The Fashion in Shrouds (Albert Campion #10), Margery Allingham. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504088367), 2023 (originally published in 1938).

Summary: Albert Campion investigates three deaths connected to a fashionable actress, Georgia Wells, whose fashion designer is Campion’s sister Val.

I’ll admit it straight out. This was perhaps my least favorite Campion so far. Allingham always has complicated plots. This seemed just confusing. I only liked one character. I’ll get to her later.

In the course of the story, Campion investigates three deaths. All are connected to the alluring and fashionable actress Georgia Wells who seems to attract men as honey attracts bees. Campion’s sister Val, who works for a famous couturier, designs her dresses.

The first death occurred after Georgia’s former fiancé, a barrister, goes off hiking and never returns. This was three years earlier. Campion has been hired to find him. Until now, he has failed. Finally he explores an old haunt, finding his remains, his death apparently suicide.

Campion wants to know more about Georgia, and arranges through Val to meet her at a showing of the dresses for her new play. It’s a disaster all around. Alan Dell, an aircraft builder who has been seeing Val, is drawn to Georgia, even though she has married Raymond Ramillies, a governor of an African colony, who is also present. Then it comes out that the model, who closely resembles Georgia, Caroline Adamson, has leaked one of the designs, which has been copied. And when Georgia hears of her former fiancé’s suicide, she is overcome and asks Dell, to take her home.

Soon, Georgia has stolen Dell from Val, who is so furious she admits she could kill her. Meanwhile Dell’s company builds a gold-plated plane that Ramillies will take back to the colony for a local ruler. The night before, there is a party. Georgia brings Alan Dell. Then Ramillies appears with Caroline Adamson. Campion watches from a distance. Amanda Fitton accompanies him. She had invited him out of concern that Dell was neglecting the business. Georgia infatuates him. Amid a big scene, Amanda announces her engagement to Campion–the first he has heard of it.

Ramillies storms off and only appears the next morning, hung over. Georgia, asks Val for a cachet, likely a pain reliever, which she gives her. When it is time for the flight, delayed for an hour, Ramillies fails to appear. It turns out he is on the plane–dead. A local doctor at the resort at which they are staying finds in a post mortem that he died of natural causes, a heart attack most likely.

Campion is in a tight spot. Georgia reveals she had given Val’s cachet to Ramillies. Even though the post mortem found nothing, there is a cloud over Val. Given what she’d said about killing Georgia, had she tried and killed Ramillies instead? Campion refuses to believe it but steps back for a time.

Then Caroline Adamson calls Campion, wanting to meet. She never shows up. Locals find her dead in a nearby wood. The plot takes a key turn at a party Amanda throws to announce the breaking off of her “engagement” with Campion.

Amanda Fitton is the one interesting person in the story. Campion is erratic. Georgia is a self-absorbed creature who measures herself by her allure to men. Val is capable but too swayed by others. The entourage around Georgia were all on the take. And amid them all, a killer lurked, involved in all three deaths.

I “soldiered on” to the end. I didn’t care that much who the killer was. But I thought Campion should hang on to Amanda. They’d make a great team!