Cargo of Eagles (Albert Campion, 19), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087292), 2023 (first published in 1968).

Summary: Poison pen letters, a released smuggler, a murder, a motorcycle gang and a treasure in Allingham’s last Campion.

This is the last Campion story written by Margery Allingham. Actually, her husband, Philip Youngman Carter completed the book after her death. For whatever reason, I found it one of her better works.

Campion aged with his author. While in the background for much of the story, he functions as a kind of “director” for the whole. His interest centers on the Essex coastal village of Saltey, which seems to have as “salty” a reputation as its name. He sends his manservant Lugg ahead to embed in the village by buying a bungalow.

While Campion pursues behind the scenes investigations, he recruits a young historian, Mortimer (“Morty”) Kelsey to be his eyes on the ground. Ostensibly, he is researching Saltey’s colorful history as a hub for smuggling. In reality, he is taken with Saltey’s newest resident, Dido, a doctor who inherited a house from a patient. The residents do not welcome her with open arms. Instead, she received a number of poison pen letters. Then they find her agent, Hector Askew, murdered.

Meanwhile, rumors abound that a recently released convict, James Teague, released from prison and his accomplice, are back in the area to recover a hidden treasure. All this occurs amid the village’s “salty” history, and an invasion of a raucous motorcycle gang led by a hardbitten woman.

However, as readers, we wonder where is Teague? will they find Askew’s murderer? who is behind the letters? and is there a treasure? After finding several of the previous stories disappointing, this one represented a strong finish for Allingham, and for her hero Campion.