Not the crime novel you were expecting and all the better for it

Black Plumes

by Margery Allingham

Golden age crime fiction is something that I have found is very easy to become a little obsessed by. I love the very particular time invoked by these novels and find it surprising and almost refreshing the way with which the gruesome murders at the core of the books are frequently treated quite lightly and occasionally light-heartedly as a means simply to provide the basis of a puzzle.

Margery Allingham is an entirely different proposition to the standard ‘golden age’ crime fiction writer and not in any way what I was expecting: much less Agatha Christie and much more Evelyn Waugh.
The purpose of this book is not to establish a puzzle or whodunit but is really a study of changing times and perspectives and expectations from post Victorian to just pre-war in the upper middle classes. 

The majority of the book focuses on the impact of a scandal on the resilience and cohesion of a ‘society’ family which happens for the period covered by the novel to centre on an unfortunate event. This is done with precision and poise and surprisingly no little humour. However, the fact that the event at the centre of this novel is “the one social sin which everyone still takes seriously” as the author puts it, is certainly not ignored; the police turn up as expected and a number of scenes do involve a detective and there is of course a scene where the main characters are called to meet in a room when the explanation is expected and the murderer revealed. But that is where the classic crime tropes end; the characters appear real, interacting and responding to each other and events portrayed in ways that feel genuine rather than two-dimensional or stereotypical as can often be the case in crime fiction from this period.
 

I love a good straightforward, simple crime novel and this is not one of those.  Your are going to have to think with this one, and maybe even get a little emotionally involved...