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The White Cottage Mystery (Bloomsbury…
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The White Cottage Mystery (Bloomsbury Reader) (original 1928; edition 2011)

by Margery Allingham (Author)

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4022162,419 (3.6)28
Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:Classic Crime from the Golden Age. Margery Allingham is J.K. Rowling's favourite Golden Age author.

Eric Crowther collected secrets and used them as weapons. Delighting in nothing more than torturing those around him with what he knew, there is no shortage of suspects when he is found dead in the White Cottage. Chief Inspector Challenor and his son Jerry will have to look deep into everyone's past â?? including the victim's â?? before they can be sure who has pulled the trigger. The fact that Jerry is in love with one of the suspects, however, might complicate things.

The White Cottage Mystery was Margery Allingham's first detective story, originally written as a serial for the Daily Express in 1927 and published as a book a year later.

With a country house, blackmail and murder, The White Cottage Mystery is a classic of the Golden Age of detective fi
… (more)
Member:mathgirl40
Title:The White Cottage Mystery (Bloomsbury Reader)
Authors:Margery Allingham (Author)
Info:Bloomsbury Reader (2011), Edition: 1, 170 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:***1/2
Tags:British, mystery

Work Information

The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham (1928)

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Showing 1-5 of 21 (next | show all)
So many suspects! So many motives! So many alibis!

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. ( )
  fernandie | Sep 15, 2022 |
My first Allingham, and fittingly, her first too. Definitely not my last.

DCI Challenor's son is on his way home to London one evening when he sees a young woman stepping off the bus with a heavy load and stops to offer her a ride to her home. Moments after leaving her there, he and the local constable hear the rapport of a shotgun and on returning find a man most definitely dead and a hallway full of suspects.

This is a very short read, relative to today's average mystery, coming in at just 157 pages. But it's a fast-paced 157 pages and Allingham dispenses with anything monotonous or that might smack of filler. The timeline jumps from one paragraph to another; sometimes by just a few hours, sometimes a few days, towards the end, a few years. This might really aggravate some readers but if you're familiar with Golden Age mysteries, you won't find it unusual.

I thoroughly enjoyed it; so much so that it was 1am when I finally shut the light off, having finished the entire book in one sitting. She had me guessing the entire way through, and not once did I come close. I found DCI Challenor's advice at the end appalling; it would never fly in our time, but in the age it was written, it would have been standard.

A very good mystery and from my first peek, I'd say Allingham is under valued as a master of mystery, but to be sure, I'll have to read a few more - as soon as possible. ( )
  murderbydeath | Jan 29, 2022 |
Short and sweet. I had a suspicion about the murderer fairly early on, but still enjoyed the story unfolding. ( )
  Belana | Dec 15, 2021 |
I've been a great fan of Margery Allingham's Campion mysteries, classics of the Golden Age. This is an earlier work, originally serialized in 1927, and it shows a developing talent, but (like her early Campions) one burdened by social conventions and stereotypes that haven't aged well. As well, this is such a strangely plotted mystery that it really doesn't pass the credibility test. It's worth reading if you want to read a talent in the making, but it's not a recommended effort. ( )
  wdwilson3 | Oct 7, 2021 |
When Eric Crowther is found dead at the White Cottage everyone in the vicinity is suspect as he was a collector of their secrets.
It is up to Chief Inspector Challenor to discover those secrets and so the killer.
The writing style of the book reflects that it was written in the 1920's.
This is possible the first Allingham book I have read, look forward to reading more.
A NetGalley Book ( )
  Vesper1931 | Jul 29, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 21 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Margery Allinghamprimary authorall editionscalculated
Allingham, JoyceEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Matthews, FrancisNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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It was a little after four o'clock in the evening when Jerry Challoner swung his sports car smartly round the bend in the Kentish road and slid quietly through the village street.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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This was Allingham's first detective story, originally published as a newspaper serial and then as a book in 1928. It was revised in 1974 by her sister Joyce Allingham for republication in book form.
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Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:Classic Crime from the Golden Age. Margery Allingham is J.K. Rowling's favourite Golden Age author.

Eric Crowther collected secrets and used them as weapons. Delighting in nothing more than torturing those around him with what he knew, there is no shortage of suspects when he is found dead in the White Cottage. Chief Inspector Challenor and his son Jerry will have to look deep into everyone's past â?? including the victim's â?? before they can be sure who has pulled the trigger. The fact that Jerry is in love with one of the suspects, however, might complicate things.

The White Cottage Mystery was Margery Allingham's first detective story, originally written as a serial for the Daily Express in 1927 and published as a book a year later.

With a country house, blackmail and murder, The White Cottage Mystery is a classic of the Golden Age of detective fi

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The mysterious recluse Eric Crowther was murdered, he lived in the gaunt house whose shadow fell across the White Cottage, much as the man himself overshadowed the lives of the occupants of the little white house. Indeed, as Detective Chief Inspector W.T. Challoner soon discovered, seven people had good cause to murder him. Everyone ought to have done it, but by the evidence nobody had. The seven suspects, all with excellent motives for killing the hateful Eric Crowther. So it was not lack of evidence but rather a surfeit of it which sent Challoner and his son Jerry half across Europe in pursuit of the trail. He collected their secrets. And he used them. But whick of these long-time sufferers had found the courage to pull the trigger? And should this benefactor really be prosecuted?
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