[The settings in The Fashion in Shrouds] are gorgeously exotic—a fashionable dressmaker's salon, a millionaire's house, the start of a long-distance flight. The characters, too, are nearly all birds of paradise, and the eye becomes dazzled at such an array of beauty and talent. Chief of these is the actress, Georgia, a brilliant piece of invention—so brilliant that, paradoxically enough, she is at times scarcely credible…. [All the characters are] immensely witty and sensitive and up to date. I am not sure, though, that in this book Miss Allingham has not Gone Too Far. Her detection here is almost too politely unobtrusive, like the pin-stripe on a Savile Row suit: the bad old days of the blunt instrument are gone—and no doubt for good; but there is something to be said against a weapon whose point is so fine that it becomes invisible. The Fashion...