The China Governess (1962)
My review:
Although very late Allingham, the story is as well-written as ever, with its Dickensian atmosphere, plot and characters. The plot is complex and rather disjointed, for the two halves of the plot are only tenuously linked, but the vice and poverty of the Turk Street Mile, Timothy Kinnit’s search for his father (and, by extension, himself), a juvenile delinquent (and atheist?) desperate for an identity yet proud of his independence, and a long-buried Victorian scandal are all well-handled. The book features several of those sharply drawn portraits at which Allingham excels, notably the Kinnits, the childishly innocent (and irritating) Nanny Broome, the guilt-racked idealist Cornish and the spiteful Basil Toberman. Despite the presence of both Campion (an onlooker so sober and subdued as to be almost colourless) and Superintendent Luke, there is much less detection than unfolding of the plot. The solution is clever, although Miss Saxon’s behaviour never convinces, and an alert reader will suspect the culprit but not the motive.