Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blackkerchief Dick | 1923 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
| 2 | The White Cottage Mystery | 1927 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
| 3 | The Man of Dangerous Secrets | 1933 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
| 4 | Rogues’ Holiday | 1935 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
| 5 | The Devil and Her Son | 1936 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
| 6 | Black Plumes | 1940 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
| 7 | The Oaken Heart | 1941 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
| 8 | Dance of the Years / The Galantrys | 1943 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
| 9 | The Patient at Peacocks Hall | 1954 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
| 10 | Safer Than Love | 1954 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
| 11 | Take Two at Bedtime | 1991 | Margery Allingham | Buy |
Margery Allingham published her first novel, Blackkerchief Dick, in 1923 at age nineteen. A historical adventure story set among smugglers, it showed early ambition even if it bears little resemblance to the work she became known for. The White Cottage Mystery (1927) came closer to her mature voice, a crime novel that originally appeared as a serial.
Her standalone crime fiction from the 1930s and 40s runs alongside the Campion series, exploring different settings and protagonists. Black Plumes (1940) centers on a murder in the London art world and is regarded by many readers as one of her finest pure mystery novels. The Oaken Heart (1941) stands apart entirely – a memoir-style account of village life in Great Bromley, Essex, as war came to rural England, written with affection and a reporter’s eye for telling detail.
Dance of the Years (1943), published in the United States as The Galantrys, was Allingham’s most overtly literary project: a family saga tracing several generations of an English family. It marked an ambition beyond genre writing that her other work rarely made explicit. The later standalone titles gathered here include shorter works and magazine fiction published across her career.