Flowers for the Judge, Death of a Ghost, and The Case of the Late Pig

Book excerpt: Three Albert Campion mysteries in one volume reveal why “Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light” (Agatha Christie). Flowers for the Judge Scandal hits the prestigious publishing house of Barnabas when one of the directors is found dead in a locked cellar. All eyes are on the other partners at the firm—cousins of the dead man with much to gain from his demise—and rumors hint at a connection to the long-ago disappearance of another director. Desperate to salvage their reputation, the cousins turn to Albert Campion—but will his investigations clear the Barnabas family name, or besmirch it forever? “One of her best . . . vivid and witty.” —The New York Times Death of a Ghost John Sebastian Lafcadio’s ambition to be known as the greatest painter since Rembrandt was not to be thwarted by a matter as trifling as his own death. A set of twelve sealed paintings is left in the hands of his widow, together with the instruction that she unveil one canvas each year before a carefully selected audience. Albert Campion is invited to join a cast of gadabouts, muses, and socialites to witness the eighth unveiling—but instead the lights go down and a young man is stabbed to death. Campion must get to work on the baffling case, with its long—suspiciously long—line-up of possible killers, and soon finds himself having to face his dearest enemy. “Wonderfully plotted . . . Allingham was a rare and precious talent.” —The Washington Post The Case of the Late Pig Private detective Albert Campion is summoned to the village of Kepesake to investigate a particularly distasteful death. The body turns out to be that of Pig Peters—freshly killed five months after his own funeral. Soon other corpses start to turn up, just as Peters’s body goes missing. It takes all of Campion’s coolly incisive powers of detection to unravel the crime. Mixing high drama and pitch-perfect black comedy, The Case of the Late Pig is, uniquely, narrated by Campion himself. “Allingham captures her quintessential quiet detective Albert Campion to perfection.”—Daily Express