The last quarter of this year has been very hectic and has involved a lot of travel. The travel has also had me in places lasting even two weeks at a time. Traveling ruins my concentration and focus for more scholarly activities. That also includes basic novel reading. There were a few minutes to spare very early in December and I was able to finish Margery Allingham’s Look to the Lady. This was first published in 1931 and is the third in the Albert Campion series. I read the Felony & Mayhem edition from 2006.
This is an example of a novel that the reader really wants to love, but it has so many problems it is nearly incoherent. However, and this is key, even through the incoherence, there is a lot to enjoy in the novel. That being said, I can only give this one two stars.
I am, like so many readers, amused by Campion. The character is very annoying sometimes – babbling and hiding secrets and generally just seeming very loopy. However, there is a lot to like in his sarcastic, weird mental-association rambling. And his backstory, which the reader only has gotten hints of so far, is very curious and gives Campion a bit of depth.
The first three chapters are ridiculous. I suspect the author wanted a thrilling and action/suspense packed beginning. The start of the novel is that, but it is also random and stupid. Saying that the series of events is unlikely is putting it mildly because at some points, its outlandish. I feel like these three chapters could be re-written to better carry certain plot threads and remove some of the absurdity. The previous Campion novel was quite an adventurous romp – so that is what I have come to expect from these novels. However, the opening of this novel is too much to ask of a reader, I think.
Anyway, there are several difficult and unpleasant women in this novel. Each of them plays a role in the novel and I think that the reason the novel is so heavily involved with these characters is that by presenting so many, the author hopes that the reader will not focus on just one. So, in other words, if there was only one nefarious woman, the reader would immediately suspect and circle that character as the villain or antagonist. If there are three or more very uncommon women, the reader may just assume all the women characters are batty. Its a method of hiding like with like. I am harping on this a bit because considering this – Allingham has a decent idea to use this methodology. Let us face facts: contemporary fiction could use more strategically-minded mystery authors.
Chapters ten, eleven, and twelve are a lot of fun because there is a “shell game” of misdirection, danger, illusion, and car chases. The young people of the storyline are all blasting down the road and the mysterious valuable prop of the whole novel (Gyrth Chalice) is on the move. Campion is at his best in these scenes, I think, and is very much the dashing and inscrutable hero. Allingham does a good job of holding the plot and building action scenes.
However, Lady Pethwick and the storyline involving her is meant to grab the reader’s attention and cause them to feel this is where the majority of the storyline is contained. Spoilers be damned, it really is not, and I found Lady Pethwick to be exceedingly annoying. This thread gets larger and then people are engaging gypsies and local peasants and wandering around in the middle of the night looking for monsters. This, of course, results in more drama and tales of witches and mentally-disturbed people. The neighbors are involved – and of course they are just the people who are needed in this (whatever this is) situation. This whole thread is really wide and takes over a lot of the novel. I found most of it to be pointless other than to give the reader a really thorough background on the countryside and community. Novel-wise, the author has now built in characters that are shady, suspect, and even gross at points. However, there is no motive! None of these characters seem to have anything to do with the plot.
Throughout the novel, from the earliest chapters, there is a sense of a huge international crime ring that is very powerful and moves via hidden hands and slippery agendas. Hints, names, suggestions, but nothing ever comes of it. Again, this is not a bad strategy for an author wanting to continue a series of mystery-adventure novels. The unnamed, but powerful villainous organization will likely be seen again and again.
Chapters twenty-five through twenty-seven wrap up the novel nicely – the culmination of the villain’s efforts, a strange and (honestly, it got me a bit) unsettling Gothic moment. Now, when I say that the novel is wrapped up nicely, I specifically mean the prop is “all’s well that ends well.” The villains are dead or fade into the recesses of their amorphous existence. Naturally, there are a few pangs of heart strings for Campion, for Penelope, and for the Gypsy group. Other than that, at the end, it feels like the reader spent a lot of time with a lot of scenes and characters that were not all that relevant or valuable to the story.
This does not mean that there are not enjoyable moments. But there is a layer of dissatisfaction after reading this. As if, I suppose, there were a lot more threads, misdirections, and random items than there ever needed to be. Vintage mystery readers probably ought to read this because the tiny little Gothic twist at the end is probably worth the whole book. At least, I am still able to wonder about this scene – which means that there is something imaginative and captivating, even if silly, about the matter.
2 stars
p.s. Here is a little something that I saw that lives (currently) in West Chester, Penna. I snapped a pic with my cell phone; the book is in a glass case – and no, I did not ask the price.
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