Sophie Gee

It owes more to American film noir in the 1940s than the golden age of detective fiction.

Such a good point, John T. The tiger is a psychopath called Jack Havoc.

The smoke is

is a thick fog that engulfs London for several days.

Although Campion plays a critical role in taming the tiger, his role is curiously small, and it's obvious that not even the author is particularly interested in him.

Well, at least she's not interested in his powers of detection.

It's the perfect example of what Allingham calls her plum pudding method, less about following the rules of detective fiction and more about mashing together different possibilities and genres.

I love that comparison.

We've sort of taken our cue from from Allingham and others, haven't we?

We love a mixed genre.

We love a plum pudding.

So in this episode, we're looking at how and why the golden age of golden age of detective fiction came to an end.

What came next and why we still return to these books when they're so clearly dated.

And I would actually make the case that we return to these books because they're so clearly dated.

That's never been a problem for me, repeating myself.

Nor actually for the queens of crime.

Although Marjorie Ellingham, I think, might be the honourable exception in this respect.

She's really nimble and constantly shifting her mode and her genre.

John, let's have the synopsis.

Sure am.