Mike Ripley

A deceptive read!

There I was completely foiled by Mr Campion’s mild mannered air of concern. Albert Campion, an investigator with formidable contacts including the Commander of the Metropolitan Police, has that rare something that makes him appear deceptively naive, concerned, and an old fashioned air of the polite gentleman who somehow stumbles into things. And stumble he does in this latest foray in his retirement. He’s been asked to speak to the Evadne Childe Society because their show more guest of honor had a mishap (which turned out to be an argument with a car). Evadne Childe was a mystery writer he happened to share a godmother with. The club asks him to follow a few things up about the Evadne’s book, The Moving Mosaic, to be remade into a two hour BBC production. The first of many it’s hoped. But there are problems and as Albert trundles on there are more—including attempted blackmail and murder.
Rupert, Albert’s son becomes his father’s chauffeur and foil. Magersfontein Lugg is ever present, and his wife Lady Amanda Fitton is the voice of reason.
A homage in many aspects to crime writer Margaret Allingham. Reading the author’s After Notes I was entranced by the twisted logic and air of benign benevolence that surrounds the story.

A Severn HouseARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. show less

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The Campions are snowed in at Christmas, but j ust when they think it can't get any colder, their holidays take an even chillier turn.

1962, Norfolk. Boxing Day looks set to be a quiet affair for the Campions when they are snowed in at their remote farmhouse, Carterers - until a charabanc full of 'pilgrims' travelling from London to the Shrine of Our Lady in nearby Walsingham crashes into their imposing granite gateposts and the family unexpectedly find show more themselves playing host to the eccentric passengers.

But any lingering festive cheer is in short supply when a shocking discovery is made the following day, while a terrifying twist reveals that some of the guests are not who they seem. Which—if any—can they trust? Suddenly hostage to events, the Campions are drawn into a fiendish web of espionage as the Cold War comes chillingly close to home.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Set today, this final installment of Ripley's continuation of the Albert Campion Golden Age mysteries has Lady Amanda, Rupert, and Lugg doing their festive celebrating in the countryside...and Lugg piloting "Santa's Sleigh" aka Lady Amanda's works Land Rover in Yule drag.

Isn't that an image?

The passengers troop into Carterers, the family's Norfolk-countryside escape from the city, much to every Campion's distress; of course, as it's a literal blizzard outside, they make the stranded pilgrims to a Walsingham shrine welcome. They are signally lacking a driver among them,and thus kicks off the several stages of the murder investigation.

As always, the events in the story hew closely to known and checkable facts, like the blizzard that happened in Norfolk that Boxing Day. Lady Amanda's works (factory in US terms) is targeted for Cold War espionage, which I daresay is something all of us can remember taking place (the war, not the fictional spying), and so we're grounded in trustworthy reality for Ripley to base his fiction atop.

The murder, the weird assortment of religious pilgrims and US war personnel, Lady Amanda's capitalist war machine supplying works, Campion and Lugg doing their sleuthing double act...it's all good fun and results in a resolution that plays fair, still without spilling the beans too soon.

Author Ripley has continued the Allingham series creditably for a number of books. It seems a shame he's decided to make this one his final outing as the pilot of the Campion bus by crashing one into Carterers' gatepost, but permaybehaps it felt fitting to him. I will watch for the next thing he decides to do. show less

In this last installment in the Mr. Campion series, that was originally written by Margery Allingham, we are reminded of the nightmares of the Cold War Era. It all starts with a bus ride in a blizzard that goes horribly wrong and deposits a group of near frozen travelers upon the doorstep of The Campions. They passengers are a strange mix of people headed to the shrine at Walsingham in Norfolk, or so we are led to believe. But there is something “off” about each passenger and the show more Campions, their son Rupert and their “valued family retainer” Magersfontein Lugg are going to have their hospitality and largesse tested.

Ripley’s characterization of Lady Amanda Fitton, an aeronautical engineer with a close affiliation with the Royal Air Force, and her devoted husband Albert Campion are just the best with their tongue-in-cheek dialog and ability to read each other’s intents. Ripley has drawn a very tight spider’s web that is so perfectly frustrating that it is going to take an inhuman effort to best the situation and restore the peace and status quo. All sorts of crazy tactics are going to be employed and while things are getting out of hand, the levity never subsides. It is such a shame that this series is now finished.

Thanks to Severn House and NetGalley for a copy. show less

Lively, witty, ironic! Oh, and dangerous!

A lively piece of derring-do, although according to his wife Amanda he’s supposed to be derring-done, from our aging, yet smoothly contained, boy-like, retired supposedly, sleuth, Albert Campion.
It’s 1972 and a newspaper journalist, David Duffy, is mysteriously killed in a lay-by off the M1 near to the brutalist MacMansion of Sir Lachlan McIntyre. McIntyre is being considered for a life peerage which would have course have him entering the House show more of Lords.
Campion’s nephew Richard asks for his help. Richard is Sir Lachlan’s Public Relations Officer.
He wants Campion to look into McIntyre’s activities prior to 1932. His firm hadn’t deemed it necessary to go back that far when putting together their media “script”. (Training sessions covering questions the media might ask).
Just to clarify, McIntyre is the number 1 suspect on the police radar for Duffy’s demise. Richard wants Campion to use his influence to establish McIntyre’s innocence.
It turns out Campion’s name is in Duffy’s notebook, as was Lugg’s. (Comedic suppositions perform in Albert’s head around the police bringing Lugg in for questioning.)
Campion’s investigations take him back into the past happenings. Some memories are not so happy.
Albert places himself in danger, of “the heart in the mouth” variety. My heart rate has barely recovered.
A page turning, wryly written read, that brings forth old family history, looks at Campion’s relationship with Lugg, and opens Campion’s past as it blends into the now.

A Severn House ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. show less