More Work for the Undertaker [1948] is one of the richest works in [Allingham's] canon, within its chosen convention. The qualification is important, since, in some ways, the novel might be seen as a retreat from reality, its characters engaging oddities, its villains clowns, its killer a toy, with trivial passions and designs insufficiently motivated. For all its murder and attempted murders, its surface tensions and sinister underground traffic, Apron Street is cloud-cuckoo land, its atmosphere is festive, and the overriding impression is of humour, warmth, and charm.

But within her self-imposed limitation, all Miss Allingham's gifts come into play, and she achieves an entertainment of consummate grace, at once cosy and menacing, stately and suspenseful, reassuring and unnerving, complex and crystal-clear. In terms of character and incident, dialogue and narrative, the book is an Allingham treasure-house, alive with wit and invention, dense in texture, and crammed with entrancing...