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March 2016 - Black Plumes by Margery Allingham
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What Members Thought
May 16, 2011
Abbey
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
myst-cosies,
myst-set-andor-auth-uk,
vintage,
myst-fems-project,
favorites,
reviewed,
myst-pi,
series,
own
BOTTOM LINE: Another lovely, totally unbelievable romp with Albert Campion and friends, both respectable and otherwise, as he undertakes to guard the heir to an old family and their VIP secret. Still shows Albert as quite peculiar and vapid/vague, but Allingham is gradually bringing the character into better focus in this third book.
The Gyrth family is rural County Aristocracy, very very old, and with lots of peculiar history behind it. Their home is at least a thousand years old, and extremely ...more
The Gyrth family is rural County Aristocracy, very very old, and with lots of peculiar history behind it. Their home is at least a thousand years old, and extremely ...more
Recently, I have been reading the Albert Campion series. I have struggled with Margery Allingham before, and, although I have enjoyed the first two books in the series, I was underwhelmed by this.
The mystery opens well. We have Val Gyrth, an aristocratic down and out, threatened by kidnappers and lured to safety by Campion. To give him his full name, Percival St John Wykes Gyrth, belongs to an old family who are the keepers of the Gyrth Chalice. Campion informs him that someone is out to steal ...more
The mystery opens well. We have Val Gyrth, an aristocratic down and out, threatened by kidnappers and lured to safety by Campion. To give him his full name, Percival St John Wykes Gyrth, belongs to an old family who are the keepers of the Gyrth Chalice. Campion informs him that someone is out to steal ...more
Not sure why this took so long. Maybe I had it in the wrong place. On the bedstand - but I was always reading the kindle in bed. Then I decided to see if not using electronics before bed would help me sleep better and switched back to actual books. (the jury is still out on the sleeping better, but maybe not quite as many hours, I think, tossing and turning.)
A royal chalice has been left for the Gyrth family to look after at their country home of Sanctuary. It only comes out of hiding when the m ...more
A royal chalice has been left for the Gyrth family to look after at their country home of Sanctuary. It only comes out of hiding when the m ...more
It's kind of hard to rate this particular story. I really enjoyed reading it, but it is wordy in that old-fashioned way that means you could draw detailed maps of every barn and farm and house anyone visits. And the basic idea of a family guarding an ancient chalice for the British government never made sense to me. We were never told why that family had to guard it or why it had to be kept secret or anything like that, you just had to accept the entire set up. Once the reader accepts that, thou
...more
Gyrth rose to his feet and stood looking at Campion in slow horror. 'What you are saying is, in effect, then,' he said, 'if we want to protect the one thing that's really precious to me and my family, the one thing that must come before everything else with me, we must find out the man employed by this society, and murder him?' Mr Campion surveyed his visitor with the utmost gravity. 'Shall we say "dispose of him"?' he suggested gently.
...more
I'm really enjoying my foray into the "Golden Age" of British mysteries with Margery Allingham; I only read one of her books, MANY years ago, and as I was engrossed in Christie and Sayers at the time, her hero Campion came off as a poor substitute for Lord Peter and I tossed him aside. My mistake! They are more adventures than mysteries, but a lot of fun and a very diverting look at one of my favorite periods, England before the wars (it couldn't possibly have been as golden and lush and gorgeou
...more
If "The Da Vinci Code" had a quirkier, less competent cousin, it might be Look to the Lady. Allingham's third Campion mystery proves that even sacred chalices can leave you feeling spiritually unfulfilled, much like that time Indiana Jones picked the wrong grail in "The Last Crusade" – except here, we don't even get to see anyone age rapidly as compensation.
Our hero Albert Campion swoops in to protect an ancient treasure with all the explanation of a magician's assistant who's forgotten their cu ...more
Our hero Albert Campion swoops in to protect an ancient treasure with all the explanation of a magician's assistant who's forgotten their cu ...more
AKA: "Look to the Lady."
more like a 7.5, I'd say, although we don't have that option so I'll bump it to an 8. You know, the more I read this series, the better I like it. Albert Campion is portrayed as some what of a fop, a bumbler, and, okay, to be honest, a moron. However, when there's a job that needs to be done, you can literally see that outside disguise being shrugged off and a man with a gift for intelligence is revealed.
Campion's latest exploit involves not so much a mystery, but the pr ...more
more like a 7.5, I'd say, although we don't have that option so I'll bump it to an 8. You know, the more I read this series, the better I like it. Albert Campion is portrayed as some what of a fop, a bumbler, and, okay, to be honest, a moron. However, when there's a job that needs to be done, you can literally see that outside disguise being shrugged off and a man with a gift for intelligence is revealed.
Campion's latest exploit involves not so much a mystery, but the pr ...more
Campion is fun and interesting, of course. But the storyline here is really all over the place. I mean, it feels like there is a lot more happening than there actually is. And there are a number of extraneous characters, scenes, and events that seem to have no payoff as the novel concludes. The "Gothic" element is a little surprising, but nothing much comes of it.
...more
Aug 16, 2016
Zsa Zsa
marked it as to-read
Sep 10, 2017
Tessiebear
added it
Jul 30, 2021
Lillian
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-vintage-golden-age,
read-in-2021
