I read a lot of mystery novels.

Recently, I finished "The Crime at Black Dudley," billed as the FIRST Albert Campion novel. (I read it in part to see if there were any more clues to his origin or who he REALLY was. Sadly, no. Just hints. Presumably he's of rather aristocratic birth, and "Albert Campion" is a pseudonym, and he's hired to do borderline-shady things - not always by the "good guys," apparently.)

The first appearances of recurring characters are interesting. Sometimes they spring fully formed from the mind of their creators, sometimes there's more of a process of change during subsequent books. I think the second of those are true with Campion, having read later books in the series. In this novel, at some points, I almost got the idea that Allingham was actually angling to make Abbershaw - the little redheaded doctor - her main sleuth and not Campion. Campion comes across here as more of a wannabee Raffles (n.b.: music plays automatically on that site).

Also, he's distinctly more ANNOYING in this book than he is in the others. He plays the role of the empty headed, "upper middle class twit" all too well here.

And actually, one of Campion's habits - one that actually endears him a lot to me - was more on display here. And I realized what the habit was, and why I find it endearing.

Campion has a habit of quoting things whenever it's appropriate. Or even when not. Mostly he quotes advertisements or (apparently) popular songs. It's not quite to the level of Sam Weller's "....As the X said to the Y" puns, but it's a similar behavior.

And I realized that perhaps part of the reason I like Campion and find him rather endearing, is that I do something similar. Perhaps not to the same degree, and a lot of times things pop into my head but don't actually make it out of my mouth, but I tend to carry along almost like a hotlinked Wikipedia in my head of lines from books or poetry I've read, or plays I've seen, or quotations from movies, or lines from old songs, and I know I do tend to trot them out perhaps more frequently than most people do. It's just part of who I am. So I think part of the reason I like Campion is that in that at least, I see a bit of a kindred spirit.

(I wonder at times: if I knew Campion "in real life," would I find him endearing or annoying? Would I go out on more than one date with him? Because there are some people who are very wonderful and amusing on the page or on the screen, but when you meet a real person who acts like that, it's distinctly off-putting. I know from what I've read of Bertie Wooster's shenanigans that I don't think I'd be able to take him as a real person (except, perhaps, in very small doses), and Campion is really not that different from Bertie. [other than the fact that Campion actually has a functioning brain, and the silliness is mostly an act])

And actually, I think the stories where Campion has his ex-con manservant, Magersfontein Lugg (what a name) to play off of are better.

I'm also reading the second William Monk novel. (Defend and Betray? I don't know. A lot of mystery writers seem to title their novels almost at random and it's hard for me to remember the titles...the Brunetti novels are the same way, it's hard to see sometimes how the title fits with the plot).

I like the novels for the same reason I like Bruce Alexander's Sir John Fielding novels - they seem to capture their era so well. You can smell the smells, you can imagine how people were dressed and what interiors of homes looked like.

Monk is not exactly the most likable character but the stories are still enjoyable. (And one of the interesting tropes the author uses - Monk has lost most of his memory prior to the events of the first novel, because he was in a hansom-cab accident, apparently in the process of pursuing a suspect. So you get these little glimpses of what his past was like - apparently he was not well-liked, he was abrasive and sometimes cruel to underlings and at the same time he was apparently vain and tried to make himself look "higher class" than he actually was by the way he dressed. And you are learning those things along with Monk).

It's funny - do you ever read a novel and picture in your mind exactly what the character looks or sounds like? I have it fixed in my mind now that William Monk must look like William Daniels, particularly at the age he was when he played Dr. Craig on St. Elsewhere. (but no mustache, for William Monk). And Monk's voice "sounds" like William Daniel's to me (except with a British accent). It's funny - I don't imagine the other characters quite as specifically, but I've got a very clear picture of him in my mind.

(And to go back to my prior book: Campion "looked like" Peter Davison in my head even before I knew the BBC series existed, which is why I find them so perfect).

I'm also reading right now (I picked it up when I was running a bunch of virus/spyware scans on my computer and needed something to do while waiting for the scans to complete) a book called "Drybone Hollow" featuring Owen Allison. Allison is not a detective, he is a 'failure analyst' - someone who analyzes why stuff breaks and falls down. In this novel (the first in the Owen Allison series I've read), Allison in back home in West Virginia helping out his mother who is undergoing cancer treatment. (Also, he's been "between jobs" in California, and it's cheaper to be in WV.). A dam fails in a mine, inundating an area with muck, and there's a complex question of who would be to blame. (I'm simplifying the plot considerably here). It's an interesting novel - I find, oddly enough, that pretty much anywhere you go that is "rural" (or at least, anywhere I've gone - which isn't too very many places, but it does include northern Michigan), you seem to see some of the same types - the angry guy who feels like he's been cheated all his life and is now ready to do some cheating in order to "get his," the kid who's got talent and could go on to great things but feels duty-bound to stay and help out his parents, the single moms trying to make a go of it on a receptionist's salary, the crazy questionably-ordained activist pastor, the aging hippies....

I will say though the plot is interesting and I like Allison as a character, there's another character I just want to smack across the mouth every time he says something. It's funny how visceral a reaction you can have to someone who is not real.