The Tiger in the Smoke (Albert Campion Mystery, #14) in Around the World in 80 Books

Sep 24, 2015 Suvi rated it liked it

Shelves: 1940-1969, crime-mystery, _great-britain, cities_london, novels

London is enveloped by an almost apocalyptic smog that obscures everything, both physically and figuratively speaking. A murderer is wandering the streets, searching for a way to a treasure. Albert Campion is called to help on the case, but he doesn't really do much detective work, appearing instead as a distant character mostly hovering in the background. Misleading, because the series is supposed to contain Albert Campion mysteries. Campion isn't even his real name! Allingham does a lot of dwe ...more

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Mar 28, 2024 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: a-reviewed, z-read-gelesen-2024, zchallenge-2024-52bookclub

What I liked: the old-fashioned 1950s language and the atmospheric evocation of London in the fog and, on the whole, of a London long gone, the post-World War Two context of returned servicemen, rationing and post-war trauma. And there were moments of thrill and suspense.

What did not work: the combination of thriller, police procedural and Literature with a capital L. The frontispiece blurb, quoting an Observer review of the time, says it all: it is a detective story "which is also by any standa What I liked: the old-fashioned 1950s language and the atmospheric evocation of London in the fog and, on the whole, of a London long gone, the post-World War Two context of returned servicemen, rationing and post-war trauma. And there were moments of thrill and suspense.

What did not work: the combination of thriller, police procedural and Literature with a capital L. The frontispiece blurb, quoting an Observer review of the time, says it all: it is a detective story "which is also by any standard a distinguished novel." I have noticed this many a time before: genre fiction trying to be something else generally does not work. And the kind of Literature of the 1950s is especially tedious: woven through with semi-Existentialist philosophising, delighting in abrupt and unmotivated lurches of point of view, of topic, of elision-happy pseudo-reveals. Sometimes things did not make sense, and the in-story characters who don't get it are described as lovable but stupid, but I, as a reader, also didn't get it.

Also, to be fair, this is nr 18 in a series of novels so there is a host of characters who meant nothing to me.

What I actively disliked and what lost it that third star: The unaware racism (a dog of neg---d appearance; a sculpture of 'Oriental over-subtlety'), ableism (a raft of enfreaked characters whose disability defines them so that often they are not even referred to by name, e.g. 'the albino', 'the dwarf', and are all depraved in character), the sexism (the women: either crafty and working-class, or middle-class, lovely, with their silk-clad legs too tender for their shoes, living to serve their men, and the military-style chaps, out to protect their womenfolk blah de blah).

I chose this for the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge prompt: published in a year of the dragon. This book was published in 1952.

Format: it seems to be the original 1952 Penguin format although the shiny cover smacks of a later copy-cat edition as the originals were matt. The font is tiny and entirely unsuitable for my over-sixty eyes. Never again. ...more

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Apr 22, 2020 Andrea rated it it was amazing

Complex mystery with fascinating morality discussion quintessential golden age mystery.

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Mar 17, 2013 Amanda rated it it was ok

Shelves: women, mystery, fiction

Not a fan. This is one of those books you have to pay close attention in order to avoid missing the plot (somehow, important points hare hidden or offered in a backhanded way). Which is fine, but the whole thing has so much extraneous description and unnecessary background that it's exhausting to do so.

Also, the women all seem rather helpless. ...more

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