This is another very different book from those earlier in the series. In this we start with Albert in hospital, having been unconscious and with amnesia. He overhears a conversation that has him believing that he's about to be charged for killing a police officer and the feeling that there is something urgent he needs to do. And so he scarpers, dressed in fisherman's oilskins. A car chase ensues and any number of odd events take place from there. Set in the start of WW2, this has quite a different feel from the earlier novels as well as a very different narrative tale. I did wonder how he was going to recover his memory and that takes place a little too neatly, but it was one way out of the situation. The final chapters are at a breakneck pace as Campion strives to stop a swindle that would put the country's economic stability at risk.
I listened to this and the narrator had a somewhat annoying habit of making Campion sound like a blithering idiot. I admit that he is, at times, an entitled arse, but he;s not actually stupid. That aside, this was a good entry in the series, but I;d not try and read it first. Like Campion at the start, you'd be a touch too much at sea. ( )

Traitor’s Purse by Margery Allingham is a novel of wartime suspense as a severely handicapped Albert Campion tries to successfully complete his mission to uncover a group of enemy agents that were about to seriously derail England’s war efforts.

The book opens with Albert Campion waking to find himself in a hospital but having no idea of who he is or how he got there. He then finds that he is accused of attacking a police officer. He has taken a blow to the head and is suffering from a concussion and experiencing amnesia. He begins the slow process of putting the pieces together on his identity and the details of his under cover work for the government. Although he has no idea of what he is investigating, he does have a strong sense that he must stop something from happening. So with the clock ticking down and not knowing who he can trust, he sets to work.

An enjoyable outing that sees Campion thwarting the Nazis and giving the reader a taste of wartime Britain. Albert’s long time love interest, Amanda is on hand and their relationship takes a giant step forward as Campion finally recognizes just how much she means to him. Also there is an appearance by his long-time manservant Lugg, whose feelings are hurt when Campion doesn’t seem to know who he is. ( )

Traitor's Purse
Margery Allingham
October 25, 2016
I finished this novel in a day. Inspector Albert Campion awakens in a hospital ward after a head injury with a certain knowledge that he has only a short time to avert some disaster, but no clear idea of who he is, or what the disaster might be. He escapes, driving wildly, followed by his girlfriend. He is convinced he is wanted by the police, but allies himself with a constable, and breaks into a secret society in an English country town; he learned he should do this from the constable. His identity is doubted, and he escapes again, encounters his accomplices, and is finally back in the hands of police, where another head trauma restores some old memories. He finally thwarts a scheme to ruin the finances of England on the verge of the second world war. Very well plotted, intelligent dialog, but the plot turns on neurologically unrealistic features of head injury and amnesia, although the description of Campion's thought processes when he is in his amnesia is very well done. ( )

Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham

The man lay in a small pool of light in an otherwise darkened hospital room. He was pleased that his mind was beginning to function sufficiently for him to imagine he might be in hospital and to know what a hospital was. He was aware that sometimes in such circumstances one loses the ability to read, but that knowledge puzzled him, as he had no idea what 'such circumstances' might be. He could hear low voices at a distance and concentrated on them hoping to catch some words which might mean anything to him. He heard a man say "Probably he won't even remember what's happened - or he'll say he doesn't until he's seen a lawyer." "They'll hang him, I suppose?" asked a woman. "Bound to, Miss. It was one of us, you see, so there's no way of getting out of it. Once a man slugs an officer of police he's for it."

The man in bed felt that he had known policemen very well and liked them, but why and what on earth had happened to him? The policeman had said he would have no memory, and he didn't, only a great fear that went beyond his personal safety, and a responsibility about fifteen. But what that responsibility might be, and indeed what 'fifteen' signified were mysteries. Filled with a sense of urgency separate from any wish to avoid the noose, the man escaped the hospital, noticing things about himself such as his unthinking ability to pick locks, drive fast, and assume an air of authority. Life becomes more complicated when he is found by people who know him and drive him to a weekend party at a large house where he is an expected guest. There he is given a letter addressed from 'My office. The Yard.', and says "Dear A.C..... For God's sake get busy. Keep your eye on the calendar. The figures 15 turn my belly whenever I see or hear them. .. .. Forced to rely on you only now. Every other line has gone slack and the time is so short. If you fail, for my part I shall wait until the balloon actually does go up and then swim quietly out to sea. .. If this thing happens it is the END. .... Damn you, succeed. S'.

Albert Campion, for it is he, has to figure out what he is being relied upon to do, and by whom, who the other people he encounters are, and which of them are to be trusted. He discovers that his mission has been so secret that his allies neither know nor expect to know what it is, although they have been providing him with assistance. As if this were not enough, he is having to evade capture by police who have circulated his description following his escape from the hospital. Concerned by both the possibility of arrest for murder and the likely reaction of others to the discovery that the man tasked with saving the country has no idea what he is doing and has significantly impaired mental capacity Campion doesn't tell anyone about his time in hospital and his loss of memory.

This device puts the reader to some extent in the same position as Campion. People appear, information is gathered, but what does it mean?

This book was first published in 1941, and the events of the time are reflected in the plot. The need for a hero who puts nation above self, the nature of the villains, etc. The ultimate solution seems a bit of a let down, but that is perhaps because Allingham has plumbed for a scheme which whilst ultimately devastating in its consequences lacks drama in its delivery. A good old school mystery within the Campion series in which the hero reassesses his relationships with those closest to him.

a very good read

a compelling example of having the main character having lost his memory and it only coming back gradually through the read, whilst at the same time trying to solve the mystery.

Spotted the "solution" ( ie the method) relativley early but not the culprit until quite late.

Allingham certainly does mix up the type of story through this series about Albert Campion.

Big Ship

5 January 2016 ( )