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    Sweet Danger
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    Sweet Danger
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    Sweet Danger
    Ebook314 pages5 hours

    Sweet Danger

    By Margery Allingham

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    With gentleman sleuth Albert Campion on the case and plenty of European intrigue, “Sweet Danger is for the connoisseur of detective fiction” (Sunday Times).
     
    Nestled along the Adriatic coastline, the kingdom of Averna has suddenly—and suspiciously—become the hottest property in Europe, and Albert Campion is given the task of recovering the long-missing proofs of ownership.
     
    His mission takes him from the French Riviera to the sleepy village of Pontisbright, where he meets the flame-haired Amanda Fitton. Her family claim to be the rightful heirs to the principality, and insist on joining Campion's quest. Unfortunately for them, a criminal financier and his heavies are also on the trail. The clock is ticking for Campion and his cohorts to outwit the thugs and solve the mystery of Averna.
     
    “Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light. And she has another quality, not usually associated with crime stories, elegance.” —Agatha Christie
     
    “The best of mystery writers.” —The New Yorker
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateOct 1, 2015
    ISBN9781504048712
    Unavailable
    Sweet Danger
    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 Sweet Danger

    4/5

    161 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I find it strange that I'm having trouble trying to decide what to say about this book. It is my favourite Campion novel, but I'm not sure if I can say why. It just is. The action begins on the Riviera, when August Randall (known to his intimates as Guffy) witness two unexpected events. The first is a strange man absconding from a high class hotel out a window; the second is Albert Campion, installed in the same hotel as the Hereditary Paladin of Averna. Averna is a very small and previously unimportant piece of Europe that has suddenly become potentially strategic. The British government needs three important items to prove ownership - crown, deed and bill of sale - and they have set Campion on the case to find them. Guffy willingly throws in with the Paladin and his "court", little knowing what an adventure lies ahead. From the Riviera, the group moves on to the small English village of Pontisbright. This is the former site of the set of the Earls of Pontisbright, last heirs to the crown of Averna, as well as the home of the three young Fittons, Mary, Amanda and Hal. Their father attempted to claim the earldom and failed, due to the lack of proof of marriage for the last earl and his lady. Now they live in the mill with their American Aunt Hatt and do their best to make ends meet. Mary is quiet and gentle, while Hal is a fairly typical 16-year old English schoolboy of the day. It is Amanda who bursts off the page with fire and charm. Seventeen and practical, she's the one who really runs the family. When Campion and his companions take lodgings at the mill, she quickly appoints herself his second. She is the one who shows him the section of oak trunk from the old Pontisbright estate with a riddle carved into it that, when solved, will give the location of the three treasures. A clever, complicated treasure hunt follows, filled with such characters as a very odd doctor, a suitably dastardly villain, honest young Englishmen and the familiar figures of Campion and, of course, Lugg. After describing Police at the Funeral as Allingham's "step up" to more serious stories after the Boy's Own tales of the early Campion novels, at first this one seems like a step back. Instead, this is a successful mixture - wild adventure, but treated in a grown up fashion. The book did lose a point for the whole Dr ?? sub-plot, which I felt was totally unnecessary and really did nothing to advance the story at all. All the same, Sweet Danger is simply a delightful read, that I recommend to all. Campion shines here, as does Amanda from her first moment on page. If you want to try out Campion and like a wild adventure, this is the book to read.
    • 5/5
      Brief review, no spoilers So far, this may be my favorite Campion in the series. I haven't read them all yet, but up to this point, definitely my favorite. I'm amazed that so many people here gave it such low ratings, but to each his own, I suppose. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good adventure story, because it's not so much a mystery, but rather more of a suspense/adventure type thing. I would also say that if you've been following Campion up to this point, you're going to really enjoy this one.In a nutshell, the story goes something like this:Guffy Randall has just dropped his mother off at an Italian spa, and is on his way home when he calls in at a hotel he knows quite well. It seems the manager is quite upset because of three rather odd people staying there, the main one being the Hereditary Paladin of Averna, or in short, Albert Campion. The two men accompanying him are his good friends, who are in disguise as well. Campion must take Randall into his confidence and explains that a very important piece of property must be claimed by the British Government, and he is trying to get a lead on some rather important articles that will lead to that objective. His search leads him to a very tiny village in Suffolk, where a rival gang is also trying to find these articles. It is there that he meets the Fittons, a delightfully eccentric family who may or may not be the heirs to a fortune. Albert and friends get caught up in some very dangerous business along with the family and a rather batty doctor.I loved this book, and I've been sitting on the DVD produced by the BBC so now I'll have the great fortune to be able to watch the book come to life. If you haven't seen these DVDs, do so now!Highly recommended; not a cozy, not a police procedural, but mystery readers will enjoy it.
    • 4/5
      This was one of the more bizarre Campion mysteries, and also one of the more entertaining ones. Campion and his associates are trying to find the deeds of ownership to a rural estate that was once an independent European kingdom. It has degenerated into a rarely-used mill, home to a salt-of-the-earth group of siblings. Together they try to follow an old riddle describing the location of the crown and the founding documents. A London business mogul is also interested, which leads to danger for everyone at the mill. As bizarre as all of this sounds, it works. The Campion mysteries have more to do with espionage than others in this genre, and that is true in this volume. The build-up at the beginning, getting everyone to Pontisbright and involved in the mystery, is longer and more detailed than it really needs to be. Once everyone gets to Pontisbright things start moving quickly. In this volume we get to learn a bit more about the enigma that is Lugg, and Lugg is given the opportunity to engage in some hooligan tendencies.
    • 4/5
      This is an earlier Albert Campion and more like The Gyrth Chalice, which is to say a thriller or caper novel rather than a straightforward murder mystery.I read it years ago, but the only part I could clearly remember was Amanda (Campion's future wife) asking him to wait for her till she grew up - she's only 17 in this book. Like The Gyrth Chalice, I had a memory of superstitious legends and general creepiness which I think accurately describes The Fear Sign.I enjoyed the book after reading it again recently, but my all-time favourite Allingham is still More Work For the Undertaker.
    • 3/5
      What was Albert Campion up to in the Hotel Beauregard, Mentone? Posing as the king of a tinpot Balkan state looking for his lost crown. It was all too intriguing for Guffy Randall, so he joined in the treasure hunt ... to the bitter end. Even when it got very nasty indeed.

      First (actually it turns out to be the second) of the Campion books I've read, and whilst good, this wont necessarily put him up there with Alleyn and Rhoddenbarr.

      A small portion of land has suddenly become very attractive and important to a number of parties, including the British Government, who charge Campion with sorting it out in their favour.

      Throw in Campion's friends, pretty young girls, rich businessmen and their cronies, rural English Villages, psycho doctors and a quest, and that pretty much covers it in a really short book. Some twists are heavily signpointed, but little to dent the story.
    • 3/5
       I like the way that, so far, these have all been very different books. They're not all murders, this one is a bit of a treasure hunt under increasingly dangerous circumstances. The list of characters in the front of the book gives away who the major villain of the piece is, but that doesn't detract from the increasingly unlikely events. Campion's identify remains a mystery, who or what is e under the cover of this assumed persona?