The Case of the Late Pig

"The Case of the Late Pig" is a crime novel by Margery Allingham, first published 1937, by Hodder & Stoughton. It is the eighth novel featuring the mysterious Albert Campion and his butler/valet/bodyguard Magersfontein Lugg.

Plot summary

As Lugg is reading aloud the obituaries one morning, he comes across one for an old school nemesis of Campion. Remarkably, an anonymous letter inviting Campion to the funeral has also appeared in the morning post. R.I. “Pig” Peters is dead. So says the doctor that treated him.

Five months later, Campion receives a panicked call from a friend, something about a murder. Campion drives down to the friend’s home where her father reveals the most assuredly dead body of R.I. “Pig” Peters, his head caved in no more than 12 hours earlier.

Amazingly enough, some of the visitors from Peters' first funeral also appear, along with some not-so-grieving acquaintances of the late Pig. The little village is becoming very crowded.

Now begins Campion’s search, which leads to a missing body, a grisly scarecrow and one too many beers for Lugg before he discovers the madman that planned more than a few murders.

This is the only story told from Campion's point-of-view.

Television

In two series of BBC adaptations of Allingham's stories (shown in the United States by PBS), Campion was played by Peter Davison, Lugg by Brian Glover and Oates by Andrew Burt. In the first series, Peter Davison sang the title music himself.

"Campion" adapted a total of eight novels, each of which was originally broadcast as two separate hour-long episodes.

eries 1 (1989)

"The Case of the Late Pig", Season 1, Episode 3,
* Original Air Date: 19 February 1989

References

* Margery Allingham, "The Case of the Late Pig", (Hodder & Stoughton, 1937)
* Margery Allingham, "The Case of the Late Pig", (Vintage, Random House, 2005)

External links

* [http://www.margeryallingham.org.uk An Allingham bibliography] , with dates and publishers, from the UK Margery Allingham Society.uk/bibliography
* [http://margeryallingham.org.uk/plotsummaries.htm#THE%20CASE%20OF%20THE%20LATE%20PIG A series of Allingham plot summaries] , including many Campion books, from the UK Margery Allingham Society
*imdb title|id=0535812|title=The Case of the Late Pig