Mystery

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 Last Dark Place

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Cover image of "The Last Dark Place" by Stuart Kaminsky

The Last Dark Place (Abe Lieberman #8), Stuart M. Kaminsky. Mysterious Press/Open Road Media (ASIN: B00AYRI5DI), 2013 (originally published in 2004).

Summary: Who ordered the hit on the hitman? That’s what Lieberman, who was transporting him back to Chicago tries to figure out as he tries to head off a gang war and pay for his grandson’s bar mitzvah.

Over thirty years ago Abe Lieberman’s prayers at shul were interrupted by Connie Gower, seeking to avenge his brother, who Lieberman, then a young cop had killed. Lieberman escaped that situation. Now, a much older Lieberman sits in the Yuma airport, along with a local cop, handcuffed to Gower. He’s bringing him back to Chicago to stand trial for a “hit.” Gower has made a career of killing people for hire.

All hell breaks loose when an elderly airport worker opens fire on Gower, killing him, getting badly wounded by the local policeman in the process. The worker survives but won’t give Lieberman much. He tells him he was paid by a man with a darkened thumb, money that would go to a granddaughter’s college fund. Now, Lieberman returns to Chicago to find the man who ordered the hit.

He faces far more than this on his return. Two ethnic gangs, one Latino and the other Asian, are on the verge of an all-out war. Meanwhile, an obsessed Falun Gong cultist is stalking his partner Hanrahan’s pregnant wife, who is Asian. And Hanrahan is under pressure to quickly find three youth who raped a rising Black detective’s wife. The detective is on the mayor’s shortlist for a top police slot. No one want’s that detective to find those youth first. And while all this is happening, a disillusioned sign painter is plotting to kill a country star who has disappointed him, thinking that for a moment he will be a hero. Just another week in Chicago.

While Lieberman cherishes his family, homelife is a challenge. His wife is zealously guarding his diet because his cholesterol is high. His daughter blames her failed marriages and troubles in life on Abe. Yet she wants his help with her son’s bar mitzvah, including financial help, stretching his detective’s salary further. And his responsibilities at the synagogue keep calling. The only thing that mitigates any of this is the deep fellowship and banter with the alter cockers, the men he prays with, and eats food forbidden by his wife, at the local deli.

This is my first Abe Lieberman (yes I know I’m reading out of order!). My son introduced me to Kaminsky’s Russian detective, Porfiry Rostnikov. I loved those stories and so downloaded this to my Kindle when it came up as a bargain. And what a treat to discover this veteran, street smart and self-deprecating detective. He show compassion for the men of his shul and for his wayward daughter, even while he mentors his grandson as he makes an important life passage. The book is a quick and engaging read that gives one sympathy for the personal and professional challenges facing any policeman in one of our major cities. Abe Lieberman, whatever his faults, navigates these pretty well. I have a feeling this won’t be my last Abe Lieberman story.

Review: The Hermit of Eyton Forest

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Cover image of "The Hermit of Eyton Forest" by Ellis Peters

The Hermit of Eyton Forest (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #14), Ellis Peters. Mysterious Press/Open Road (ASIN: ‎B00LUZNWNG), 2014 (originally published in 1987).

Summary: A hermit’s arrival brings death and mayhem in a quarrel over a boy’s fate, damage to Eyton Forest, and a search for a fugitive villein.

Richard Ludel is a spirited ten year old boy being educated at Shrewbury Abbey. Richard’s father, severely wounded in the war between Stephen and Maud, entrusted him to the care of Abbot Radulfus. Brother Paul sits Richard down in the fall of 1142 to tell him his father has died. He is now the lord of Eaton Manor. Because Richard is a minor, Sheriff Beringar oversees the manor and steward John of Longwood ably care for it. But they have not reckoned with another interested party, Richard’s grandmother, Dame Dionesia.

She comes to the funeral with her newly acquired hermit, Cuthred and his assistant, a young man named Hyacinth. He lives in a hermitage in Eyton Forest, between the manor and the abbey. She demands that Richard return with her. Richard knows it is part of her design to marry him off to the much older daughter of an adjacent landowner. Having accepted the charge by Richard’s father to educate him until his majority, Abbot Radulfus refuses the request.

Suddenly, Eyton Forest, on which the abbey depends, turns hostile. Hyacinth brings a message that it is due to the boy being withheld from his grandmother that all this is occurring. Then a tree falls on Eilmund, forester of the abbey. Hyacinth rescues him and fetches Brother Cadfael to attend him. Hyacinth meets Annet, Eilmund’s daughter. Immediately they are smitten with each other.

With the arrival of Drogo Bosiet, Peters introduces a new plot element. Drogo seeks his fugitive villein, a talented young man, Brand. Brother Jerome tells Bosiet that a man fitting the description is Cuthred’s assistant. Young Richard overhears the conversation. Previously, Hyacinth had treated Richard with kindness. Now Richard returns the favor and sets off to warn Hyacinth. Meanwhile, Drogo also goes after Hyacinth. Neither returns to the abbey.

The next day, Cadfael goes to the forest to check on Eilmund. He finds Bosiet’s riderless horse on the path to the hermitage. Soon, he finds Bosiet as well–stabbed in the back. Meanwhile, back at the abbey, the brothers discover Richard’s absence. Hugh and his men scour the countryside, both to find Richard, and Hyacinth, the leading suspect in the murder.

Once again, Cadfael and Hugh engage in a delicate dance of “don’t ask; don’t tell.” Cadfael knows where Hyacinth is hiding and that he couldn’t be the murderer. Both know that to capture Hyacinth means turning him over to Bosiet’s son. And Bosiet’s son is as vicious as the father. And when Cuthred is murdered, both Hugh and Cadfael walk a line that distinguishes justice from law.

This one finishes delightfully. The abbot gets the last laugh while Dame Dionesia gets her comeuppance. And don’t forget that there is a love story. Peters loves to throw these into her plots. In this story, she expertly weaves three subplots together. And for once, she tells a story that turns more on what Cadfael does not do.

Review: Purgatory Ridge

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Cover image of "Purgatory Ridge" by William Kent Krueger.

Purgatory Ridge (Cork O’Connor #3), William Kent Krueger. Pocket Books (ISBN: 9780671047542), 2002.

Summary: A murder investigation becomes far more when a kidnapping plot involves Cork’s own family as well as that of a prominent mill owner.

Slowly, the wounds of the past are healing. Cork O’Connor is back at home with Jo. He’s enjoying slinging burgers with his kids at Sam’s. Then an explosion changes everything in a moment. The explosion at Karl Lindstrom’s mill not only caused extensive damage. It took a life of a tribal elder, Charlie Warren. And the sheriff asks Cork to assist with the investigation because he is part Anishinaabe. Also, the sheriff is not running for office again. There are many, including the sheriff, who are encouraging Cork to run again.

Lindstrom’s mill is at the center of controversy. He’s wants to log a sacred stand of white pines. Not only the tribe is protesting. So is a figure known as the “Eco-Warrior” as well as a mother and son team, which could be one and the same. Attention focuses on them. As Cork is drawn into the investigation, tension arises with Jo, who fears what will happen if Cork becomes sheriff.

Meanwhile, across the lake from Lindstrom’s grand home, John La Pere nurses a grievance. Fourteen years earlier, he took his brother Billy on the final voyage of a lake freighter before it was to be decommissioned. Storms hit Superior that night and the freighter broke up. Only John survived of all on board. He suspects the breakup wasn’t due to the storm. What makes matters worse is that Lindstrom’s wife Grace is the daughter of the freighter owner.

He teams up with Wes Bridger, a gambler at the casino with some special skills, locating the freighter only to have their efforts sabotaged. He agrees to a plot Bridger has proposed that will give him the money to investigate the sinking and get the evidence against the company. While Cork is protecting Lindstrom at a speaking event, Bridger and La Pere kidnap Grace and her son. There’s one complication. Grace had invited Jo O’Connor and her son Stevie for a confidential conversation. The kidnappers take them as well.

Krueger has given us another page-turning thriller as Cork and Lindstrom, along with law enforcement try to rescue their families. Meanwhile, the women and their sons are doing what they can to survive and escape. Jo’s sister Rose exercises a faithful presence that steadies the family. She believes in God when Cork and Jo cannot. Henry Meloux offers insight that enables Cork to step back and get perspective. We also get intimations that young Stevie will someday be a force to reckon with. When Karl Lindstrom cannot raise the ransom, the casino owner, a tribal member offers him a no interest loan. Krueger weaves the fabric of a moral universe deeper and richer than treacherous actors. He draws characters for whom we care deeply as well as evil actors, and one tragic figure. This novel has all the elements just right.

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: The Rose Rent

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Cover image of "The Rose Rent" by Ellis Peters

The Rose Rent (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #13), Ellis Peters. Mysterious Press/Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9780446405331), 2014 (originally published in 1986).

Summary: Two deaths and the abduction of a widow seem tied to a white rose bush from which the annual rent of a Foregate property is paid in the form of one white rose.

It is coming up on the anniversary of the celebration of the placing of St. Winifred’s reliquary on the abbey altar. The same day also marks the payment of an unusual rent. Judith Perle, heir of a prosperous weaving establishment lost both her husband and unborn child within three weeks. In her grief, she deeded their home in the Foregate to the abbey with the provision of a rent of one white rose from a bush on the property, paid on St. Winifred’s day. It involved about half her estate. The business, however, prospers under her cousin Miles’ management, so much so that she thinks of entering the convent, unhappy with the suitors who have sought her hand (and fortune).

Brother Eluric, a monk given over to the abbey as a child, is designated to deliver the rent. But in doing so in previous years, he found himself attracted to her and he pleads to be released from the obligation to keep his soul pure, and he is. Niall, the householder, a widower with a young daughter, is designated to take his place, a task he is delighted to accept, as he is also attracted to the widow. He is a bronzesmith and his feelings are further fostered when Judith brings him a girdle to be repaired–a buckle had torn away.

Niall’s daughter lived with his sister but he visited regularly. One night, shortly before the rose rent is due, he finds the bush has been mangled but not destroyed. There is a body at its base, Brother Eluric, dead of a knife wound. A bootprint is found nearby, that Cadfael takes a mold of. Later, as he discusses the death with Judith. Cadfael discloses Eluric’s attraction. Judith determines the next day to end the whole rose rent thing, giving the house fully to the abbey. She speaks of this to a servant, who share it in the kitchen, where this is overheard by a number.

The next morning she sets out for the abbey and is seen crossing the bridge but never arrrives at the abbey or returns home. It is concluded that she has been abducted, particularly after a boat is recovered and a buckle from the girdle Niall repaired is found. The town is turned out to search for her, including Bertred, on of her workers. He goes out that night on a secret errand and finds where Judith is being held. A mishap is heard by a neighboring watchman who sets the dogs on him. He escapes by jumping into the river, stunned when he hits his head. Then, as he comes to, a dark figure strikes another blow, and shoves him into deeper water, where Cadfael finds his body the next day. And he discover that the boots match the bootprint he found by Brother Eluric.

Was Bertred Eluric’s killer? And who killed Bertred? And is Judith’s abduction connected, and how will it all come right? Cadfael is not alone in the resolution of it all. Our old friend Sister Magdalen will play a role as does Niall, and Judith herself, with Cadfael himself uncovering the key clue pointing to the murderer. What’s most interesting in this story is we find ourselves pressed to keep in focus the murders as the story of Judith’s abduction unfolds, with all the possible implications this has.

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: Taken at the Flood

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Cover image of "Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie

Taken at the Flood, Agatha Christie. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780062073846), 2011 (originally published in 1948).

Summary: A young widow and her brother inherit a family fortune, stirring family resentments until a mysterious figure threatens blackmail and is found dead.

Gordon Cloade was the benefactor of the Cloade family. During the war, he meets a young widow, Rosaleen Underhay on a ship, and marries her. Two days after they arrive in England, all but Rosaleen and her brother David, who has joined the household, are killed in a bombing raid. Cloade had not had time to change his will to provide for both wife and family. This meant that Rosaleen, for the duration of her life inherited the income from the capital of Cloade’s life, depriving the family of needed support.

But all may not be as it seems with Rosaleen. Her first marriage had been an unhappy one. Her husband separated and then was reported dead. But a conversation where a Major Porter was overheard by Poirot, while sheltering in a club from a bombing raid, suggests that Underhay never died, but was abroad under the name of Enoch Arden, a reference to a Lord Tennyson poem about one thought dead who was not.

Christie introduces us to the various Cloades, in various states of insolvency. Jeremy, the lawyer, has been pilfering funds, and a reckoning approaches. Lionel is a physician, and has become a morphine addict, to the detriment of his finances. Rowley has been able to eke by as a farmer but had hoped for more, particularly as he anticipates marrying the village girl, Lynn Marchmont, who has returned to live with her mother after Lynn’s service as a WREN during the war.

Needless to say, many wish Rosaleen dead, or at least her claim on the Cloade fortune disproven. Then a mysterious figure shows up in town, identifying himself to David, Rosaleen’s brother, as Enoch Arden, and threatening blackmail. When Arden is found dead, Rowley, acting in the family’s interests asks Poirot to confirm the identity of the man named Arden. He calls on Porter, who testifies at the inquest that he knew Underhay and that the dead man was Underhay, despite Rosaleen’s denials. David, as prime suspect is arrested.

There’s a tangled web that Poirot has to unravel before all becomes clear. Two more die along the way. Poirot will say one is accidental, one is a suicide, and one is murder. But which is which and how are they all connected is for Poirot to discover, as he talks to people and learns things, while those around him underestimate his abilities.

I thought this a cleverly written mystery that also offered an instructive tale on the follies of depending on the wealth of a benefactor–from family or otherwise. Along the way, there is a diverting subplot as Lynn, finding Rowley somewhat dull after her war adventures, is drawn by the allure of the roguish David. I’m not sure I like Christie’s use of partner violence in this plot. As a mystery, I think this one of her better efforts, written at the height of her powers in 1948.

Review: The Raven in the Foregate

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Cover image of "The Raven in the Foregate" # 12 in the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters

The Raven in the Foregate (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #12), Ellis Peters. Mysterious Press/Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781497671386), 2014 (Originally published in 1986).

Summary: A graceless priest comes to Holy Cross church in Foregate and alienates his parish and is found dead, while a young man who came with him, assigned to Cadfael, is not what he seems.

December of 1141 finds both Abbot Radulfus and Hugh Beringar on the road. The Abbot is called to Winchester for a council to reaffirm church loyalties to King Stephen, now free after an exchange in which Robert of Gloucester returned to the side of Empress Maud. He returns with a priest, formerly clerk to Bishop Henry, along with his housekeeper, Diota Hammet and her nephew Benet, an apparently simple, unskilled young man. He is assigned to help Cadfael. Shortly after, Hugh, who assumed but has never been confirmed in the office of Sheriff, goes to a council with Stephen, his future uncertain.

Father Ailnoth is appointed to the parish of Holy Cross in Foregate. The former priest, Father Adam has recently died and was loved by the parish for his pastoral care, particularly the mercy he showed and the light penances he gave when the people came to confess their sins. Father Ailnoth is cut of different cloth and in just the brief time before Christmas has alienated most of his parish. Passionate but believing Eluned could not resist the enticements of men but came in genuine penitence. Ailnoth refuses her absolution, penance, and communion. Cast out from the church, she throws herself in a pond. A young worker comes pleading for Ailnoth to baptize his dying infant. Ailnoth will not come until he finishes praying his office. The infant dies and then Ailnoth refuses the babe burial in consecrated ground. He strikes boys with his staff when their play near the parish house annoys him. He accuses the baker, an upright man and known for his bread, of giving short measure, He gets into a property dispute.

Meanwhile, Cadfael has taken joy getting to know the lad Benet who works hard at all the tasks he has given with cheer. He quickly realizes there is more to Benet than was apparent. He’s a quick study with the herbs, and can be trusted to look after things in Cadfael’s absence. But he wonders, who is this young man, really? He notices when Diota visits not only his affection for his aunt but the message he slips her. He also sees the visit of Sanan Berniere from the house of local noble Ralph Giffard, formerly associated with Maud, and the instant bond that forms between her and Benet, who is plainly not cut out for a monastic life.

Christmas Eve is a cold blustery night signaling the coming of winter. Cadfael is out walking when he sees Father Ailnoth rapidly walking out of town, and Giffard unhappily walking back. He also notes clues that Benet and likely Sanan had been in his workshop during the latter part of Matins. Early Christmas morning, Diota comes to the monastery. Father Ailnoth never returned home. A search is formed and his body is found, out past the mill, with a wound on the back of his head.

There are a host of suspects who had motives to kill the priest. Hugh arrives home as newly confirmed Sheriff to confront this situation. He also has a task from Stephen, to hunt down Ninian Bachilar, a supporter of Maud suspected to be in Shrewsbury. Giffard, eager to put his connections with Maud in the past, announces that Benet is Ninian, from the secret message Diota had carried, and accuses him of murdering Father Ailnoth, who had learned of the young man’s true identity from Giffard. Father Ailnoth’s hasty mission out of town was to confront Ninian, who had been supposed to meet Giffard.

Benet/Ninian, with the help of Sanan has gone into hiding, but not before telling Cadfael the truth. In fact, Cadfael at points warns the young man not to tell him certain things. Neither Cadfael nor Hugh are convinced that Ninian is Father Ailnoth’s killer and play a coy game of turning a blind eye to what each knows about the fugitive young man and the woman who loves him. The discovery of two missing articles, not found with Ailnoth’s body, hold the clues to how Ailnoth met his end, if the pieces can be put together.

Peters makes an interesting contrast in the story between the graceless Ailnoth and the ways Hugh and Cadfael approach his death, seeking truth to be sure but without jumping to graceless conclusions, seeing all those who could be suspects in their full humanity. There is a commentary here about how law is administered, both in church and society. In Cadfael, we see devotion to God and in Hugh, devotion to the king, and yet both pursue very different paths than the hapless Father Ailnoth, who never had the chance to learn mercy.

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.