My first thought when I discovered Albert Campion via the 1980s TV series was ‘Why was I never told about this?!’ As a big fan and avid reader of crime novels in general and Agatha Christie (and her era) in particular, Albert Campion was right down my alley, yet it took 46 years for me to find stories written decades before my birth.
While Agatha Christie likes to start stories slowly, Margery Allingham, the author of the Albert Campion stories, likes to start them off with a bit of action. I do enjoy Christie’s approach, but getting a good head start and having a bit more immediate action is also very nice.
While both Hercules Poirot and Miss Maple have become staples in crime literature and are well known, Mr. Campion can’t claim the same fame, which is a shame. He is a very understated hero, a man who gives the impression that he’s a harmless, even ridiculous figure with his high-pitched voice, pale skin, and thick glasses. Yet, he’s certainly able to hold himself in a fight or another dangerous situation - as soon as he packs up his glasses, things tend to get dangerous.
There is a mystery to Albert Campion, too. It’s said early on in several of the novels that the name ‘Albert Campion’ is an alias (and he employs several more in his work) and that he belongs to a high-ranking family. His wide range of acquaintances, from high society down to the underworld, also speaks of a man who has a History deserving of the upper-case ‘H’. Not to mention he has one of the most amusing man-servants I have encountered so far.
The characters are distinct, not only the recurring ones (as Albert’s valet or his friend at the police), but also those created specifically for one story. There are some racist stereotypes, but the books were written in the 1930s - and the same problem with stereotyped non-British characters goes for Agatha Christie as well, as much as I love her work. You will never have the problem of reading a name and not being able to connect it to a character you’ve encountered before - unless, of course, it’s the first time the character appears in the story. In this case, you will have a clear picture of them afterwards.
The stakes are introduced early, so the reader knows what it is about and why it is important for this murder to be solved or this object to be found. Stakes are raised in most cases, but there’s already stakes high enough to invest in from the beginning, which is always good. “Look to the Lady”, for instance, starts off with a man being chased through London while down on his luck.
Margery Allingham doesn’t quite do the quaint English town which is so typical for half of Agatha Christie’s work (her independent novels and most Miss Maple stories). While the stories might play out in small towns and villages (or the manor homes nearby), there’s little quaintness about it. Murders are never quaint and Allingham doesn’t pretend they are. Instead of slow-moving investigation, there is action. Unexpected things happen to raise the tension and give Mr. Campion something new to react to. This doesn’t mean he’s never proactive, though - he doesn’t just have a lot of acquaintances, he also makes a lot of use of them. Yet, the suddenly changes in the situation keep the reader’s attention, which is never wrong.
I would go so far as to say that the Albert Campion novels are, to a degree, pulp stories. They have a lot of action, more so than the stories by Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers, they have high stakes in many cases, they have a rather interesting cast, and they keep you reading by keeping the action up and making sure you’re not going to be bored.
The novels also play fair with the reader. Instead of uncovering an important piece of information very late (the “Murder, She Wrote” syndrome, I’d call it), all clues come out in time and the reader learns about them as soon as Mr. Campion (or even earlier, since Albert is not the only point-of-view character). The cases are sometimes odd (like in “Police at the Funeral” which has a very strange solution), but they still make sense. There’s no sudden pulling a culprit out of nowhere.
The writing does need a little getting used to these days - but the same goes for other novels from the same era, since languages evolved for as long as they are spoken. Yet, once used to the writing style, it’s not hard to read for a long time. The story keeps moving, there’s adequate action, new situations, new clues, and new suspects turn up. The stakes are raised a little here and there and the tension is handled well. I have been more bored with an Agatha Christie novel than with Allingham’s so far.
Personally, I like the way Albert Campion in presented, too. Authors have a tendency to show their main characters - their heroes, if you want to use that word - in a very good light. Sometimes, they even make them look too perfect, which is not good. Allingham presents her hero as a harmless man - even more harmless than Father Brown, who certainly is among the most harmless on the first glance. Unlike the good father, however, Albert isn’t only a man of the mind - the pulp style of the stories means that there is adequate danger and daring-do in his stories as well, so he has to be an action hero to a degree.
The basic description of Albert is that of a rather short, slim man with pale skin, hair, and eyes, wearing enormous, thick-rimmed glasses and speaking with a high-pitched voice. Not only that, though. Albert makes a point in appearing just as ridiculous as his description sounds. He usually makes jokes, talks about insignificant topics at odd times, and seems preoccupied with unimportant things while something horrible is happening. Yet, once you’ve read one novel, you know it’s at least partially a show.
Albert does have a high-pitched voice, that’s mere genetics. He doesn’t seem to be very short-sighted, though, since he takes off his glasses before getting into a fight, climbing away from an enraged horse, or doing other more action-related things. His mind isn’t weak, either, he usually puts together a plan on short notice and he does put the clues together very well, too. How much of his usual habits are due to eccentricities and how much is calculated to keep other people at ease around him and make him easy to underestimate is hard to say.
If you are a fan of the 1920/1930 setting found in novels by Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers, but want something a little more action-oriented and with usually higher stakes, take a look at Albert Campion. I would suggest, however, not to start with the first novel he’s in, as he’s more of a side character in that one. “Look at the Lady” or “Police at the Funeral” are two interesting ones you might want to look into instead. I can also recommend the audio books in this case, the speaker does do Albert’s voice justice. Or watch the two seasons of the TV series based on the novels.
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