The China Governess (the Albert Campion Mysteries) by Margery Allingham

Margery Allingham, sweeps you into a Mystery-complex and intricate from the very first page. Her writing is as excellent as any of the great English Mystery Writers from the Golden Age of Mystery. The Characters are likeable and eccentric, much like a favorite Professor, you might have had. The Scenery is descriptive with roads and places, that were bombed during World War II. The Turk Street Mile, with all the deceptiveness and squalor it was capable of, laid the foundation for a first class mystery.

Superintendent Charles Luke is called in to visit a middle age Couple, whose apartment has been torn apart. On the mirror in the guest room are the words, "Go home Dick." It resulted in the death of one of the first class tenants as they are named by Luke. Councilman Cornish is outraged and demands that Scotland Yard do something.

Timothy Kinnit has taken his fiance, Julia, to his old Nanny, Mrs. Broome. She hides the eighteen year old in The Treasure Room of the ancient building, when they have unexpected guests. While Julia is hiding behind curtains leading to a stairway- she hears a conversation that shocks her. Her engagement is put on hold until Tim can find out the truth.She appeals to Albert Campion to help her. The truth... which ever way it falls, does not matter to her, but it does strongly to her Father and her intended.

The complexity of the plots that Margery Allingham wrote were a thing of beauty. Her descriptions shimmer with 1940's language, and places. Often, the people are built around the class system of England before and after World War II. But the characters have charm, with their intellectual naivete and good humor. Mrs. Broome quickly became a favorite. If you enjoy Dorothy L. Sayers you will certainly like Allingham who was just as good a writer. Although we have many good Authors today I still favor the Era of the 1930's to 1940's for quality mysteries.

Blurb:
“Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light. And she has another quality, not usually associated with crime stories, elegance.” —Agatha Christie

Timothy Kinnit is rich, handsome, and successful, but his past is a mystery to him. When he learns, on the eve of his elopement, that he is adopted, he must question everything he thought he knew.

In desperate search of answers, Kinnit calls on private detective Albert Campion to shed some light on his past, and how it connects him to the notorious Turk Street Mile slum. Meanwhile, his illustrious adopted family has a sinister secret of its own—involving a murderous nineteenth-century governess—that must also be brought to light by Campion’s investigations.