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The Crime at Black Dudley (Albert Campion Mystery, #1)

Margery Allingham

Start date: May 1, 2017

Finish date: May 31, 2017

Discussion: Group reads

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Group reads

* November 2025 group read - Winner!
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last updated Sep 17, 2025 08:43AM

* Sept 25: Lonesome Road (#3 Miss Silver Mysteries) by Patricia Wentworth
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What Members Thought

Aug 28, 2014 AngryGreyCat rated it really liked it

The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham is the first Albert Campion novel and like in MC Beaton’s first Hamish MacBeth novel, Albert Campion is not the central character, he is just being introduced. The book begins as a classic isolated country manor murder mystery. The guests are trapped with no way to leave, a murder has occurred and a gangster and his minions are among the guests. The guests do manage to flee and the mystery is resolved after the guests have returned to London.

This wa ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 24, 2017 John Frankham rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-detective

My 2019 re-read puts this up a notch, to 4*. Great fun and derring-do.

The first appearance of Albert Campion, but not as the leading character in this crime novel. Certainly very much an early, ill-structured book, with an overlong middle. Flashes of what was to come.

"A house party is under way at the remote mansion of Black Dudley, and among the guests are some very shady characters. As they playfully recreate the ritual of the Black Dudley Dagger, someone dies. Pathologist George Abbershaw sus ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 04, 2014 Lark of The Bookwyrm's Hoard rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cozy-mysteries, own, kindle, mystery, historical-mystery

Review originally published at The Bookwyrm's Hoard.

The Crime at Black Dudley introduces Margery Allingham’s affable, deceptively foolish young amateur detective, Albert Campion. Like Lord Peter Wimsey, Campion is from an aristocratic family and adopts a silly-ass, never-serious persona. Unlike Wimsey, however, Campion himself is a bit of a mystery. We know very little of him – even his real identity. Campion is just one of his many aliases, at least one of which is mentioned in this book. T ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 07, 2016 Doris rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, z-2016-challenge

Too convoluted and melodramatic. I was also dissatisfied by the solution of the murder: the motive was weak and I don't see how the protagonist hit upon the perpetrator. ...more

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May 07, 2017 Jill rated it really liked it

Shelves: margery-allingham

Pretty much absurd but very entertaining

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 20, 2018 Andréa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller-crime, british-isles, classics, digital, z-detectives

Interesting introduction to the series protagonist. I'm curious to see what POVs the other books are told from and how Campion is depicted/presented in them. ...more

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