The edition I read was actually in an omnibus, but I want to review it separately.

This book marks a change in our hero Campion. The beginning of a more mature man. At least that seems to be the idea. I won't know for sure until I read the books after this. I know that Traitor's Purse also has a similar idea, and that is in two books' time. The trouble is, I don't want a more mature Campion. I like, no, I love the silly, egotistical, inane weirdo that Campion is. He's one of my favourite fictional characters from literature, so a more sedate and morose man does not appeal at all. It's also a really weird point in the series to make such a move, coming directly after The Case Of The Late Pig, which must be peak over-the-top Campion, being the only novel in the series written in first person.

This is also one of the novels that was adapted for the TV show, so I was unfortunately very familiar with it by the time I came to read the novel. The issue being that, and here comes a spoiler that was actually in the introduction to the story in the omnibus,

Spoiler

Campion gets this one wrong. He spends the whole story after the wrong man. So if you already know this going in, it's very hard to understand why he is being so stubborn and frankly blind

. In this story Campion falls in love or something. Supposedly this is a more mature love than his previous fancies, and it affects him deeply. This is pretty much the crux the entire novel rests on and unfortunately I didn't really buy it. Why is Campion charmed by Linda? She makes almost no impression on the story at all. She might be a perfectly nice person but she comes across as simply bland and a little helpless, qualities I can't see appealing to Campion. Also, since she is married, he keeps his distance, so I saw no sign of chemistry or rapport between them. Because of his feelings for her, he doesn't want to be involved in solving the crime which he knows will uproot her life, so he spends an awful lot of the story avoiding forwarding the story. Luckily it doesn't get dull, but it is on the verge of becoming annoying. This numbed version of Campion isn't funny, which is a real shame because he is usually hilarious. Allingham still injects some humour into the narrative, but I miss the Albert I have come to know and adore. Another point that is repeated is that previously Campion has only observed the mysteries he has solved whereas now he is involved and therefore feels the pain himself, but this seems like a stretch. Most of the previous mysteries have involved his actual friends, and he always gets involved, and maybe he has grown out of his previous loves but at the time he did seem to be in love with them. Of course he has always managed to love women who love other men, so I don't really see how this one is any different. He mostly just comes across as distant and lazy in this story, and very insular. However this again isn't unique, he has definitely withheld information before in the interests of helping his friends. A line in this book refers to him as an 'unwilling detective' but Campion isn't even a detective, he's just a man for hire.

That aside, it's a well written and engrossing read. The bits that I recognised from the TV show of course played like the actors in my head but the parts that weren't in the TV show were just as vivid, Allingham really brought it all to life, and she has clearly really come into her own strengths as a writer (some of the earlier books were a bit more ropey). I was a little shocked by the seemingly abrupt ending because the TV show added in an explosive finale, but that's not the book's fault. I enjoyed the fact that Uncle William Faraday from Police At The Funeral was back, although not sure why he sticks around for the whole novel, and he provided most of the source of humour - I really like it when a series refers to characters or events from earlier instalments. However, if you haven't read Police At The Funeral, this will kind of spoil it, so definitely don't read them the wrong way round.