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Originally Posted by issybird
And created a Mary Sue to act it out. The books with Harriet Vane are icky, Busman’s Honeymoon being especially cringe-worthy. While many, if not most, find her Gaudy Night to be her best, my own preference is for the Vane-less Murder Must Advertise.
I was glad when your recommendation caused me to reconsider Allingham, when I had abandoned Black Dudley. I couldn’t imagine what I had seen in her back in the day!
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Decidedly icky! Whereas Campion's Amanda, who only appears now and then, is delightful. This is the end of
Pearls Before Swine, when he finally gets home after trying to do so for the whole book. He had been away in Europe for a couple of years, as this one is set during WW2:
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Mr. Campion opened the gate, crossed the vegetable patch and, skirting the cottage wall, turned on to the little grass lawn which had a muddy path running through it. There he stopped abruptly, an intense emotion, three parts honest embarrassment, overcoming him.
There was a person not yet three upon the path; he was white-haired and was wearing sun glasses. At the moment he was squatting by a puddle, one discarded sandal firmly clasped in his hand.
His preoccupation was a simple one. He was trying to fit the shoe into an imprint recently made by it in the mud.
As Mr. Campion came up to him, he raised his head from his task and stared upward, and for a time they stood looking at one another in amazement.
A girl with red hair and a wide mouth came out of the cottage and joined them. She was brown and slender, and her green dress was formal and a little old-fashioned.
“Hello,” said Amanda, “meet my war work.”
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