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    The China Governess
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    The China Governess
    Unavailable
    The China Governess
    Ebook347 pages5 hours

    The China Governess

    By Margery Allingham

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light. And she has another quality, not usually associated with crime stories, elegance.” —Agatha Christie
     
    Timothy Kinnit is rich, handsome, and successful, but his past is a mystery to him. When he learns, on the eve of his elopement, that he is adopted, he must question everything he thought he knew.
     
    In desperate search of answers, Kinnit calls on private detective Albert Campion to shed some light on his past, and how it connects him to the notorious Turk Street Mile slum. Meanwhile, his illustrious adopted family has a sinister secret of its own—involving a murderous nineteenth-century governess—that must also be brought to light by Campion’s investigations.
     
    “Allingham is very, very good and those who are not familiar with her have a discovery awaiting them.”—Los Angeles Times
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateOct 1, 2015
    ISBN9781504048774
    Unavailable
    The China Governess
    Author

    Margery Allingham

    Margery Louise Allingham is ranked among the most distinguished and beloved detective fiction writers of the Golden Age alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Ngaio Marsh. Allingham is J.K. Rowling's favourite Golden Age author and Agatha Christie said of Allingham that out of all the detective stories she remembers, Margery Allingham 'stands out like a shining light'. She was born in Ealing, London in 1904 to a very literary family; her parents were both writers, and her aunt ran a magazine, so it was natural that Margery too would begin writing at an early age. She wrote steadily through her school days, first in Colchester and later as a boarder at the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge, where she wrote, produced, and performed in a costume play. After her return to London in 1920 she enrolled at the Regent Street Polytechnic, where she studied drama and speech training in a successful attempt to overcome a childhood stammer. There she met Phillip Youngman Carter, who would become her husband and collaborator, designing the jackets for many of her future books. The Allingham family retained a house on Mersea Island, a few miles from Layer Breton, and it was here that Margery found the material for her first novel, the adventure story Blackkerchief Dick (1923), which was published when she was just nineteen. She went on to pen multiple novels, some of which dealt with occult themes and some with mystery, as well as writing plays and stories – her first detective story, The White Cottage Mystery, was serialized in the Daily Express in 1927. Allingham died at the age of 62, and her final novel, A Cargo of Eagles, was finished by her husband at her request and published posthumously in 1968.

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    Reviews for The China Governess

    3.5/5

    93 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Good book, not excellent as Ellis Peter and Agatha Christie. Campion shows just not enough. His persona always adds a nice touch to the scenes and I wish Mrs. Allingham would have used him more. Although he knew who the killer was, in no moment you witness his investigative methods.
    • 3/5
      A late Campion, with some similarities to but not as good as the brilliant "Tiger in the Smoke". Sometimes I find Allingham's writing rather opaque, as she lets characters express their emotions in a very oblique way and I'm not always sure I understand her meaning... however the story and characters held my interest. Don't start with this one, again it's one for the fans...
    • 3/5
      One of the last in the Albert Champion series, a young man engaged to be married is shocked when rumors start to circulate about his parentage. Determined to uncover the truth as to his identity, and with the encouragement of his fiancee's father, he puts their engagement on hold until he finds the answers he seeks. However, there appears to be someone equally determined that he shall not uncover the truth. Albert Champion is engaged to unravel the mystery behind the death of an old lady, and with the help of his friend, Charles Luke, find the answers before someone else is murdered.
    • 5/5
      Young Timothy Kinnet is all set to marry the girl of his dreams, when he finds out that he's not who he thought he was. He had always believed that he was an illegitimate relation of the Kinnets, taken in when the Blitz destroyed east London. But he finds out that he was in fact, a foundling. So he sets off to uncover his true identity.But Allingham's books are never that simple. When Timothy becomes the chief suspect in a housebreaking and later a suspicious death, his fiance enlists the help of Albert Campion. This is Allingham at her best. Nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems, but the gang is all here--Lugg, Charlie Luke,--only Amanda is missing. But the story goes at a fast pace and is a pleasure to read.
    • 4/5
      Sadly, this is one of the last books of the Campion series; I'm going to really miss these books when I've finished. Sigh. Oh well, I suppose that's why I keep these things forever so that someday I can go back and reread them. In the prologue, a council flat is vandalized to such an extent that it gives one of its occupants a fatal stroke upon her discovery of the damage. Then on to the main part of the novel: Timothy Kinnit and Julia Laurell are a young couple engaged to be married. Both are from upper class families, and are happy as can be. However, Julia's father decides that the marriage will not happen, due to rumors that are being passed along about Tim's parentage. Although Julia does not care, Tim is determined to seek the truth about his identity, but as he investigates he runs up against several obstacles -- and needs the help of Albert Campion.Once again we find Campion in the background, not as active as in the earlier part of the series -- here lending his cool-headedness and deductive prowess. However, the story was quite good, but then at the end I got a bit confused and had to backtrack to figure out what it was I missed. I love these books, but sometimes they can get bogged down with dialogue that detracts from the main part of the story.I'd recommend it to classic mystery fans, those who like British mysteries and those who are considering the series. However, to the latter I say do NOT start with this one, but go back and start with the first one so you can watch the development of Campion's character. Personally, I liked him better in the older books.Overall ... not one of her best, but okay.
    • 4/5
      Albert Campion finds himself called upon to help find the true parentage of a young man on the brink of marriage.Adopted by the Kinnet family, during the evacuation of London at the beginning of WWII, there was no record of the birth parents or birth place of Timothy. The Kinnets had the money and position to give him a good upbringing and education. But now, Timothy is set to marry the daughter of a captain of industry, who wants to know more about Timothy’s background.In searching for his background, Timothy finds some disturbing history involving a murder that may have involved the family, and the possibility of his birth place being a one of the roughest slums of that era, Turk Street Mile. These negatives tie in with the philosophy of the stock you come from determines the type of person you will be, regardless of your upbringing and position in life.Allingham didn’t write simple cozy mysteries. There are complicated plots, developed characters and a good number of twists, turns, distractions and sometimes loops. Her Campion isn’t flashy, but his analyzing and observations keep me reading. For me she is not an author to be read quickly.
    • 3/5
      One of the later Campion stories, that features not so much Campion and even less Lugg (who barely gets a speaking part in it all)

      Set about 20 years after WWII and Timothy, about to elope with his fiancee, finds out that he was adopted and the man he thought was his father isnt. Meanwhile, in a slum part of London that was bombed out during the war, a new start is threatened by a model flat being trashed by an unknown assailant.

      Everything comes together, pulling together the fall out from the Blitz and the confusion of evacuation, blackmail, murder, and alcoholics.

      Not the best Campion book, (too much focus on the other characters in the book to allow Campion to come through) and not my favourite - the fact that it took over a week to complete what is quite a short book shows this.