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The second of three books originally published as serials in Answers magazine, Rogue's Holiday was later brought out in a cheap edition by Collins, and in Doubleday's Crime Club line in the US. Although originally published in the serial form under her own name, a decision was taken to bring the books out under the pseudonym of Maxwell March (Thorogood, 1991, p. 156). Scotland Yard Detective Inspector David Blest encounters the apparent suicide of a young Eric Ingleton-Grey in his London club. Unable to reconcile the evidence with the story that he is presented, Blest leaves for his holiday by the sea unsatisfied. There he encounters a plot revolving around an unwitting heiress and some particularly roguish individuals, any one of whom could be a murderer to boot. Unfortunately, Blest's own judgement is compromised when he himself falls for the heiress in question. The story is a fairly conventional detective tale, seemingly stripped of many of Allingham's more elabourate mechanisms and flourishes. Even compared to the Campion novels of this period, it is a comparatively thin tale, but the occasional flashes of Allingham make this March novel worth reading...if you can find a copy.
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