albert Campion)

Work Information

Flowers for the Judge by Margery Allingham (1936)

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 73 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 13 (next | show all)
Review: Flowers for the Judge
MARCH 15, 2024 / RTRUBE54 / EDIT

Flowers for the Judge, Margery Allingham. Avarang Books, 2023 (Originally published in 1936).

Summary: Campion is called in when a member of a publishing family disappears, only for him to be found dead in the firm’s vault, with all the evidence pointing toward younger cousin Mike as the murderer.

Twenty years before Tom Barnabas, the nephew of the founder of Barnabas publishing house of London, just vanished one morning, literally seen one moment and gone the next, with no one around. Now, another family member has been missing several days. Paul Brande was expected to meet up with his wife Gina on a Friday night and the family learned of it at a party on Sunday when Gina mentioned it. This was not unusual for Paul, but as a precaution, they ask their family friend for Albert Campion for help.

On Monday, a secretary goes to the vault to get papers for the eldest cousin, John Widdowson, and finds Paul lying dead by the door to the vault. It was discovered that he died of carbon monoxide poisoning. As Campion investigate, he finds a broken ventilator at the rear of the vault, exposed to the garage. A sooty tube is found nearby. A neighbor testifies that she had heard Mike’s car running on Friday evening, when it was established that Paul died.

Attention begins to focus in on Mike, culminating at the coroner’s inquest. We learn that Gina and Paul were in an unhappy marriage and that their appointment on Friday was to discuss a divorce, which Gina could not pursue on her own. Earlier, Paul and Mike had been heard fighting, presumably about Gina, with whom Mike had been very friendly. During the early part of Friday evening, Mike claims that he was out walking, something he usually did not do. Then he returned to warm up his car to go out, interrupted by Gina wanting to go out because Paul had not come home. Also, on Sunday, Mike had gone down to the vault but said nothing about finding Paul’s body, even though it was found by the door of the vault. At the conclusion of the inquest Mike is arrested for the murder.

Campion is not convinced although it appears others have good alibis. His attention focuses on an unpublished manuscript of a play by William Congreve, that forms a substantial part of the firm’s assets. Campion discovers that it is a facsimile. But what of the original? Could its absence be connected to the murder?

And what of the the first man to disappear twenty years ago? He’s not an irrelevant plot detail (though not the murderer).

I think this is one of the best Campions I’ve read so far, including an interesting couple of plot twists at the end, including a dramatic conclusion to Mike’s trial. It is interesting that in least in this story, Campion seems less a quirky presence and more of a detective than in previous stories. A good read! ( )
  BobonBooks | Mar 14, 2024 |
Very solid outing. Some passages funny enough to read out loud. ( )
  EricaObey | May 12, 2023 |
It's been a while since I've read a Campion story, and so this was a refreshing change. Set at a publisher's we start 20 years earlier, with one cousin of the family vanishing into thin air. In the [resent of the book, another cousin is found dead, leaving a neglected wife that was finding friendship with another cousin. Mike is then arrested for murdering Paul (which, frankly, sounds like a service to mankind). And so the police start going about their business, the family rally round and Campion, as a friend of the family, tries to make headway.
It is all quite satisfyingly complicated and there is a resolution that is equally satisfying in it's rightness. ( )
  Helenliz | Feb 26, 2023 |
After a few tries, I’ve found a Campion mystery that’s a complete delight. A member of a staid publishing house has been missing for three days when his wife decides to call in our hero. Almost immediately the man is found dead under suspicious circumstances.
This witty character study is very much worth a read. Campion isn’t fatuous, Lugg isn’t annoying, and the remainder of the cast is fascinating. Truly enjoyable, this book made an Allingham fan out this somewhat reluctant reader. ( )
  Matke | May 9, 2021 |
Originally published in 1936, Flowers For the Judge by Margery Allingham is the 7th in her Albert Campion series. In this book, Campion is called upon to help clear a friend of a murder charge. Although the evidence against him is mostly circumstantial, it is very clear that he is in love with the murdered man’s neglected wife which give the police enough motive to charge him. Of course Campion is able to put the pieces together but before he can be arrested, the real murderer is found dead in his bath – a suicide or another murder?

Although the story unfolds against the backdrop of a family run publishing business, and an old and valuable manuscript is part of the plot there was really very little reference to the book industry. This was very much a character driven story and once all the characters were in place and known to the reader, it was pretty easy to determine who the murderer was. I was surprised that the second murder was so easily dismissed by the police but I suspect Campion smoothed the way for it to be taken as a guilty party’s suicide.

Written in her usual witty style, Flowers For the Judge, with it’s locked room mystery, interesting characters, and slightly quirky resolution was another delightful entry in this series. ( )
  DeltaQueen50 | Apr 24, 2018 |
Showing 1-5 of 13 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (4 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Allingham, Margeryprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Kiéfé, LaurenceTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Matthews, FrancisNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Thorpe, DavidNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wilkinson, ChuckCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
To my publishers this book is respectfully dedicated
First words
The story of the little man, sometimes a stockbroker, sometimes a tea merchant, but always something in the City, who walked out of his suburban house one sunny morning and vanished like a puff of smoke in a cloudless sky, can be recalled by nearly everyone who lived in Greater London in the first years of the century.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

-- The New York Times Scandal hits the prestigious publishing house of Barnabas when one of the directors is found dead in a locked cellar. All eyes are on the other partners at the firmâ??cousins of the dead man with much to gain from his demiseâ??and all rumors hint at a connection to the disappearance of another director decades earlier. Desperate to salvage their reputation, the cousins turn to Albert Campionâ??but will his investigations clear the Barnabas family name, or besmirch it forever? â??My very favourite of the four Queens of Crime is Allingham.â?ť â??J. K. Rowling â??Ms. Allingham has a strong, controlled sense of humour and is

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.67)
0.5
1
1.5
2 5
2.5 4
3 36
3.5 23
4 46
4.5 3
5 18

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,191,788 books! | Top bar: Always visible