The White Cottage Mystery

It's nice to see these historic mysteries revived for a new generation.  This is a quick read, with interesting characters but it didn't transcend time as well as I would have thought.  Allingham has a terrific backlist and it's worth reading this one as a companion to the others.

Paperback (edit)
Review	Jerry Challoner picks up a girl at the bus station with a blister on her heel and drops her off at a giant house where she seems apprehensive about going. He pauses to let a storm go past and hears a gunshot coming from that same house. A truly evil man has been murdered and the local police are bewildered about how to go on. Luckily, Jerry is the son of Detective Chief Inspector W. T. Challoner so he knows who can help.
At first, the answer seems obvious, but that is so rarely the truth in these stories. So, of course, we get to trace many of the suspects as they move through the story.  Short, fast, good read.

I've always enjoyed Margery Allingham's novels, particularly those featuring Albert Campion.  Affable and charming, yet far more astute than anyone realizes, he is a perfect Golden Age detective.  Thus, I was instantly drawn to The White Cottage Mystery, Allingham's first detective novel. (It doesn't feature Campion)

The story centers around the murder of an unpleasant man, whose main pleasure in life is to see people suffer.  So horrendous was his nature, that neighbors and servants alike had reason to wish his death.  No one is afraid to say how much they hated Crowther, but everyone is hiding "something".  The question is whether the lies are related to the murder.  Chief Inspector Challenor "the Greyhound" is known for getting to the truth. (Greyhound owners will easily see the resemblance - Our pets are perceptive and intelligent, but at the same time amiable and easy going.  Deceptively slow, they are capable of great bursts of speed and activity.)  Along with his son Jerry, he pursues the complicated truth from England to the Continent.

If you are a fan of Agatha Christie, you should definitely give Margery Allingham a try.  The White Cottage Mystery is an enjoyable tale with a surprising twist at the end.

4/5

I received a copy of The White Cottage Mystery from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom
(6/30/16)

Old-fashioned and twisty British crime classic

A classic mystery by one of the 1920's queens of crime. This is her first mystery novel (and second novel) - it is surprisingly well put together for such an early effort. It doesn't feature her charming Albert Campion, but instead an avuncular older detective W.T. and his Watson-like son Jerry. The story is more old-fashioned than her others, it reminds me rather of Agatha Christie's shorter stories but it is novella length. 

W.T. is called in on a case of murder - a neighbor has wandered into another man's house and been shot. From the start it becomes clear that everyone absolutely hates the man and has a motive. The man is even crueler than the average unlikable victim, and a kind of blackmailer who enjoys torturing his victims rather than making money from it.

The suspects are all unique. In the house we find the brimstone and fervour of the servant Estah, the nervous and charming Mrs. Christensen with her little daughter, her feisty sister, and the handicapped war hero husband Mr. Christensen. In the dead man's household we have the grimy, worm-like Lacy and the mysteriously vanished Mr. Cellini. All have excellent motives and in some cases quite good alibis. 

Moving between England and France, the novel does a good job setting the scene without a lot of details. W.T. is very kindly and intelligent, he presses for the truth. His son Jerry is much more the muscle-bound Watson or Hastings, an invaluable help to W.T. but a victim of his own emotions. (Ah, always Hastings you fall for the auburn haired girls!)

The plot is a simple one but continues to open up confusing little twists and sends you scurrying from one suspect to another along with W.T.  I did not predict the ending but like any classic Golden Age novel, it comes as no surprise when you do find out who it was. Definitely recommended.

First published in 1928, this is definitely a vintage cosy so if you're looking for pace, action, gore and grit you will need to go somewhere else. There's no padding here, Allingham gets straight down to business with the murder a page or two in and then segues right into the police interviews where - surprise, surprise - everyone has a motive to kill the murdered man.

I've never read Allingham before and though she conventionally gets rated alongside other 'golden age' crime writers, she doesn't, on the evidence of this, stand up for me against Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, or Josephine Tey. That said, this is enjoyable easy reading, and it's fun to see how far social attitudes have changed: here we have silly women, cockney criminals who drop their aitches, dodgy foreigners and an English bulldog of an inspector ably assisted by his handsome son. The solution comes as a bit of a surprise, though, and I'd only pipped the detectives to the post because there was literally no-one else it could be.

So if you're looking for something genteel and cosy this might suit very well.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

This is a short story by Margery Allingham that features Inspector Challenor accompanied by his son, Jerry. Jerry drops off Norah Bayliss at White Cottage, when a loud gunshot is heard. The dead man turns out to be a neighbour, Eric Crowther, a nasty piece of work. Crowther liked watching people suffer by using their secrets against them. Not for blackmail mind, just the sheer pleasure of torturing people. A smitten Jerry joins his father on his hunt for the killer. Everyone is a suspect until they are eliminated. An absorbing mystery for readers who enjoy reading from the golden age of detective fiction. Thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC via netgalley.

Margery Allingham is one of my favorite Golden Age writers; usually her mysteries are snappy and fun.  The White Cottage Mystery, being her first novel (serialized and then published in one), can therefore be forgiven for dipping so heavily into cliche and melodrama in order to pad out a central crime that can be solved by the nitpicky reader in about 3 chapters.  Secret societies, menacing servants, and syrupy love interests are relied upon heavily and, in the end, come to nothing.  Anyway, recommended for the complete-ist but not on its own merits.

Mention the name of Margery Allingham, one of our beloved writers of the Golden Age of Crime, and Albert Campion instantly springs to mind.  Of course she not only wrote stories about him but many others, and not all in the crime fiction genre, indeed this novel here, which was first serialised in the Daily Express before being published as a novel, was Allingham’s first proper crime novel.

As Jerry Challoner drives through Kent on his way back to London he gives a woman a lift.  But little does he know that shortly after this he will become embroiled in a mystery.  With the death of a man, Mr Crowther, in the neighbour’s house, the white cottage of the title it isn’t long before Jerry’s dad is on the case.  For Jerry, his father is no other than DCI W.T. Challoner, of the Yard.

With the death of a man that no one really liked there seems to be enough suspects, and quite a bit of circumstantial evidence, but can anyone be found guilty of murder?  With a suspect running to the continent W.T. and Jerry have to travel to Paris, and then on to the Riviera.  Finding out why people didn’t like Mr Crowther W.T. also finds out about a secret society, and comes across a previous criminal, who claims that he is going straight, as well as the secrets and deceptions of the suspects.

This is fast paced and should more than hold your attention, as you follow this investigation and come across all the possibilities of who committed the crime.  The ending to this isn’t probably what you would expect, but that also adds to the pleasure of this tale, and if you haven’t worked out who the possible killer was, then this will eventually show you.  It is possible that you may have worked out who the murderer is before you finish this, but due to the way this is written chances are you will find yourself being surprised, as it isn’t the easiest mystery to solve.

I was very kindly provided with a free review copy of this by the publisher via NetGalley for a completely impartial and unbiased review.

I would have to admit that this book - Allingham's first - is not her best. However, it's a perfectly good train or holiday read, undemanding, entertaining and a good enough mystery to keep you reading.

Jerry Challoner, a nice young man who happens to be a policeman's son carries act a minor act of gallantry - assisting a young woman on a country lane with a heavy basket. He's slightly surprised when she fails to respond to his pleasantries, but even more surprised when, a few minutes after he's dropped her off at her gate (at the White Cottage of the title), there is a gunshot from the house, followed by cries of "Murder!"

Jerry's presence seems to be enough to bring in his father from Scotland Yard, and the dead man is established to be from the neighbouring house. He's also quickly established to be a thoroughly unpleasant individual, the type to simply walk into another person's house uninvited, and who just happens to have a servant who is known to Inspector Challoner as a low-life and a criminal and not someone likely to be employed by a "nice" person. It becomes clear that the dead man, Crowther, has been making life miserable for everyone around him for years, so most of the family at the White Cottage have a motive of some kind.

I spotted the murderer early on, but I never mind that unless it's accompanied by clumsy writing. Allingham is already showing herself capable in this one, though it took her until after [book:The Crime at Black Dudley|76633], and her discovery of Albert Campion, to truly get into her stride (she claimed he was an incidental character in that, who took over regardless of his author's wishes!). Completists will certainly want to read The White Cottage Mystery, and I see no reason why anyone who enjoys Golden Age detective novels shouldn't enjoy it as well.

This story totally reminds me of Poirot and Hastings and Sherlock and Watson. Jerry and his dad W.T. Challoner a police detective investigates the death of a blackmailer and evil man who took great pleasure in torturing the people he is blackmailing. This was a quick read, I just could not put it down. The book had a well developed plot and the characters were great.
Thanks to Net Galley and Bloomsbury Publishing.

4 stars

A good little mystery from the Golden Age of crime, when good men were handsome and brave, bad men were weaselly and/or greasy, all murders took place in middle-class country houses, and we women, who knew our place, were very, very silly. As our hero Detective Chief Inspector W.T. Challoner so neatly puts it 'Oh, you women, you women. When will you realise what is important and what is not?' Ah, when indeed?

When a man is murdered in the White Cottage, it turns out that everyone in the household has good reason to want him dead. W.T., ably assisted by his brave, handsome son, Jerry, is stymied as one by one each person can produce an alibi or explain their innocence. The investigation takes them to the South of France where W.T. finally gets the solution while Jerry does his best to get the girl.

The book was first published in 1928 just before Allingham created Campion, who was to become her recurring detective in later books. Allingham was considered to be one of the Queens of Crime, though personally I never found her books to be as satisfactory as those of either Agatha Christie or Ngaio Marsh. While Christie's works have a timeless quality, due in part to better characterisation and a creation of an England which probably never really existed, both Marsh's and Allingham's works seem dated now, although it's fun to see what social attitudes were like back then. Having said that, this is still a very good example of the murder-mystery genre, and I enjoyed it more than I did the later Campion books. It's good to see these classic mysteries getting a new lease of life as eBooks. Recommended.

NB This review is of an electronic proof copy provided by the publisher.

I love reading detective novels from the Golden Age but I’m very  aware of the number of authors from that era I still haven’t tried and  until now, Margery Allingham was one of them.  This is the first of her  books that I’ve read but I’m now definitely interested in reading more  of them.  I understand The White Cottage Mystery was her first  detective story, originally serialised in the Daily Express in 1927  before being published as a book the following year, and though it does  have the feel of an early effort I still enjoyed it.     
The mystery begins with Jerry Challoner driving through a small  village in Kent one afternoon when he notices a young girl struggling to  carry a heavy basket.  Stopping his car, he offers to help, but shortly  after dropping the girl off at her home, The White Cottage, he hears  the sound of a gunshot.  After learning that Eric Crowther, from the  neighbouring house, the Dene, has been murdered inside The White  Cottage, Jerry calls his father, Detective Chief Inspector W.T.  Challoner of Scotland Yard.  When W.T. arrives on the scene he  interviews the family and servants who live both in the cottage and the  house next door and discovers that the dead man was an unpleasant,  blackmailing bully.  There are plenty of people who have a motive for  killing Crowther and who openly admit to wanting him dead, but W.T. and  Jerry must decide which, if any of them, is the murderer.            

Even though a murder is involved, there’s no graphic violence or  anything too gruesome in this book, and the focus is on W.T’s attempts  to solve the mystery.   Written and set in the 1920s, W.T. uses  old-fashioned methods of crime solving – looking for clues and  questioning suspects – and his investigations uncover family secrets,  blackmail and even connections to a secret society of thieves.  The plot  is not especially original but there’s still some suspense and a big  twist near the end that took me by surprise – I would never have guessed  who the murderer actually was and I can see why it took W.T. such a  long time to figure it out.    

The White Cottage Mystery is really more of a novella than a  novel, short enough to be read in just a few sittings, but the plot was  resolved satisfactorily and I felt that it didn’t really need to be any  longer.  Now that I know what Margery Allingham’s writing is like I  think I’m going to enjoy exploring her other novels!

The White Cottage Mystery is the first detective novel (really, more of a novella) by Allingham who became best known for the well-loved Albert Campion, the mysterious gentleman detective who has connections in all levels of society, from highest to lowest. 

Campion, however, didn't come along until later, The White Cottage Mystery features Chief Detective W.T. Challenor and his son, Jerry, and was originally serialized for a newspaper. 

When Eric Crowther is murdered at White Cottage, there is no lack of suspects.  Every one of the suspects has good reason to wish him dead, and none of them are reticent about announcing their hatred of him. 

Challenor is both a kindly detective and a sharp one, but his attitude toward women is definitely from an earlier time period.  He is protective of women, but generally considers them silly and unable to distinguish what is important in the matter of a murder.  Determined to discover the murderer,  he and Jerry follow the clues to Paris and the south of France.

Definitely a cozy, the novella suffers from its original serialized form, but is still a fun and quick read.  I'm glad that Allingham went on to create Albert Campion.

From Net Galley.  ISBN-10: 088184666X

Mystery/Detective Fiction.  Originally publ. 1927.  Republ. by Bloomsbury as an ebook in 2011.  Print version 130 pages.

The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham

The blurb: Eric Crowther knew everybody's secrets, so there was no shortage of suspects when he was found shot at the White Cottage. Chief Inspector Challenor and his son Jerry had to look deep into everyone's past - including the dead man's - before they could be sure who had pulled the trigger.

With a country house, blackmail and murder, The White Cottage Mystery has all the making for a classic cosy mystery.

My review: It was undoubtedly time to broaden my classic crime horizons. After a five year love affair with Christie it was time to take a look at her contemporaries and see who else was a shining light in the world of detective fiction.

Margery Allingham was an English crime writer best known for her Albert Campion novels, but I chose to read this novel as it was her first work of detective fiction. I hope it's given me an accurate flavour of her style and prowess because it won't be the last Allingham I read, it was perfect cosy crime!

I'd say Chief Inspector Challenor lacks some of the style and personality that makes characters like Poirot leap off the page and stay with you long after you've finished a book. Perhaps that's something Allingham masters with Campion. But the network of Police contacts he uses across Europe has the feel of the 'old boy spy network' in Bond. It's classy stuff. Plus Jerry, Challenor's son is a great foil for the mind at work in the Chief Inspector.

A great introduction to Allingham's work, one to recommend!

7.5 out of 10 stars! *******.5

While Margery Allingham is often listed as one of the British Queens of  Crime, alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Ngaio Marsh,  she has never been a favorite author of mine.  Her Campion books would  be better if she had meant them sincerely, rather than tools with which  to mock the mystery novel.
The White Cottage mystery, her first, does  not feature Albert Campion and seems to be meant as an actual mystery.   In any case, it is a first rate mystery.  Jerry Challoner gives a lift  to a beautiful young lady with a blister on her heel. Shortly after  their arrival, Eric Crowther, a man detested by all, is murdered.  Jerry  calls in his father, famed Scotland Yard Detective WT Challinor, to  take on the case.  Soon father and son are headed off to the continent  in pursuit of a most elusive killer.  The answer, delivered almost like  an epilogue, will come as a surprise toe ven the most discerning  readers.
This is a short novel, almost more of a novella, and a very  quick read, but an excellent mystery nonetheless.  Long out of print,  Bloomsbury Publishing has brought it back in a Kindle edition, which is  welcome news for fans of British Golden Age detective novels. I found  this book highly enjoyable and engaging.

Very much of its time, this Margery Allingham mystery reflects the manners and concerns of the period.  Some of the language can sound rather stilted and dated, notably the repeated use of 'cripple' at the beginning, but this is part of its charm.  The plot ambles along at a leisurely pace, but continues to engage with a change scene towards the end, when the real mystery is unravelled.  I found the detectives less energetic than Campion, but I found it an interesting, old-fashioned mystery, which keeps the reader motivated to discover the ending. 

Eric Crowther is dead — horribly dead, in his neighbor’s home. A  surprising number of people wanted him dead, and they’re openly happy  that he’s gone. But none of them could have killed him. As one startling  secret after another unfolds, it appears that this will be an unsolved  mystery.
A classic detective novel with a classic detective, this book is  elegantly written and cleverly plotted. The characters are deeper and  more complex than those of many modern mystery novels,
 the plotting is exemplary, and the setting is a classic English village  (with a trip to France on the side). There’s a slight love interest and  a surprising twist at the end.

Margery Allingham was one of the great writers of the Golden Age of  detective novels. This reissued novel, her first ever, is a wonderful  find for those of us who love the classic puzzle story.

If you like mysteries with gimmicks, recipes, and steamy sex scenes,  this won’t be for you. If you’re into the puzzle, you’ll be glad you  found this one.

Jerry Challenor is driving slowly to London. Taking the sleepy back roads and obscure thoroughfares. He is in no hurry, so when he sees an attractive girl alight from a bus with a large burden, he offers her a ride home. She lives at the White Cottage, which is very close at hand. After he drops the girl off he notices that the weather is in for a change and he stops to put the roof up on his convertible and gets to chatting to the local policeman. While relaxing by the side of the road the two men hear the report of a gunshot. They rush to the White Cottage, but someone is dead.

As it happens, Jerry's father is the famous Detective Chief Inspector W.T. Challenor, and Jerry calls him in to handle this mysterious murder. The victim is one Eric Crowther who lived next to the White Cottage in the grey monstrosity, the Dene. No one morns his passing. Every single person who knew him wanted him dead and everyone in the house had means and motive. The shotgun that did the deed was in the corner of the dining room, so anyone could have wandered in and blown him away. For personal reasons Jerry hopes fervently that it is not Norah, the attractive girl he gave a lift to. W.T. is baffled. He could easily arrest anyone in the house with circumstantial evidence, but it's the truth he wants. With Jerry in tow, W.T. heads to the continent and tracks down every lead he can think of... but will he ever make an arrest?

Someone at the BBC needs to make this into a movie right now! This would make a wonderful adaptation, much in the vein of the recent retelling of The Lady Vanishes with Tuppence Middleton. I'm picturing Laurence Fox as the lovestruck son Jerry and his real life father, James Fox, for W.T. Challenor. Perhaps Jenna-Louise Coleman as Norah? I'm telling you, it would be awesome. There was just something so fresh and vital about this story that I can see it appealing to anyone with a love of British period dramas and murder mysteries.

After having rather a rocky go of it with Dorothy L. Sayers, I was starting to become a little leery of my "Golden Summer" scheme. What if all these other hallowed authors where of the same ilk? Great as precursors, as proto-mysteries, as a jumping off point for later authors, but lacking that something that made them timeless and a great read till this day (Agatha Christie is exempt from these thoughts because she is awesome). What if the "Golden Age" wasn't really that golden? Thankfully The White Cottage Mystery has changed my mind and just hardened my heart to Dorothy L. Sayers. Unlike Sayers who fills her books with nonsense and ramblings, there was something so clean and spare to Margery Allingham's book that I wanted to give her book a great big hug. Not literally, because I think that might shatter my Kindle. No nonsense, no fluff, just a great whodunit that reminded me on more then one occasion of the great short stories that Daphne Du Maurier is known for. The style and turn of phrase, not to mention the setting were reminiscent of Du Maurier. And trust me, this is a true compliment from me if I'm comparing Allingham to Du Maurier.

Like Du Maurier and her obsession with the Brontes, Margery Allingham has created in Eric Crowther a character with some very interesting Bronte overtones. It's almost as if Allingham wanted to create a character as psychologically manipulative, hostile, and threatening as Heathcliff and then gleefully kill him. The fact that Crowther, through his machinations and games, is able to keep not only good people in line, but evil degenerates, shows the force of his character. He is an evil man and I echo the sentiments of Jerry that perhaps his death was an "act of God." As for the murderer... well... wait till you get to the final chapter of this lean mean mystery. My faith has been restored by this "act of God" and I will now pick up the first Campion mystery, not with cringing hands, but with a joyful song in my heart.

E-galley received for review.

For a book that is just over a hundred pages this took me a disproportionate amount of time to read. The writing just didn't flow particularly well for ease of reading.

The mystery itself was intriguing and well crafted. It had twists and turns and red herrings almost worthy of Agatha Christie herself, and the ending was certainly a nice surprise!

I highly recommend this for vintage mystery fans and Christie fans in general who will appreciate the familiar surroundings and the romantic angle.

★★★☆☆ = Liked It

I love Margery Allingham’s books, as you can tell from what I’ve written about her before. Yet I’d never read The White Cottage Mystery, her very first detective story. It’s hardly a scarce title, as there was a Penguin edition but it’s been reissued by Bloomsbury with a lovely cover similar to those of the British Library Crime Classics. I read it courtesy of NetGalley. It was first published by The Daily Express in 1927 and features the elderly (according to the author) detective, Challoner, and his son Jerry.

A man who is universally loathed as ‘a devil’ is found murdered in The White Cottage, home to a neighbouring family. Young Jerry coincidentally happens to be on the scene and his father is called in to deal with the case. It’s a tricky one because so many people had a good motive for murdering Crowther and several of them were around White Cottage at the time of the crime. Plus, Jerry is falling in love with one of the suspects and won’t hear a word against her. Challoner soon realises that most of those involved are frightened and are lying to him. The question is: why? The conclusion he eventually comes to is very unusual and for the first time in his career, he abandons a case.

This novel was written very early in Allingham’s career and is nothing like as good as her Campion stories. Yet already she shows the talent for characterisation and the feeling for place which make the Campion stories so successful. It may be considered a minor work in her canon, but for me it’s far better than some of the detective novels being reissued as ‘neglected masterpieces’. She was, quite simply, a far better writer than some of those authors who have been quite justifiably forgotten until now. I felt an Allingham re-read coming on and have started with The Fashion in Shrouds (1938). My old Penguin copy has brown pages and is falling apart, but I’m gripped by the story already.

Classic British Mystery.  Margery Allingham doesn't disappoint.

I've been a fan of Margery Allingham's books for years and I was very surprised and extremely pleased to discover this one. Although "The White Cottage Mystery" was new to me, in fact it pre-dates her other detective novels. Like many of Dickens' and Wilkie Collins'works, it first saw the light of day as a serial, published in parts in the Daily Express, and I like to imagine my grandmothers eagerly waiting for the next instalment. The original serialisation may well explain why the book is so difficult to put down: when every chapter ends, the plot is left so that reader is extremely impatient to read on/ buy the next newspaper.

The plot itself has all the  requirements of a classic "Golden Age" detective story. The book is beautifully written in Allingham's elegant prose. The characters are maybe not so well developed as those in her later works but this is no way detracts from the fact that "The White Cottage Mystery" is an excellent read. I received a copy from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for this honest review.

Novelette that reads as a full-length novel. Vintage crime with a healthy dose of psychology.

Jerry meets a girl. She is getting off the bus with a hurt leg. So he helps her with giving her a lift to her home. And just after leaving her here...he hears a gunshot and a maidservant is running wildly around. There was a murder in The White Cottage. The dead man was obviously hated by everyone present in the house, and yet everyone seems to have an alibi. Who killed Eric Crowther? It´s up to Jerry´s father, inspector  W. T. Challoner, to solve the unusual mystery.

Margery Allingham was just 24 when she wrote this story and it shows, as the novelette is a bit rough. But what also shows is her remarkable talent. The mystery is quite smart and the final twist is unexpected. Of course, the "props" are a bit immature and one can see the lack of experience, but this still is an extraordinary work, comparing to a lot of modern "mystery".  I feel I have found a new writer for me to enjoy. Being a great admirer of Agatha Christie, I somehow felt the nostalgy for the world she has created when reading this novelette. I have a feeling I would feel the same nostalgy after reading some of Margery Allingham´s works. And I mean it as a compliment.

An interesting mystery set at times in England and at times in France over a period of many years. At first, it gave the feeling of a traditional British mystery.. Then things got a bit confusing and then they were in France for awhile which only added to my confusion, then everyone went back to England and the case was dropped. Years later the book picks up a f2f ain and finally gives a conclusion. It was not one that was in any way expected and even knowing it is a fiction story, I still have trouble believing. Aside from that, overall, I enjoyed the story and the characters.

This book couldn't have been more awesome for me, at this time. Margery Allingham's writing somewhat resembles Agatha Christie's but with some differences that manage to make reading The White Cottage Mystery even more enjoyable. I have nothing but good things to say about this novel. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to have read such an amazing mystery! (review also published on Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble)

Like every classic Golden Age of Crime novel, “The White Cottage Mystery” features an impossible murder, a love story, a noble detective, a suspicious inheritance and demons from the past. There are a lot of charming ladies struggling to do “the right thing”. There is a man who fought in the war and a villain with a cockney accent; a nanny, who is obsessed with her charge and simple but arduous “house staff” who reveal snippets of information about their masters at exactly the right time.

When Eric Crowther is shot to death Chief Inspector Challenor and his son Jerry are involved in solving the crime. Moments before the crime is committed Jerry drives past the White Cottage giving one of its inhabitants – charming Nora – a lift. As Jerry and his father dig deeper into the lives of the people present in the house at the time of the murder, they realise that anyone could have killed Mr Crowther. He was a vile man who enjoyed nothing more than collecting peoples’ secrets and torturing them with what he knew.

The novel was, perhaps, fast passed for its time but it lost a bit of it's shine at present. The emotions are a bit over the top; the dialogue a tad stifling. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book the same way I’d enjoy watching a black-and-white movie from the fifties. Or the same way I crave Shepherd’s pie every now and again. “The White Cottage Mystery” is comfort food for the mind.

J.K.Rowling claims her favourite Margery Allingham’s book is “The Tiger in The Smoke”, so I’m off to check out that next.

I’m grateful for this book to Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Loved it! I'm not a fan of her Campion stories but this was a great read.

NetGalley offered me this book in exchange of a comment.
I can’t say how happy I am as I never read a book of Margery Allingham but wanted to do so since a long time. I now realise that it has been a huge mistake, and that I should have started to read her novels ages ago!
I am so impressed by the quality of her writing.
In this book, you’ll be immersed in an incredible adventure full of mysteries and with many developments.
I really understand now why she is amongst the queens of detective stories writers.
My best advice : run to the closest bookshop, buy it, and start to read it immediately!

I have a thing for old school mysteries. I had never read Margery Allingham before, and I'm delighted to have discovered her now. This is a lovely cosy mystery with a touch of romance and a wonderful pair of detectives. The fact that they are father and son is intriguing. Thoroughly enjoyable

There are “do’s” and “don’t’s” for Saturday night.

Do: Listen to the Grateful Dead.  What can be mellower than “Box of Rain?”

Don’t:  Watch the original Star Trek.  Popular with SF geeks, Trekkies who dress up like Klingons, and recovering addicts in rehab, it is almost too exciting “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Do:  Read a Golden Age Detective mystery of the 1920s, ’30s, or ’40s.  There is something soothing about a murder investigation,  especially with a discerning English detective at the helm.  The brilliant detective interviews people and finds clues, but all violence is off the page.  There are cottages, manors, London flats, fens, helpful butlers…and other elements that make it relaxing.

I recently spent a Saturday night immersed in Margery Allingham’s first detective novel, The White Cottage Mystery, published in 1927. Allingham, one of the Golden Age Detective Fiction writers of the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s, is best known for her wonderful Albert Campion detective series.  (Now I must reread them.)  The White Cottage Mystery was recently reissued as an e -book by Bloomsbury Reader.

Allingham has a gift for writing natural dialogue and inventing unsolvable plots (at least I never solve them).  This entertaining, fast-paced book opens with a young man, Jerry, offering a lift to a beautiful young woman who has alighted from a bus.

“God bless you!  It’s about a half mile down this road, and I’ve such a blister on my heel!”

He drops her off at a house called White Cottage.  He stops a little way down the road to put the hood up on his convertible and smoke a cigarette. He borrows a match from a constable and they chat.  Minutes later, a screaming parlourmaid runs down the road.  There has been a murder at White Cottage.  A neighbor, Mr. Eric Crowther, has been shot and killed in the dining room.

Jerry’s father happens to be Inspector W. T. Challoner of the Yard, and it is he who investigates the murder.  It is baffling, because everyone is a suspect, and everyone denies having seen the crime.  In spite of  Jerry’s protests, W. T. insists on questioning everybody, including the girl Jerry gave a lift to, Norah.  She is the sister of Mrs. Grace Christensen, whose husband, Roger, a war veteran in a wheelchair, owns White Cottage.

Everybody has a motive.   That’s the problem.  Mr. Crowther has tortured everybody with his  knowledge of their pasts, and threatened to tell their secrets.  Everybody says he was a devil who deserved to be dead.  He visited Joan almost every day, despite her wishes to the contrary, and the sense is that he harassed her. She found the body but says she was in the garden with her daughter before the shot, but the little girl says she was at the other end of the garden.   Estah, the child’s nurse, says she wishes she had killed Crowther herself, because he was the devil.  As you can imagine, his servants didn’t like him, either:  Crowther’s valet, Clarry Gale, is an ex-convict with a special hatred of him; and Mr. Cellini, Crowther’s Italian companion, has disappeared.

Allingham  explores the ethics of a murder investigation.  They track one of the suspects to France, and when they meet up with Joan and Norah there, W. T. says there is no choice but to investigate them further.  Jerry is upset:  he wants his father to leave Norah alone and asks, “What does it matter who killed him?”

    ‘Jerry,’ he said, ‘in our business one must never be afraid to know the truth. You want me to throw up this case –a thing I could never do for my own self-respect’s sake –because you’re afraid to face what you believe to be true. You believe Mrs Christensen fired that shot –don’t interrupt me –I repeat you believe she murdered Eric Crowther, and you’re afraid to prove it. That’s no good, my boy –a doubt is always dangerous. For her sake as well as for everyone else’s we’ve got to find out all we can….’

    Jerry sighed. ‘Then you won’t give up.’

A fascinating philosophical discussion.  Who is right?  W. D. or Jerry?  There is a very weird ending, utterly unexpected.

What a stunning little book!  I absolutely loved it.

This book followed the traditional detective story approach with the death occurring in the first chapter. With the help of his son Jerry, Chief Inspector W.T. Challenor commences interviewing the suspects who all seem to have a reason to hate the victim and no alibis. Jerry is quick to jump to conclusions, but they gradually discover the secrets and eliminate the suspects. So who killed Eric Crowther? I have to say I actually correctly guessed in just chapter 3, but still loved reading the rest of the story, as I was expecting to be proved wrong.

THE WHITE COTTAGE MYSTERY Written by Margery Allingham 1927 (reissue: JUNE 2, 2016; 139 Pages)
Genre: mystery, cozy, romance

(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY in exchange for an honest review.)

★★★★

When Jerry Challenor drops a young woman off at the White Cottage all he can think about is going back to the pretty girl.  Moments later there is a scream and the body of Eric Crowther is found murdered and the lists of suspects is long.  It seems like everyone that met Eric Crowther hated him as he would use their secrets for his own purposes.  As Detective Chief Inspector Challenor, Jerry's father, sifts through the suspects he finds himself siding with the suspects' motives.  With Jerry in love with one of the suspects DCI Challenor finds more resistance than any other case!

This novel in 1927 was presented as a serial for the Daily Express, and was published into book format the following year.  Now, almost 90 years later, The White Cottage Mystery is available in eBook format. 

This is a short, novella-sized, book and I was able to read it in one sitting.  If you enjoy Agatha Christie, Patricia Wentworth, etc you must read The White Cottage Mystery.  This is my first book by Margery Allingham so I can't say I yet recommend her books in general.  I will definitely be reading more of her novels as they bring the golden age of mystery fun.  The mystery is cute, fun and keeps you reading even if you figure it all out.  It's more about enjoying the characters discover the truth.

k (My Novelesque Life)

Before there was Albert Campion, there was this stand-alone mystery. In post-Great War England, an evil man is wrecking the lives of numerous people, using his power to manipulate and cause pain. One afternoon there's a shot, but who fired it?  The detective and his son find themselves at odds in the course of the investigation (cue: love interest), not least because the dead man was blackmailing his neighbours, creating a rich seam of suspects.  Such a book is very old-fashioned now, and one has to be glad that the Surfeit of Lampreys was not long in coming.  A pleasant evening;s read.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I loved this book because it is so different from the crime/thriller books of today.  To me it was a complete change of pace to the recent books I have read.  The pace was more gentle and I loved seeing how crime was handled in an earlier era without all the technology we have now.  

This was a mystery that kept me guessing and I loved how everyone was a suspect and were eliminated one by one.

In this cozy mystery, the reader is unabashedly teased. The solution is perpetually within reach, only to have the solution go up in smoke. All the while being reminded that the answer to "Who done it?" is right in front of the reader's nose.

There is a retro feel to the writing. After all, it is not a new book. But one that leaves the reader wanting more of Allingham's murderously intriguing mysteries to solve.

I’m ashamed to say this my first Margery Allingham read – and what better than her first novel to get to know her.  I love 30s Crime Classics and can see why she stands out from a lot of the other crime authors of the time as her prose – although dated – speeds along at a good rate so that the plot isn’t hampered by lengthy, pedestrian dialogue..
   Everything in pre-war Britain was either ghastly, beastly or great fun and women were viewed as pretty young things but awfully silly sometimes – but it would be hard to find a book written at that time that didn’t view them as such.

Having said that, the mystery of the White Cottage is very tense and the plot keeps you guessing right to the end.  

I shall now have to seek out her other works as I am going to enjoy them immensely.