Hide My Eyes (Albert Campion Number 16), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087384) 2023 (first published in 1958).

Summary: Campion closes in on a serial killer unknowingly supported by a widow with an odd museum and a young niece visiting.

There is a serial killer at work in London. In one of the supposed murders, of a moneylender gone missing, the only clues are a witness who saw an old fashioned bus near the scene with an older couple visible as passengers, and a bloody glove. As Campion is consulting with his friend Charlie Luke, events are unfolding in a quiet suburb that will culminate in an edge-of-your seat ending.

A widow, Aunt Polly has invited a niece to come and visit. The invited niece, is married, so she sends her younger sister Annabelle, who is excited to visit the big city. She contacts an old friend in the city, Richard, to go with her to the house–someone to keep tabs. A neighborhood policeman directs them. Attached to Aunt Polly’s house is a museum of oddities, collected by her husband Freddie. While waiting for Aunt Polly, she looks around and spots an exhibit from which two figures are missing. She also activates a switch for a noisy mechanism. A suave gentleman, Gerry, helps shut it off. He is almost like a favorite son to Polly. In fact, Annabelle’s visit is Polly’s attempt to find Gerry a wife, but Annabelle is too young.

Gerry leaves while Richard is waiting. Whether from jealousy or suspicion he follows Gerry to a barbershop, calling off work and pawning a watch to have some ready cash. Gerry, noticing the absence of a watch, befriends Richard and insists he accompany him for the rest of the day to various bars and restaurants. When Gerry leaves to make a phone call and doesn’t return, and a waiter tips him off to a time discrepancy, Richard begins to suspect he’s being used for an alibi.

He’s right. Matt Phillipson is Polly’s attorney and has caught Gerry committing check fraud with a check Polly gave him. So Phillipson set up a meeting with Gerry to recover the funds. But Gerry, disguised as worker, kills him and lifts his wallet. When he looks at the contents, he finds letters from Aunt Polly. They reveal she knows of his criminal activity. And when she learns of Phillipson’s death, she will know who killed him. In shock, he leaves the wallet behind at a restaurant.

Meanwhile, Richard tracks down Gerry’s hideout at Rolf’s Dump and finds the missing wax figures, the two old people on the bus that the witness saw. While he is at the hideout, Luke and Campion are at the other end of the junkyard, where they find the old bus and further evidence. Then they find Richard at Gerry’s hideaway.

First Richard, then Campion realize that Gerry will return to Polly’s house, where Annabelle is staying. The question is, will they be able to prevent additional murders or become additional victims?

Gerry is a truly evil character–a cold-blooded and over-confident killer willing even to kill the woman, Polly, who has helped him and loved him as a son. Meanwhile, Polly has taken a “hide my eyes” approach to his crimes, which could be a fatal oversight. Personally, I thought this one of Allingham’s best.