Rogues' Holiday by Maxwell March (Margery Allingham)

Inspector David Blest has two choices, jump or die. Trapped

aboard a motor boat with a pistol to his head and the life of his unconscious companion on the line, he’d better make his decision quick.

On the trail of the mysterious death of a gentleman in the Senior Buffs Club, young Inspector Blest is led to a fashionable seaside resort on the English coast, where the locals appear all too happy to help his investigation. Things take a turn when Blest meets Judy Wellington, an apparently sickly young woman desperate to escape her past. But who is Judy Wellington? What exactly is she running from? And how has Blest found himself the murderer’s next target?

Margery Allingham, famous for Albert Campion, also wrote serialized stories for Magazines under the name - Maxwell March. While Campion and Black Dudley took off the serials were put together and formed three Novels. And that is the thing about Allingham, no matter what name she wrote under, the plots build nicely and are page turners. They are filled out by Characters that add interest and that I wanted to spend time with.

From the very first page, I was lost under the old spell of the Golden Age of Writers. The Characters are likeable and sometimes hold a certain naivete. The Inspectors are tough and intelligent. This mystery has a rainy night...cozy reading feel to it. I turned pages so fast,that I was through with the book, about the same time I am halfway through others.

The Characters include an intelligent Inspector, a sickly, young Woman who holds the key to a mystery and a dying, Con Man. Margery Allingham is a great, master builder of the eccentric- particularly in people. But what may be the cream of her writing is that she has preserved a certain way of life in England where the "whodunit" lives forever...like Agatha Christie, Allingham needs to be read and savored for the charm her books have.