The Case of the Late Pig is a crime novel by Margery Allingham, first published 1937, by Hodder & Stoughton. It is the eighth novel featuring the mysterious Albert Campion and his butler/valet/bodyguard Magersfontein Lugg. As Lugg is reading aloud the obituaries one morning, he comes across one for an old school nemesis of Campion. Remarkably, an anonymous letter inviting Campion to the funeral has also appeared in the morning post. R.I. “Pig” Pe.
The first of Margery Allingham's mysteries is a cozy with many suspects, each one with a motive more compelling than the last. A simply horrid murdered man makes the listener worry that one of the extremely likable cast has done him in. Francis Matthews romps though the dialects of England with not a word out of place. This makes the listener wish for more contretemps when Chief Inspector Challenor crosses the Channel with his son, Jerry, in pursuit of the suspects.
Police at the FuneralIn this master detective novel Albert Campion displays the charm and skill that made him Margery Allingham's best-loved character. This time Albert steps in to try and solve the murder of Andrew Faraday. Soon he suspects that a ruthless killer is out to remove all the Faradays, one by one.
More Work for the Undertaker by Margery AllinghamMore Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham
The story takes place in Apron St., 'a strange decayed sort of neighbourhood', Dickensian London-at once entertaining and disquieting. Due to Allingham's unique gift for making place as vivid as character, the atmosphere is one of frozen in time, unchanged since the Victorian era. London is described as a series of villages in which the Palinodes act as squires. The characters are, as usual, quite wonderful, and the villains are true 'Margery Allingham evil.' Nobody does this quite like her.
