Margery Allingham (1904–1966)

Returning home to London from the United States on a steamship, the vacuous-seeming Albert Campion saves Judge Crowdy Lobbett from death by electrocution from a poorly-wired magician’s cabinet. Judge Lobbett, as Campion learns from a fellow passenger, Alistair Ferguson Babar, has recently escaped death four times – accidents that killed individuals close to him. Lobbett is the judge attempting to take down the infamous Simister gang. The gang operates internationally, and no one has ever show more seen Simister, the leader of the gang, except for one man who was killed shortly afterward. In London, Campion is visited by Lobbett’s son, Malcolm, who enlists Campion’s help to keep his father alive. Thinking of his friends Giles and Biddy Paget and their secluded home on Mystery Mile, a tiny village surrounded by marshes, Campion convinces the Lobbett family to rent the Padget’s home for the next few weeks. However, after dinner on the very night the Lobbetts arrive, the Lobetts, Pagets, Campion and the village’s vicar are visited by a wandering palmist who seems to know more about them than he should. The next day, Judge Lobbett disappears from the center of a maze on the Paget’s property, and soon afterward, Biddy is kidnapped. Campion knows that it is the work of the Simister gang and to protect his friends and the Judge, he must stop Simister himself at any cost.

Mystery Mile is the second book in Margery Allingham’s Campion series, but is the first to feature Albert Campion as the main character. We know little of Campion as a character after the first book, as Allingham intended to have another character feature in her mystery series. Campion is a very intelligent and resourceful individual; however, he frequently plays the part of a very fatuous well-to-do Englishman, who, as a result, is underestimated by the villain in the book. I also think he is underestimated by readers, especially in the early books, before Allingham matures him as a man and a detective, and he loses his silliness in later books.

Although Allingham was considered one of the “Queens of Crime” during the Golden Age of Detection, Mystery Mile is not a typical whodunit of the period. It has some whodunit elements, as well as some spy elements and is also something of an adventure story. There is the obligatory death, but this is not a typical murder mystery. I realize there are many who don’t like Allingham as much as Christie or Sayers, but I find Campion’s silliness fun – there are so many serious detectives, and Campion can be serious, but he does have an irreverent side that I find very refreshing. I honestly did not catch on to the identity of the villain and there were one or two other “red herrings” that worked on me and contributed to my enjoyment. show less

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 show more 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. show less

On the front of every book in this series are the words 'A Campion Mystery' and if you go into this book expecting that, you will be disappointed. Campion is barely in it, he is a background figure in the police scenes who does a little detective work of his own off screen and has no real effect on the story except for putting doubt/worry into the mind of one of the main characters after a brief conversation. It's also not a mystery at all, it is a thriller that plays out like a tragedy. show more There is no central character either, so I never really cared about their fates.

I do think it is good. It is a really well written tragic thriller, probably better put together than any of her other books. It's just not what I want to read when I sit down with a Campion book. The first time I read it, I was not only disappointed by it not being about the character I was here to see but also frustrated that the bad guy is supposed to be this untouchable killer who is so precise with his murders and alibis that he has never even been suspected and yet all we get to see here is everything unravelling so fast that I couldn't believe how he'd got away with everything for so long. However on a second read I was prepared for both those things and I could much better appreciate how the story was constructed and how you're drawn inexorably along to the conclusion. show less

'Campion At Christmas' is a collection of four, unrelated, Albert Campion stories set at Christmas. At fifty-four pages, it's a slim volume and the stories in it are slight but pleasing. Think of them as two Lebkuchen and two mince pies rather than as a festive feast. Read at Christmas, they add to the charm of the season.

'On Christmas Day In The Morning' (1963) finds Albert Campion drinking in the company of the Chief Constable, with whom he has just had a Christmas lunch, The two of them show more decide to take a postprandial perambulation to look at the site where a postman has been killed by a car that morning. The puzzling thing is that he continued delivering Christmas cards for an improbably long time after being struck, thus making it hard to establish who he was struck by.

What struck me about this story was the juxtaposition of poverty and privilege, Christmas spent alone and Christmas as part of a huge house party and the quiet acceptance of the gap. Campion's insight quickly cuts through the confusion. In doing so, it compounded the sadness of the postman's Christmas death with the sadness of a lonely old woman's Christmas life and it left me in doubt about whether Campion was touched by either.

'Happy Christmas' (1962) has Christmas in it but no Albert Campion. Instead, we get a tale of a young couple who love everything Victorian except the Victorian old lady who lives upstairs, who the young wife has taken umbrage with. Unexpected events result in the Victorian lady joining them in lieu of their intended guests and then babysitting for them so the can go out for an evening. In the end, the old lady goes above and beyond and saves the day when the end of the evening threatens to end in violence.

I liked that the modern (1960s) 'we love everything Victorian' couple were unable to see their Victorian neighbour clearly enough to make her real to them. The humour at the couple's expense is gentle and almost charming. The story as a whole left me more puzzled than pleased. I felt as if I'd swallowed a spoonful of yoghurt when I'd been expecting ice cream.

'The Case Of The Man With The Sack' (1937) is the most mainstream, Albert Campion in his prime, story in the book. Albert accepts a last-minute invitation from the daughter of the house, to rescue her from tedious company by coming to stay for Christmas and meet the, not entirely acceptable to her parents, new love of her life. What follows is a classic country house Christmas mystery, powered by theft rather than by murder and solved with ease and insouciant good humour by Campion

This was fun. The mystery wasn't too hard to solve but I enjoyed watching Campion putting it all together and setting it to rights, all without involving the police. Beneath the story, you could see the veneer of the privileged life of the aristocracy starting to crack under the strain of financial difficulty and social change. The master of the house is unable to find a way to have a conversation with guests who no nothing of hunting, shooting or fishing. The lady of the house is finding pragmatic, covert ways to shore up the lifestyle her husband takes for granted. The daughter of the house is gaily focused on following her heart. The family weaknesses of the family are cast in a sympathetic light by the vulgarity of their nouveau riche guests. It struck me that Campion was as much at a distance from the family as the guests and though he liked one and disliked the other he didn't belong to either.

'Word In Season: a story for Christmas' (1965) took me by surprise. It's written from the point of view of Poins, Campion's Red Setter. It is Christmas Eve and all is not well in the Campion household. Campion has inadvertently created chaos and his wife, having dealt with the mess, has retreated to her room where she can be heard banging things about. Poins, meanwhile, is trying to decide whether to use the privilege, granted to animals in the hour before midnight on Christmas Eve, to use his voice to speak to Albert and comfort him.

This is a charming tale and one that finally gave me a picture of Campion as a human being and not just an emotionally distant but insightful, socially connected but aloof solver of puzzles. It took seeing him through a dog's eyes to enlist my empathy, which, in a way, is what the story is all about. show less