Albert Campion

Review: Coroner’s Pidgin

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Cover image of "Coroner's Pidgin" by Margery Allingham

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…

Review: Traitor’s Purse

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Cover image of "Traitor's Purse" by Margery Allingham

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.

Review: The Fashion in Shrouds

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Cover image of "The Fashion in Shrouds" by Margery Allingham.

The Fashion in Shrouds (Albert Campion #10), Margery Allingham. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504088367), 2023 (originally published in 1938).

Summary: Albert Campion investigates three deaths connected to a fashionable actress, Georgia Wells, whose fashion designer is Campion’s sister Val.

I’ll admit it straight out. This was perhaps my least favorite Campion so far. Allingham always has complicated plots. This seemed just confusing. I only liked one character. I’ll get to her later.

In the course of the story, Campion investigates three deaths. All are connected to the alluring and fashionable actress Georgia Wells who seems to attract men as honey attracts bees. Campion’s sister Val, who works for a famous couturier, designs her dresses.

The first death occurred after Georgia’s former fiancé, a barrister, goes off hiking and never returns. This was three years earlier. Campion has been hired to find him. Until now, he has failed. Finally he explores an old haunt, finding his remains, his death apparently suicide.

Campion wants to know more about Georgia, and arranges through Val to meet her at a showing of the dresses for her new play. It’s a disaster all around. Alan Dell, an aircraft builder who has been seeing Val, is drawn to Georgia, even though she has married Raymond Ramillies, a governor of an African colony, who is also present. Then it comes out that the model, who closely resembles Georgia, Caroline Adamson, has leaked one of the designs, which has been copied. And when Georgia hears of her former fiancé’s suicide, she is overcome and asks Dell, to take her home.

Soon, Georgia has stolen Dell from Val, who is so furious she admits she could kill her. Meanwhile Dell’s company builds a gold-plated plane that Ramillies will take back to the colony for a local ruler. The night before, there is a party. Georgia brings Alan Dell. Then Ramillies appears with Caroline Adamson. Campion watches from a distance. Amanda Fitton accompanies him. She had invited him out of concern that Dell was neglecting the business. Georgia infatuates him. Amid a big scene, Amanda announces her engagement to Campion–the first he has heard of it.

Ramillies storms off and only appears the next morning, hung over. Georgia, asks Val for a cachet, likely a pain reliever, which she gives her. When it is time for the flight, delayed for an hour, Ramillies fails to appear. It turns out he is on the plane–dead. A local doctor at the resort at which they are staying finds in a post mortem that he died of natural causes, a heart attack most likely.

Campion is in a tight spot. Georgia reveals she had given Val’s cachet to Ramillies. Even though the post mortem found nothing, there is a cloud over Val. Given what she’d said about killing Georgia, had she tried and killed Ramillies instead? Campion refuses to believe it but steps back for a time.

Then Caroline Adamson calls Campion, wanting to meet. She never shows up. Locals find her dead in a nearby wood. The plot takes a key turn at a party Amanda throws to announce the breaking off of her “engagement” with Campion.

Amanda Fitton is the one interesting person in the story. Campion is erratic. Georgia is a self-absorbed creature who measures herself by her allure to men. Val is capable but too swayed by others. The entourage around Georgia were all on the take. And amid them all, a killer lurked, involved in all three deaths.

I “soldiered on” to the end. I didn’t care that much who the killer was. But I thought Campion should hang on to Amanda. They’d make a great team!

Review: Dancers in Mourning

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Cover image of :Dancers in Mourning" by Margery Allingham

Dancers in Mourning (Albert Campion #9), Margery Allingham. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504087315), 2023 (originally published in 1937).

Summary: Mean-spirited pranks against the star actor-dancer in a musical becomes something more when as has-been actresses body is thrown of a bridge in front of the actor at his home.

Have you ever looked into a situation only to sense that if you go further, you will find something that you and others would rather not know? That is the dilemma confronting Campion in the ninth of Allingham’s Campion mysteries.

His friends, “Uncle” William Faraday and Jimmy Sutane, are involved in a musical production of a book written by Uncle William in which Jimmy is the lead actor and dancer. Someone has been performing a series of mean-spirited pranks aimed at Jimmy and they have persuaded Campion to find the culprit.

He joins Faraday and Sutane at a weekend house party interrupted when guests arrive with invitations to a reception Sutane had never planned. His wife and the household staff manage to pull it off, but the butler left, disgusted with irregularities like this and the temperamental houseguests who show up, like composer Squire Mercer or the washed up actress Chloe Pye, who wears outfits to show she still has “it.” It’s a bit of a puzzle how Pye made it into the production. One of the more amusing parts of the story is how Lugg fills the role of butler and befriends the Sutane’s daughter.

Things take a more serious turn the night of the impromptu reception. Sutane had been out in his car and as he approaches home a body falls from an overhead bridge right in front of his car and he cannot avoid running over her. The police find him innocent. Pye had already been dead of a medical condition. Campion, who saw both the body and the scene is not so sure that this was an accident. And the more he looks at the case of Chloe Pye, the more he fears discovering truth he does not want to find. He absents himself, pleading other business, leaving Lugg behind.

When more deaths follow, both Inspector Oates and Sutane’s wife, for whom Campion has developed a fondness, want him to return and help figure out what is going on, compelling Campion to pursue the trail of evidence where it leads, as hard as it may be. How will Campion negotiate the path between love, friendship, and uncovering a killer?

In addition to exploring this classic moral dilemma, Allingham portrays a cast of theatre characters in an unflattering light. I wonder if it was just for the story or if Allingham had deeper reservations with the theatre set of her day. Uncle William, the writer (!), seems the only one who truly comes out well here.

Review: The Case of the Late Pig

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Cover image of Margery Allingham's "The Case of the Late Pig."

The Case of the Late Pig (Albert Campion #8), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087308), 2023 (Originally published in 1937).

Summary: When Campion is invited to the second funeral in six months for an old school acquaintance, he finds him drawn into a murder investigation where the murders keep coming.

When Albert Campion finds himself staring at the corpse of a man he thought buried six months ago, he knows something strange is afoot. Only he doesn’t reckon how strange it is and that his involvement has placed him and Lugg in danger. Supposedly this man is Harris, the brother and heir of the man buried six months ago, R. I. “Pig” Peters. But one look is enough to persuade Campion that this is Pig, an old school nemesis. He died from a blow to the head from an urn that fell from a balustrade above the patio where he was sleeping off a hangover on a lounge chair.

Six months ago, he was surprised to be invited to the funeral by means of a strange verse. Another attendee, Whippet had a similar invite. Campion also notices the fiancée of Pig. All these turn up again at the second death (including the notes in which moles feature prominently), occurring at the estate of old friend Leo Pursuivant. After Campion mentions the need for further examination of the body, it goes missing, only to turn up in the river. Then another grisly murder is found, of a man called Hayhoe, stabbed in the neck and hung on a gibbet like a scarecrow. Clearly, a clever and ruthless killer is abroad in the village of Kepesake. An investigator cannot be too careful, as Campion discovers to his regret.

A unique feature is that this is written as a first-person account by Campion, unlike earlier numbers in the series. I thought it a refreshing change of pace. We also gain sympathy for Campion, who struggles to win the affections of Leo’s daughter Janet, and keeps getting on her wrong side. This is a short, briskly-paced story that works up to an edge-of-the-seat conclusion.

Review: Flowers for the Judge

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Flowers for the Judge, Margery Allingham. Avarang Books, 2023 (Originally published in 1936).

Summary: Campion is called in when a member of a publishing family disappears, only for him to be found dead in the firm’s vault, with all the evidence pointing toward younger cousin Mike as the murderer.

Twenty years before Tom Barnabas, the nephew of the founder of Barnabas publishing house of London, just vanished one morning, literally seen one moment and gone the next, with no one around. Now, another family member has been missing several days. Paul Brande was expected to meet up with his wife Gina on a Friday night and the family learned of it at a party on Sunday when Gina mentioned it. This was not unusual for Paul, but as a precaution, they ask their family friend for Albert Campion for help.

On Monday, a secretary goes to the vault to get papers for the eldest cousin, John Widdowson, and finds Paul lying dead by the door to the vault. It was discovered that he died of carbon monoxide poisoning. As Campion investigate, he finds a broken ventilator at the rear of the vault, exposed to the garage. A sooty tube is found nearby. A neighbor testifies that she had heard Mike’s car running on Friday evening, when it was established that Paul died.

Attention begins to focus in on Mike, culminating at the coroner’s inquest. We learn that Gina and Paul were in an unhappy marriage and that their appointment on Friday was to discuss a divorce, which Gina could not pursue on her own. Earlier, Paul and Mike had been heard fighting, presumably about Gina, with whom Mike had been very friendly. During the early part of Friday evening, Mike claims that he was out walking, something he usually did not do. Then he returned to warm up his car to go out, interrupted by Gina wanting to go out because Paul had not come home. Also, on Sunday, Mike had gone down to the vault but said nothing about finding Paul’s body, even though it was found by the door of the vault. At the conclusion of the inquest Mike is arrested for the murder.

Campion is not convinced although it appears others have good alibis. His attention focuses on an unpublished manuscript of a play by William Congreve, that forms a substantial part of the firm’s assets. Campion discovers that it is a facsimile. But what of the original? Could its absence be connected to the murder?

And what of the the first man to disappear twenty years ago? He’s not an irrelevant plot detail (though not the murderer).

I think this is one of the best Campions I’ve read so far, including an interesting couple of plot twists at the end, including a dramatic conclusion to Mike’s trial. It is interesting that in least in this story, Campion seems less a quirky presence and more of a detective than in previous stories. A good read!