Mystery Mile, (Albert Campion #2), Margery Allingham. New York: Bloomsbury Reader, 2018 (originally published in 1930).

Summary: Campion is hired to protect a retired American judge investigating the Simister crime syndicate, yet even a remote coastal community is not safe from their sinister efforts.

On a cruise from America, Campion saves the life of retired Judge Crowdy Lobbett, and is subsequently hired by his son Marlowe to protect Judge Lobbett as well as his sister Isopel. The judge has been investigating the Simister gang, an international crime syndicate. There have been several attempts upon his life, and several deaths around him.

Ostensibly to protect him, they remove to a remote manor at Mystery Mile, an isolated hamlet near the coast, by some marshes that could swallow a man whole. The proprietors are young, Giles and his sister Biddy, along with faithful staff. They set up a surveillance team, the Seven Whistlers. Things don’t stay quiet for long before they receive visitors, first a fortune teller by the name of Datchett. then a pesky art dealer by the name of Barber.

And strange things start happening. The old parson is found dead, an apparent suicide. Then Judge Lobbett goes for a walk in the nearby labyrinth and goes missing. Subsequently, Biddy, running an errand at the local post office, is abducted. The group mounts a rescue operation that nearly fails but for the intervention of Campion.

Things don’t seem to be going well but both Lobbett and Campion are hoping to lure the mysterious head of the Simister gang into the open. Yet all the others who have tried to do so end up dead. Will things be any different for the crusty old judge and the eccentric Campion?

While all this unfolding, the young people are falling in love, Giles with Isopel and Marlowe with Biddy, binding this foursome together. Meanwhile, Campion emerges as more than a quirky, well-heeled young man. He’s a resourceful, out-of-the-box sleuth. But will he accomplish something multiple law enforcement agencies have failed to do?

I’m finding that the more I read of Allingham, the more I am enjoying her. It seems that her plotting is more intricate than Marsh or Christie, but I find this makes her more interesting intellectually, even as we enjoy the eccentricity and originality of Campion.