Flowers for the Judge

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.

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 show more 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! show less

Flowers For The Judge (a title almost as bland as Police At The Funeral but slightly more relevant to the plot) suffers a fate similar to most of the books that precede it in the Campion series. And that is that the scenes involving Campion are great, but the novel has a certain gimmick that is not so enjoyable.

Much like Police At The Funeral, Campion is called in by a friend to investigate a missing person, and before he has the chance to do any investigating, the missing turns up dead. However, unlike the previous murder mysteries in the series (this is only really the third to follow that plot, the others having been action/adventures) the actual solving of the crime is not the main focus of the book. Instead Allingham is very keen show more to show us what a trial is like (hence the title). However, this is not a courtroom drama, which can often be gripping and exciting despite their lack of action. Instead she takes great pains to show what it would be like to watch a trial (two of them - first the coroner's court and then the crown court) if you were personally affected by the case. Gina, the woman whose husband has been murdered and close-friend-but-not-quite-lover has been wrongly accused of the crime, watches events she cannot control unfold in an icy terror. Miss Curley, a colleague, also watches, presumably so we can have the point of view of someone who is able to be a bit more rational. I grew fairly bored of this during the first trial. Having to sit through it a second time was horrible.

In between the courtroom stuff, Campion is his usual self: a capable, witty hero who is a pleasure to be around. There are several delightful scenes between him and Lugg and scattered throughout are a lot of nice little touches, little humourous details that are charming. Unfortunately there are these swathes of text, lumps of several chapters at a time, which don't focus on Campion, fail to stir much interest or emotion, and seem to slow everything down. The court scenes bog the book down, and it's hard to keep track of what Campion is actually doing. He keeps saying that things are urgent - Mike will be hanged if Campion can't prove his innocence - and yet the book is set over many months. Is he taking holidays between each scene of investigation?

It's a shame. I did really like the Campion scenes. He was much more himself than in the previous book (Death Of A Ghost). But the incessant focus on the court stuff, while not making those scenes actually enjoyable to read, really sank my overall opinion of the book. show less

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.

#7 in the Albert Campion series. This installment finds our good friend Mr. Campion involved in a mystery in which a man is found dead in a publishing company's basement. A man is found to be guilty of his murder at the coroner's inquest, but is really the killer? He, of all of the possible suspects has the means, motive and opportunity, but Albert suspects that he's being framed and must find the guilty party before it is too late.

I REALLY enjoyed this one. There's enough of the old smart-mouthed Campion in here (especially in his banter with Lugg), mixed in with the newer, serious Albert Campion to provide a good balance in his character. The mystery keeps you guessing up until the end and it's an all-around good mystery read. Fans of show more British mystery should really enjoy this one, but do start with #1.

Now I must go out and buy the PBS dvd to add to my growing collection of Campion dramatizations. -sigh - Peter Davison is the perfect Campion, if you ask me! show less

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. show more 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. show less

Having been disappointed by "Coroner's Pidgin" and slightly revived by "More work for the Undertaker" I was delighted to see that this earlier work is vintage Allingham. Essentially a locked room mystery set in a London publishing house (echoes of PD Jame's Original Sin) this story tells of love, pride and brilliantly realised court scenes (echoes of Dorothy Sayer's "Strong Poison" 1930) . The fog and the finish in France prefigure elements of "Tiger in the Smoke" Very very enjoyable.