This is a contribution to Kaggsy and Simon’s 1952 Club, running all week. I found a few contenders in the TBR including several golden age mysteries, so I’m starting today with a pretty famous one, Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham.
The titular smoke is a London pea-souper, a thick smog that chokes the airways and severely limits visibility – perfect for dastardly crimes to be committed!
“The fog was like a saffron blanket soaked in ice-water. It had hung over London all day and at last was beginning to descend. The sky was yellow as a duster and the rest was a granular black, overprinted in grey and lightened by occasional slivers of bright fish colour as a policeman turned in his wet cape.”
The story opens with Geoffrey Levett and Meg Elginbrodde crawling through the fog-bound traffic in a taxi. They are one of those wonderful postwar stiff-upper-lipped couples whose romantic chit-chat takes place along the following lines:
“Look, we’ll get out of this somehow and we’ll go through with the whole programme. We’ll have everything we planned, the kids and the house and the happiness, even the damned great wedding. It’ll be alright, I swear it, Meg.”
Love it!
The blight on their nuptials is that someone has been sending blurry photos to Meg of someone who could be her first husband Martin, presumed dead in the war. So she meets friend of the family – and Allingham’s regular detective – Albert Campion, along with Inspector Charlie Luke, at a train station.
It quickly emerges that the man is not her husband but a criminal named Duds Morrison. As the group begin to unravel what is going on and why, there is less mystery and more of a character study of a truly sinister criminal named Havoc. Inspector Luke is unnerved:
“Just then he had a presentiment, a warning from some experienced-born six sense, that he was about to encounter something rare and dangerous. The whiff of tiger crept to him through the fog.”
A gang of criminals appear and my heart sank a bit, as they all had various physical differences and I was braced for ableism. But while that is certainly present, the real menace in the book lies with Havoc, and Allingham labours over how physically perfect he is:
“His beauty, and he possessed a great deal […]
His face was remarkable, in feature it was excellent, conventionally handsome […]
Jail pallor, which of all complexions is the most hideous, could not destroy the firmness of his skin […]
He was a man who must have been a pretty boy, yet his face could never have been pleasant to look at. Its ruin lay in something quite peculiar, not in expression only but in something integral to the very structure. The man looked like a design for tragedy. Grief and torture and the furies were all there naked, and the eye was repelled even while it was violently attracted. He looked exactly what he was, unsafe.”
In other words, as beautiful and deadly as a tiger.
In comparison there is my favourite character, Canon Avril, Meg’s father:
“he asked so little of life that its frugal bounty amazed and delighted him. The older he grew and the poorer he became, the calmer and more contented appeared his fine gentle face.”
In fact, Tiger in the Smoke had an increasing amount of religious references and imagery as it went along (though it isn’t didactic at all) and I found myself reminded of Muriel Spark. I ended up googling Margery Allingham to see if she had a strong faith like Spark but couldn’t find it referenced. Tiger in the Smoke isn’t like Spark tonally, but it is certainly concerned with notions of good and evil in a similar way to her novels.
Although this is a Campion mystery, he barely features. Apparently the 1956 film cut him out entirely, and this wouldn’t be difficult at all. His sarcastic retainer Lugg also appears, and his wife Amanda along with Oates from Scotland Yard “a drooping figure in a disgraceful old mackintosh” but this could just as easily be a standalone novel.
While there isn’t a mystery as such, the plot is satisfyingly complex and the novel is expertly paced. The foggy atmosphere is used to full effect and Allingham creates a real page-turner. I was whizzing through Tiger in the Smoke to find out what happened.
It leads to a tense denouement, underpinned by a real sadness. A hugely satisfying start to my 1952 Club reading!
“Havoc was ‘police work’. There was no mystery surrounding his guilt. He was something to be trapped and killed, and Campion was no great man for blood sports.”
madame bibi lophile recommends 
It sounds as if Allingham fell in love with her own creation! Glad that the 1952 Club has got off to such a great start for you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was certainly an unusual portrait!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This does sound interesting. I like the Campion mysteries generally, but this one sounds like a bit of an outlier among them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello, thanks for visiting. I’m sorry for the delay in replying, your comment ended up in my spam folder! I’ve only read a few Campion mysteries so I’m not sure if it’s an outlier but I think it’s likely. He’s really hardly in it at all! Still so much to enjoy though.
LikeLike
It’s a really exciting one, isn’t it? I seem to recall being on tenterhooks all the way through!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It really is! She builds the tension so well.
LikeLike
This sounds really good. Thanks for such a tempting review.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So pleased to have tempted you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: The 1952 Club: your reviews – Stuck in a Book
I haven’t read this but I will, I love London fog as a setting and the description of Canon Avril is perfect, I’d be in love with him – my dad always said, never lose your taste for cheap wine and you’ll always be happy – it’s the same sentiment really!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those are such wise words from your dad Jane, I shall take them to heart!
I really hope you enjoy this when you get to it 😊
LikeLike
Love the quote that begins: “The fog was like a saffron blanket soaked in ice-water…” It’s so atmospheric, which is just what you want from this kind of mystery!
I’ve a feeling I read this back in the days of my youth, but that was such a long time ago that I could easily return to it again fairly fresh. It’s a lovely choice for the Club!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was really atmospheric!
It would be a great re-read when you fancy it Jacqui, it’s pacy and very enjoyable.
LikeLike
That is what stood out to me too! Particularly the saffron bit.
Was it Bleak House that has the most delicious descriptions of fog in it as well?
I’ve only read one Allingham but I enjoyed it well enough. (I think it’s funny that her hero was cut from the film version entirely. I am guessing he would not have been so amused.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a very evocative description isn’t it? My mother lived through the London pea-soupers and describes trying to get home from school, choking as she walked. Horrible.
Yes, Bleak House definitely has a lot of fog and mud in it, to great effect 🙂
Although it seems odd to cut Campion from the film, he’s barely in the book. I’m not sure why she didn’t write it as a standalone. Maybe the publishers thought it would sell better as a Campion novel? Or maybe she found it hard to let him go? I’d be interested to know…
LikeLike
I enjoyed this one too, and the lack of Campion was a bonus for me – I find him irritating and Lugg unbearable! She does make excellent use of the London fog, and I’m always a sucker for fog-bound mysteries…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great to hear you enjoyed this one too FF. It genuinely didn’t need Campion at all. The fog is so atmospheric, it works so well!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That first quote is some amazing descriptive writing! I love descriptive writing like that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you enjoyed it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The fog does make for a great setting for murder; I’ve enjoyed it in several others including if I remember right, another Allingham which I read for a different club read. This sounds a great read too; I haven’t really read Campion beyond that other title where also there was little of him. I loved her writing though and so must explore further. Enjoyed reading your thoughts on this one!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s interesting, I didn’t know there was another foggy Allingham with little Campion! I’ll look out for it.
I also want to explore her further, she’s so accomplished. I hope you enjoy this one if you get to it!
LikeLike
Flowers for the Judge, 1936 I think
LikeLiked by 1 person