Traitor’s Purse, Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087254), 2023 (Originally published in 1941).

Summary: Amnesiac Campion thinks “fifteen” of vital importance. It holds a key to a vital mission he tries to fulfill, though he knows not what it is.

You wake up in a hospital bed not knowing who you are or how you got there, except that your head hurts. A nurse is talking about a man lying unconscious who has killed a policeman. You assume that is you and realize you are in serious trouble. A fireman’s garb offers you camouflage to escape. You steal a car, drive madly into the country until the car breaks down.

A car pulls up and a young woman you met leaving the hospital offers you a ride. She calls you Campion. Before arriving at your destination, which you learn is the Bridge Institute, you drop off a passenger, Mr. Anscombe. You escort Anscombe to the door, then return and leave a package he forgot. When you arrive and the woman brings you to your room, you realize that the woman is Amanda. You are close, maybe even married. You can’t bring yourself to tell her that you can’t remember who you are or why you are there.

Fifteen. Somehow, Campion knows that number is important. Is it a date–two days off? He has a sense that there is some momentous evil that he has to stop. But with amnesia, he knows neither what he has to stop nor how to stop it. But he has to feign that he does and figure things out. A letter from Oates tells him to seek out Anscombe. He arrives only to find Anscombe dead and his instincts tell him it is murder.

Soon, he is under suspicion. He isn’t acting right or even like Campion. And when he can’t prove who he is, he socks the local police superintendent (Hutch) and takes off. Even though Amanda has told him their engagement is off and she is attracted to the Institute director Aubrey Lee, she keeps showing up. And by instinct, or whatever, Campion finds Lugg, who helps him understand what has happened to him.

Piece by piece, things come together. A second knock on the head leads to it all coming together, with the realization of a scheme unfolding that would throw the country into chaos. But can he elude all the police pursuing him and somehow stop things in time, particularly when he can no longer reach Oates?

I thought this one of the most suspenseful of the Campion stories so far. We’re left on tenterhooks about how things will shake out with Amanda and Albert. And Allingham creates a significant plot premise of a sleuth trying to figure out what case he is on. How does Campion do Campion when he can’t remember Campion? I loved it.