Hide My Eyes

The bizarre museum of curiosities is the most memorable character in this story. There's enough suspense and enough characterization to carry the reader to the end, but it's the appalling taxidermy and automatons that stick with a person. I wonder if it was based on a real place?

Top flight. Not a whodunit, but fascinating to watch the story unfold alongside the murderer's character. Campion's role is minimal as the story revolves around the murderer and the young man who, almost at random, takes an interest in him. My only complaint is that there's no explanation of how the precise, calculating villain decided to use his talents in crime rather than rising high in the banks, as I suspect anyone else with his background would do. But the pathos of the final scene is quite remarkable.

Summary: Campion closes in on a serial killer unknowingly supported by a widow with an odd museum and a young niece visiting.

There is a serial killer at work in London. In one of the supposed murders, of a moneylender gone missing, the only clues are a witness who saw an old fashioned bus near the scene with an older couple visible as passengers, and a bloody glove. As Campion is consulting with his friend Charlie Luke, events are unfolding in a quiet suburb that will culminate in an edge-of-your seat ending.

A widow, Aunt Polly has invited a niece to come and visit. The invited niece, is married, so she sends her younger sister Annabelle, who is excited to visit the big city. She contacts an old friend in the city, Richard, to go with show more her to the house–someone to keep tabs. A neighborhood policeman directs them. Attached to Aunt Polly’s house is a museum of oddities, collected by her husband Freddie. While waiting for Aunt Polly, she looks around and spots an exhibit from which two figures are missing. She also activates a switch for a noisy mechanism. A suave gentleman, Gerry, helps shut it off. He is almost like a favorite son to Polly. In fact, Annabelle’s visit is Polly’s attempt to find Gerry a wife, but Annabelle is too young.

Gerry leaves while Richard is waiting. Whether from jealousy or suspicion he follows Gerry to a barbershop, calling off work and pawning a watch to have some ready cash. Gerry, noticing the absence of a watch, befriends Richard and insists he accompany him for the rest of the day to various bars and restaurants. When Gerry leaves to make a phone call and doesn’t return, and a waiter tips him off to a time discrepancy, Richard begins to suspect he’s being used for an alibi.

He’s right. Matt Phillipson is Polly’s attorney and has caught Gerry committing check fraud with a check Polly gave him. So Phillipson set up a meeting with Gerry to recover the funds. But Gerry, disguised as worker, kills him and lifts his wallet. When he looks at the contents, he finds letters from Aunt Polly. They reveal she knows of his criminal activity. And when she learns of Phillipson’s death, she will know who killed him. In shock, he leaves the wallet behind at a restaurant.

Meanwhile, Richard tracks down Gerry’s hideout at Rolf’s Dump and finds the missing wax figures, the two old people on the bus that the witness saw. While he is at the hideout, Luke and Campion are at the other end of the junkyard, where they find the old bus and further evidence. Then they find Richard at Gerry’s hideaway.

First Richard, then Campion realize that Gerry will return to Polly’s house, where Annabelle is staying. The question is, will they be able to prevent additional murders or become additional victims?

Gerry is a truly evil character–a cold-blooded and over-confident killer willing even to kill the woman, Polly, who has helped him and loved him as a son. Meanwhile, Polly has taken a “hide my eyes” approach to his crimes, which could be a fatal oversight. Personally, I thought this one of Allingham’s best. show less

On the front of every book in this series are the words 'A Campion Mystery' and if you go into this book expecting that, you will be disappointed. Campion is barely in it, he is a background figure in the police scenes who does a little detective work of his own off screen and has no real effect on the story except for putting doubt/worry into the mind of one of the main characters after a brief conversation. It's also not a mystery at all, it is a thriller that plays out like a tragedy. There is no central character either, so I never really cared about their fates.

I do think it is good. It is a really well written tragic thriller, probably better put together than any of her other books. It's just not what I want to read when I sit show more down with a Campion book. The first time I read it, I was not only disappointed by it not being about the character I was here to see but also frustrated that the bad guy is supposed to be this untouchable killer who is so precise with his murders and alibis that he has never even been suspected and yet all we get to see here is everything unravelling so fast that I couldn't believe how he'd got away with everything for so long. However on a second read I was prepared for both those things and I could much better appreciate how the story was constructed and how you're drawn inexorably along to the conclusion. show less

This is very inventive. There's a serial killer on the loose in London and Charlie Luke has a bee in his bonnet about him - trouble is, no-one else thinks he's onto anything. There are a number of crimes that circle Garden Green, but they are all quite different. Is he on to something or not? There's not a lot of Campion or detection in here, we see the last in the series of crimes with the perpetrator in real time rather than seeing it in the aftermath.
There are an array of supporting characters, Polly Tassie is the pivot the case revolves around. She's invited her niece, Jennifer, to come and live with her (with a view for companionship and maybe a sport of matchmaking) only her younger sister Annabelle turns up. She at least takes show more the precaution of meeting the only person she knows in London, Richard Waterfield, who used to court her sister, but is now rather taken with how Annabelle has blossomed in the last 2 years since he saw her last. He sees Gerry leaving the house, decides he doesn't like the look of him and tails him. He then gets embroiled in Gerry's plans for the day, which are busy and most of the action takes place in the following 12 hours.
The scene shifts through the various characters, following their actions over periods of time. The Police do rather seem to be playing catch up, and there remains, at the end, no certainty that having got their man that they will be able to get the charges to stick.
It's quite a different story, less a whodunit than a will he get away with it. show less

Poor "little Albert", dragged in kicking (literally) and screaming (or at least complaining loudly) to assist the remarkable newly Superintendent Charlie Luke in the investigation of a number of killings. He only wanted to go on vacation – and shortly found himself left unsure whether he was more likely to be kidnapped by the bad guys or the good guys. The plot was handled nicely; since the reader pretty much knows the villain is the villain it's more a matter of suspense – is he going to hurt the old lady or the girl, or the girl's beau? How are Campion and co. going to find him? Not "whether", of course. And what exactly is he up to? Allingham's greatest gift was with rounded, real, believable characters, which is why her books show more are so enjoyable to go back to again. I liked this one a lot. show less

Another surprisingly good book, with little mystery but quite a lot of suspense, and something under the surface a moral perhaps. Unlike most stories with Mr. Campion though, he plays more of a supporting role in this one.