The Fashion in Shrouds

Allingham's Albert Campion ranks with the other legendary detectives in the golden age of cozy mysteries, Lord Peter Wimsey, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Campion's outrageous adventures always involve a grand array of colorful characters, and FASHION is no exception. A set of fashion and stage figures, including Campion's own sister, gets involved in a series of deaths too coincidental to be ignored. Frances Matthews has played the quirky, self-effacing detective in nearly twenty audiobooks, and the wildly original characters are his stock in trade. Some are over the top--as Allingham surely meant--and Matthews has a unique voice or accent for everyone. Lines are delivered with perfect timing, deadpan and hilarious. Campion couldn't ask for a better master of ceremonies. R.F.W.