The bizarre museum of curiosities is the most memorable character in this story. There's enough suspense and enough characterization to carry the reader to the end, but it's the appalling taxidermy and automatons that stick with a person. I wonder if it was based on a real place? ( )

Well plotted and genuinely scary

Thought Campion appears in this novel, it’s really about the mind of a murderer, and what happens as his plans unravel. A really fine suspense novella. ( )

A not-very-suspenseful suspense novel with very little Campion. The characterizations are good, but the plot is weak. ( )

Charles Luke, now a new superintendent in Scotland Yard, is convinced a little London square called Garden Green is linked to a whole series of crimes. His superiors think he is crazy, but Campion takes the idea seriously. The reader knows it is true, because there are alternating sections from the criminal's point of view --something I intensely dislike, but forgive in this case for the setting -- a museum of bizarre Victorian curiosities --and the involvement of an attractive young couple. ( )

I don't believe this is really Allingham, but her husband, because the novel is plot-centric rather than Campion-centric. I enjoyed it, and the plot kept me intrigued, but I could have done with more Campion, because after all, what readers want is more of the characters we love most. ( )