according to all the critics this is supposed to be margery allingham’s finest hour. i didn’t think it was terrible, but i did think it was a long way from the best campion i’ve read. the story is all about finding an escaped convict and veritable madman who goes by the unlikely name of jack havoc, he’s the tiger to catch and london is, of course, the big smoke. an array of pompous characters and only a very small part for campion to play were my chief disappointments here. i have several other campion books from a recent second hand bookshop raid to read, i hope they’re as good as i remember them to be because this one wasn’t.