Review: Flowers for the Judge
MARCH 15, 2024 / RTRUBE54 / EDIT

Flowers for the Judge, Margery Allingham. Avarang Books, 2023 (Originally published in 1936).

Summary: Campion is called in when a member of a publishing family disappears, only for him to be found dead in the firm’s vault, with all the evidence pointing toward younger cousin Mike as the murderer.

Twenty years before Tom Barnabas, the nephew of the founder of Barnabas publishing house of London, just vanished one morning, literally seen one moment and gone the next, with no one around. Now, another family member has been missing several days. Paul Brande was expected to meet up with his wife Gina on a Friday night and the family learned of it at a party on Sunday when Gina mentioned it. This was not unusual for Paul, but as a precaution, they ask their family friend for Albert Campion for help.

On Monday, a secretary goes to the vault to get papers for the eldest cousin, John Widdowson, and finds Paul lying dead by the door to the vault. It was discovered that he died of carbon monoxide poisoning. As Campion investigate, he finds a broken ventilator at the rear of the vault, exposed to the garage. A sooty tube is found nearby. A neighbor testifies that she had heard Mike’s car running on Friday evening, when it was established that Paul died.

Attention begins to focus in on Mike, culminating at the coroner’s inquest. We learn that Gina and Paul were in an unhappy marriage and that their appointment on Friday was to discuss a divorce, which Gina could not pursue on her own. Earlier, Paul and Mike had been heard fighting, presumably about Gina, with whom Mike had been very friendly. During the early part of Friday evening, Mike claims that he was out walking, something he usually did not do. Then he returned to warm up his car to go out, interrupted by Gina wanting to go out because Paul had not come home. Also, on Sunday, Mike had gone down to the vault but said nothing about finding Paul’s body, even though it was found by the door of the vault. At the conclusion of the inquest Mike is arrested for the murder.

Campion is not convinced although it appears others have good alibis. His attention focuses on an unpublished manuscript of a play by William Congreve, that forms a substantial part of the firm’s assets. Campion discovers that it is a facsimile. But what of the original? Could its absence be connected to the murder?

And what of the the first man to disappear twenty years ago? He’s not an irrelevant plot detail (though not the murderer).

I think this is one of the best Campions I’ve read so far, including an interesting couple of plot twists at the end, including a dramatic conclusion to Mike’s trial. It is interesting that in least in this story, Campion seems less a quirky presence and more of a detective than in previous stories. A good read! ( )

Very solid outing. Some passages funny enough to read out loud. ( )

It's been a while since I've read a Campion story, and so this was a refreshing change. Set at a publisher's we start 20 years earlier, with one cousin of the family vanishing into thin air. In the [resent of the book, another cousin is found dead, leaving a neglected wife that was finding friendship with another cousin. Mike is then arrested for murdering Paul (which, frankly, sounds like a service to mankind). And so the police start going about their business, the family rally round and Campion, as a friend of the family, tries to make headway.
It is all quite satisfyingly complicated and there is a resolution that is equally satisfying in it's rightness. ( )

After a few tries, I’ve found a Campion mystery that’s a complete delight. A member of a staid publishing house has been missing for three days when his wife decides to call in our hero. Almost immediately the man is found dead under suspicious circumstances.
This witty character study is very much worth a read. Campion isn’t fatuous, Lugg isn’t annoying, and the remainder of the cast is fascinating. Truly enjoyable, this book made an Allingham fan out this somewhat reluctant reader. ( )

Originally published in 1936, Flowers For the Judge by Margery Allingham is the 7th in her Albert Campion series. In this book, Campion is called upon to help clear a friend of a murder charge. Although the evidence against him is mostly circumstantial, it is very clear that he is in love with the murdered man’s neglected wife which give the police enough motive to charge him. Of course Campion is able to put the pieces together but before he can be arrested, the real murderer is found dead in his bath – a suicide or another murder?

Although the story unfolds against the backdrop of a family run publishing business, and an old and valuable manuscript is part of the plot there was really very little reference to the book industry. This was very much a character driven story and once all the characters were in place and known to the reader, it was pretty easy to determine who the murderer was. I was surprised that the second murder was so easily dismissed by the police but I suspect Campion smoothed the way for it to be taken as a guilty party’s suicide.

Written in her usual witty style, Flowers For the Judge, with it’s locked room mystery, interesting characters, and slightly quirky resolution was another delightful entry in this series. ( )