Sweet Danger (Albert Campion #5), Margery Allingham. New York: Open Road Media, 2023 (Originally published 1931).

Summary: Campion and friends seek to prove a rural family to be the rightful heirs of Averna, an oil-rich seaside village on the Adriatic while pursued by an unscrupulous financier.

Campion and his friends Guffy Randall, Eager-Wright, and Farquharson meet up in the scenic village of Averna, on the Adriatic coast. The district is rich in oil. Campion is seeking proof that the Fitton family are rightful heirs. Their pursuit of proof takes them from Averna to a rural village, Pontisbright, in Suffolk, where they arrange to stay as paying guests of the Fitton family.

Campion isn’t the only ones seeking proof of their ownership. An unscrupulous financier, Savanake, also wants to lay claim to Averna, and along with a band of thugs is in hot pursuit, attacking and rifling the contents of the family home. Amanda Fitton captures Campion’s attention. She is a spirited red-head, seventeen and an adventurous tomboy who runs the mill and has even hooked up an electric generator. She’s clever, resourceful, and determined. She leads Campion to clues involving a crown, a drum, and a bell.

For a time, Campion abandons the scene, supposedly to go to Peru, only to show up unexpectedly in woman’s garb. Interestingly, Campion takes out an insurance policy leaving a tidy sum to Amanda. Along the way Campion and friends encounter a crazy doctor and Campion will face a fight for his life with Savanake. Meanwhile, we wait with baited breath to see if the clues will lead to decisive proof that the Fittons, and particularly Amanda’s older brother Hal, are the rightful heirs of Averna.

Allingham’s plotting is especially twisty in this book, and the reader does well to follow closely, or spend a lot of time re-reading. Campion’s attraction to Amanda, and his recognition of her resourcefulness and courage bring energy to the plot and makes me wonder if we haven’t seen the last of her. Of the “Queens of Crime,” Allingham strikes me as the least conventional, the most likely to leave the reader wondering, “where is this going?” And therein lies the fun.