Customer Reviews
Not whodunnit but why - By: M, 17 Nov 2008 
My first thought was that this would make a cracking good film. (Well, apparently there was a 1950s film version but I've never seen it. And if there's been a TV version, I've missed that, too.)
'The fog was like a saffron blanket soakedin ice-water.' Margery Allingham's descriptions of an old-fashioned London pea-souper & the disenfranchised characters inhabiting its underworld are worthy of Dickens. A jolly good read, highly recommended.
The Tiger in the Smoke - By: Rich, 09 Mar 2006 
I have been reading all the Campion novelsin order & having just finished this one I can safely say this is not Allingham or Campion at their best. The plot seemed thin, the characters not very interesting & crucially the villan of the piece just fails to come across as frightening as he should. I know this is considered to be a classic but Allingham has written better adventures than this one,in my opinion. Disappointingly Campion is hardlyin this one, a shame as he is one of the more interesting period detectives around.
genuinely thrilling - By: sakura_x, 19 Jan 2006 
it is sad that so much of margery allingham's oeuvre is currently out of print; vintage are to be commended for (slowly) rectifying this. the success of poirot & wimsey has relegated campion to a thoroughly undeserved third placein the canon of golden age crime-busters. although campion is not the central character of 'tiger', this gives the reader the chance to savour allingham's evocative prose style.in this london, former soldiers who found a homein the army are now misfits, cut off from normal society. voices from the past can be heard through the fog. oates, luke & campion seem powerless to apprehend a magnificently ruthless enemy. do yourself a favour & read...
Tiger tiger, burning bright, in the fogbound London night - By: Peter Reeve, 29 Jun 2005 
A thriller rather than a mystery. If you are new to Allingham's Campion stories this is not a good place to start, partly because it is so atypical of the series & also because the array of minor characters that flit through the pages, & which will be familiar to readers of previous Campion books, can be rather bewildering for the newcomer.
Writtenin 1952, the story is interesting for its insight into aspects of lifein post-war London. Some of the references, & much of the slang, will be lost on young, & non-British, readers. It will also perpetuate the myth of London being permanently fogbound. Present-day London hardly ever experiences fog, butin the fifties, when it was still an industrial city & suffered heavy smogs, it was commonly known as "The Smoke", hence the book's title.
In truth, the author's grasp of underworld culture is somewhat shaky. She doesn't get the language or the behaviour quite right. She was from the rural English midlands & from a different social class, so this is very much an outsider's view.
The intriguing story & the intense drama are what make this book worthwhile. It is well written & one episode, Lugg's driving through the fog, is hilarious. He wonders aloud at one stage whether he is approaching a roundabout or the side of a bank building. The villain, Havoc, is memorable. Oddly, there is no one, central hero. That role is shared between three or four characters. Campion himself is incidental.
My one complaint about the plot is that it relies on a very remarkable coincidence, which is something that always undermines credibility. But if you are willing to accept it (and remarkable coincidences do occurin real life) then you can relax & enjoy this first-rate thriller.
If you do enjoy "Tigerin the Smoke", you might also like Graham Greene's "Brighton Rock", which features the razor gangs of pre-war Brighton, & which has an equally memorable villain.
Allingham's finest - By: MM Turner, 19 Mar 2004 Tigerin the Smoke is Marjory Allingham's finest novel, & the pinnacle of the Inspector Campion series. A comparison with the first Campion, 'The Gyrth Chalice Mystery' reveals just how far she had taken her art from rather flat stereotypes & set pieces to a dark, memorable & perfectly drawn thriller.
Interestingly, Campion is only an incidental figurein Tigerin the Smoke. It is really a novel about the anti-hero Jack Havoc, a knife-murderer following a religion he has created himself 'the science of luck'. The chilling encounter which sets the seal on this novel is not murderer-meets-detective, but when the murderer meets a clergyman who has the power to transfix him. Havoc tells the clergyman about his 'science of luck', & the clergyman tells him that he already knows this philosophy, but it is called the 'science of death'.
From herein the demise of Havoc is artistically certain. The plot accelerates, through to the final, chillingly ambiguous 'His body was never recovered.'
If you have seen Allingham as a lesser figure, after Sayers & Christie, this book should set you straight. It belongs with Conan Doyle's 'Valley of Fear' & Sayers' 'Murder must advertise' at the top of the list of British crime thrillers.
