The Tiger in the Smoke (Classic Crime)

Written in 1952, the story is interesting for its insight into aspects of life in post-war London. Some of the references, and much of the slang, will be lost on young, and non-British, readers. It will also perpetuate the myth of London being permanently fogbound. Present-day London hardly ever experiences fog, but in the fifties, when it was still an industrial city and 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 and from a different social class, so this is very much an outsider's view.

The intriguing story and the intense drama are what make this book worthwhile. It is well written and 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 occur in real life) then you can relax and enjoy this first-rate thriller.

If you do enjoy "Tiger in the Smoke", you might also like Graham Greene's "Brighton Rock", which features the razor gangs of pre-war Brighton, and which has an equally memorable villain.


Allingham's finest   March 19, 2004
MM Turner (Birmingham, England)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Tiger in the Smoke is Marjory Allingham's finest novel, and 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 and set pieces to a dark, memorable and perfectly drawn thriller.

Interestingly, Campion is only an incidental figure in Tiger in 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', and the clergyman tells him that he already knows this philosophy, but it is called the 'science of death'.

From here in 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 and Christie, this book should set you straight. It belongs with Conan Doyle's 'Valley of Fear' and Sayers' 'Murder must advertise' at the top of the list of British crime thrillers.


Miasma   September 23, 2003
hacklehorn
3 out of 11 found this review helpful

Despite the blurb and critical praise, this late novel is really no more than a thriller, not a “crime novel.” As a thriller, it is quite successful, with some notably tense scenes in the London fog, although the finish on the French cliffs makes very little impact, and the plot, with its mixture of albinos, hunchbacks and dwarves, psychopathic ex-Commandos, saintly canons and buried treasure, is preposterous in the extreme. As a novel, it is less successful. Jack Havoc never comes across as the truly wicked man all the other character say he is, and the famous scene in the church is grossly over-rated. Thus, a rather pretentious return to the author’s early ‘plum pudding’ approach combined with her late style, which is often very good but equally often requires close and careful reading to avoid headache (particularly in the scenes with the ghastly ex-service men).