The Crime at Black Dudley · Chapters

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Chapter companions for The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham.

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Chapter 1
Dedication
The book is dedicated to 'The Gang'.
Chapter 2
The Crime at Black Dudley
A house party at Black Dudley Abbey is disrupted by the discovery of Colonel Coombe's murder. Dr. George Abbershaw and Albert Campion find themselves entangled in a web of deception, ritual, and organized crime as they attempt to uncover the truth behind the killing and the mysterious dagger ritual.
Chapter 3
Candlelight
Dr. George Abbershaw arrives at the gloomy Black Dudley mansion for a weekend party hosted by Wyatt Petrie and his uncle, Colonel Gordon Coombe. Abbershaw, a pathologist and minor celebrity, is secretly in love with Meggie Oliphant, who is also present. The chapter introduces the setting and several guests, including Albert Campion, Chris Kennedy, Michael Prenderby, and Anne Edgeware, as Abbershaw observes the eerie atmosphere and the Colonel's disfigured face.
Chapter 4
II: The Ritual of the Dagger
After dinner, the guests gather in the great hall, dominated by the sinister Black Dudley Dagger. Anne Edgeware draws attention to it, and Wyatt Petrie recounts the legend of the dagger and the ritual game that grew from it—a hide-and-seek in the dark where the person left holding the dagger loses. Despite Abbershaw's unease and Colonel Coombe's hesitation, the party enthusiastically decides to play the ritual, with Gideon and the expressionless man voicing support.
Chapter 5
In the Garage
Dr. George Abbershaw, uneasy in the dark and foreboding Black Dudley, slips out to the garage to check his car. There he discovers that Colonel Coombe's antique brougham is actually fitted with a modern Rolls-Royce engine, a puzzling anomaly. Albert Campion joins him, feigning idiocy, and they return to the house to find chaos: Colonel Coombe has suffered a suspected heart attack during the ritual game. Meggie Oliphant, terrified, reveals to Abbershaw that someone handed her the ritual dagger in the dark and that its blade was covered in fresh blood before a hand silently took it away. She gives him a blood-stained handkerchief as proof.

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Dedication

The Crime at Black Dudley

Candlelight

II: The Ritual of the Dagger

In the Garage