Margery Allingham

Margery Allingham was an English mystery novelist of the Golden Age, best remembered for creating the gentleman adventurer Albert Campion. The Crime at Black Dudley, first published in 1929 by Jarrolds, introduces Campion during a house party at Black Dudley manor. George Abbershaw arrives expecting a social weekend, but an old dagger ritual, Colonel Combe's sudden death, and a criminal group's control of the house turn the gathering into an escape problem. A differently titled United States edition adds an important branch to the work's publication history. Campion initially occupies a supporting role, yet his combination of apparent foolishness and practical skill became central to eighteen later novels and many short stories. Bloomsbury Reader now publishes the book within the Albert Campion series. The Crime at Black Dudley therefore matters both as an early country-house adventure and as the starting point for the character who came to define Allingham's long career.