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.

The Mind Readers (Albert Campion Number 18), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ASIN: B08CRRYGK7), 2020 (First published in 1965).

Summary: When Amanda’s nephews, playing with telepathic devices, are nearly kidnapped, Campion gets involved in a deadly quest.

The Mind Readers reminded me of the fascination with telepathy and extra-sensory perception in the 1960’s. In this story, a mix of mystery and science fiction, Allingham explores the implications of being able to read the thoughts of others. It is perhaps needless to say that this ability is neither benign nor desirable in her portrayal. Only children can handle it, lacking the depth of experience to comprehend the swirl of thoughts and emotions in adult minds. For adults, it can be unsettling to deranging.

The story begins at the home of Canon Avril, where Albert and Amanda are visiting. They are awaiting a visit by Amanda’s nephews, Sam and Edward, on term break. What promises to be a pleasant time is upset when someone tries to kidnap the boys on the way from the station. It comes out that the boys have been playing with telepathic devices. When taped to the jugular, allow one to read other’s thoughts and communicate telepathically.

As it turns out, the boys’ father Martin has been working on this problem at a research facility at a remote location connected by a causeway on the coast. Martin turns up with Pagan Mayo, who assumes responsibility for the devices, even though it is apparent they know nothing about them. These devices produce results they have not been able to achieve. There is an international effort to harness this technology with the English and French chief rivals. When Pagan Mayo turns up dead, it is clear the rivalry is deadly.

By this point, Edward, the older of the boys, has disappeared. Yet from what he says before he leaves, he seems to know what he is doing. But what Is he doing, and is he safe from the murderous people who seem after the telepathic devices he and Sam had been experimenting with? Meanwhile. Campion has gone to the research facility to see if he can unravel the mystery of the devices while DS Luke hunts for Edward. Campion is on the island when Pagan is murdered. The head of the facility, Ludor puts it on lockdown. Campion’s becomes a murder target. But an old associate offers unexpected help.

As the story comes to a climax, we wonder who killed Mayo, where the devices came from, and what happened to them. Most of all, we wonder, “Where’s Edward?” and what does he know about all this? At a deeper level, Allingham raises the specter of a technology that people would kill for. And in the end, would we really want to know the hidden thoughts of others? And what would it be like to be in a crowd? Would you really want to know everyone’s thoughts, simultaneously?

The China Governess (Albert Campion Number 17), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087247) 2023 (First published in 1962).

Summary: An engaged orphan adopted by the Kinnits hires Campion to find his roots, stirring up a crime spree and a family secret.

Tim Kinnit is engaged to marry Julia, the daughter of a wealthy tycoon. There is one problem. Tim is a war orphan, rescued from a district of “ill repute,” the Turk Street Mile, during the war and adopted by the Kinnits, another well-to-do family. The worry is that there may be some mental defect in his background, whatever it is. He recruits Albert to investigate.

All of a sudden, a crime spree arises on Turk Street, now renovated. An apartment is ransacked and someone commits arson. Meanwhile, Campion’s investigations uncover a skeleton in the Kinnits’ closet. Thyrza Caleb was a governess to the family in the nineteenth century, accused of murder, and who reputedly took her own life.

Campion and inspector Luke try to figure out how the crimes on Turk Street are connected to Tim’s paternity, And what further danger does the criminal pose? Amid all the puzzlement, one thing is sure. Tim’s childhood nanny, Nanny Broome, believes in him and that he’ll make a good husband to Julia.

Allingham has always had complicated plots, but I found this one particularly hard to follow. The “China Governess” part of the plot seemed extraneous. And Campion, once eccentric, seems muted and uninteresting, in contrast to Lugg and Luke who seem to grow more interesting as the stories go on.

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.

The Beckoning Lady, (Albert Campion Number 15), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ASIN: B08CRRLLC2) 2020 (First published in 1955).

Summary: While friends prepare for a midsummer party, Campion tries to unravel two murders in Pontisbright.

A midsummer party in the village of Pontisbright hardly seems like the setting for murder. Except it is. Two murders in fact. Albert Campion, his wife Amanda, and son Rupert are visiting the hosts, Tonker and Minnie Cassands. Tonker is an inventor of sorts and Minnie is an artist, and the party will feature a show of her works.

Shortly before they arrived, the Cassands’ Uncle William has passed, not unexpectedly. But as Campion looks around, he suspects death had a helping hand. His body servant, Lugg does a lot of the work of sorting this out. Meanwhile, a body lies in a ditch, found after a week. He died of a blow to the head. It turns out he is a former Inland Revenue man, advising (or troubling) the Cassands about tax matters.

Charlie Luke appears to investigate the matter, although he seems is more taken up in an affair with “Prune.” Campion disapproves. Meanwhile, weaving through the investigation are interactions with a large cast of local characters including a real estate investor, inn operator, and Old Harry, who it turns out knew about the body in the ditch and the location of the murder weapon.

Both murders remain unsolved when the night of the party arrives. While the party is going on, another body is floating down the stream, spotted by everyone at the height of the festivities…a body that is the clue to the other murders.

The antics of Rupert and all the interactions of the eccentric set of characters are great good fun…until we remember that two murders have taken place. At times it is difficult to follow and I wonder if that was Allingham’s intent–red herrings by social diversion. The reader might find it helpful to keep a list of characters and their relations (none is provided).

Not unlike Ramses in Elizabeth Peters “Amelia Peabody” mysteries, Allingham is developing Albert and Amanda’s son into an interesting character in his own right. And Charlie Luke is a nice contrast to Inspector Oates. All great good fun.

The Tiger in the Smoke (Albert Campion Number 14), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087483) 2023 (First published in 1952).

Summary: In a soupy fog, a war widow about to re-marry receives photos of her husband while an escaped killer is on the loose.

A pea soup fog has descended upon London, which only thickens with the plot of this Albert Campuon mystery. A war widow, Meg Elginbrodde, daughter of Canon Avril, is about to marry again to an enterprising young man, Geoffrey Levett. Then she receives grainy photographs purporting that her husband is still alive. As a result, she enlists the help of Campion and Police Inspector Luke. Then she sees the man, who is wearing the coat of her husband. He’s a recently released convict, “Duds” Morrison but there is not enough evidence to hold him.

However, Geoffrey is not satisfied and tries to chase him down. But before he can question him, they are both attacked by a gang led by “Tiddy” Doll. Before Morrison suffers a fatal blow to the head, Doll asks him to reveal the whereabouts of “the Gaffer.” The gang takes Levett, thinking him associated with Morrison, to their hideaway.

Meanwhile, an escaped killer, “The Tiger” a.k.a. Jack Havoc a.k.a. “The Gaffer” is on the loose in the smoky fog. He’s looking for something and soon there is a trail of dead bodies. Then he breaks into Levett’s house while Meg and Amanda are there. They barely escape. Havoc, on the other hand, finds his way to Doll’s hideaway. Levett’s life is in jeopardy until Campion shows up. The gang, including Havoc, escape, but Levett overhears what Havoc is after. It all connects back to a mission Meg’s first husband and Havoc were on before D-Day. This sets up a climactic episode on the coast of France.

Canon Avril, perhaps, is the most heroic figure in the story. In one scene, he confronts Havoc in his church. His concern is for the man’s soul. Havoc trusts his “science of luck.” He stabs Avril, but only wounds him, suggesting how deeply Avril has shaken him. At the same time, Amanda, Campion’s resourceful wife plays only a bit part in the plot. I hope Allingham develops her in future numbers.

All told, Allingham delivers another twisting plot ending with a thrilling climax.

Coroner’s Pidgin (Albert Campion, 12), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN:
9781504087230), 2023 (First published in 1945).

Summary: Back from war, Campion finds a corpse in his bed, brought to his flat by an aristocratic lady protecting her son.

He’s been away on a secret mission even he didn’t fully understand. He stops off at his flat for a bath before catching a train to the country to be reunited with Amanda, now his wife. Then he hears voices and activity in his flat. One is his servant Lugg. The other is an aristocratic lady by the sound of her voice. They are in his bedroom. When he emerges, he finds a woman in his bed. Dead.

He doesn’t want to know. He just wants to catch his train. But its too late. The lady is Lady Carados, mother of his friend Johnny Carados, a war hero. The dead girl was found in Johnny’s bed, just before he is to arrive home and marry. Inconvenient. Lugg is the Air Warden in Carados Square and has access to the ambulance. Lady Carados, a force of nature, had enlisted him to get the body out of the way. They hadn’t expected Campion to turn up.

What was made to look like a suicide was murder. And as he investigates, her death emerges as part of a bigger plot. There have been other deaths. Not only that, they are part of an art theft ring with ties back to the Nazis. Although he is a war hero, Chief Inspector Oates has traced the threads back to Johnny Carados. This is despite all the efforts of Lady Carados and Johnny’s friends to shield him. Even Campion refuses to believe it.

Like many of Allingham’s mystery, this one has lots of twists and turns, including the discovery of a rare wine vintage, and the near death of a wine expert from an analgesic given him by Johnny. Then there is a bit of charm in the form of Lugg’s pet pig and good humor in the form of a country woman who has unwittingly provided her lodgings for the stolen art. Meanwhile, Campion just wants to get back to Amanda…