Tags
Albert Campion, Charles Luke, Grantchester, Lady Amanda Fitton, Magersfontein Lugg, Margery Allingham, Masterpiece Mystery, Mike Ripley, Miss Fisher's Mysteries, Philip Youngman Carter
Oof, it has been more than two-and-a-half months since I last wrote a blog post. Time has a way of getting away from you when you’re just dealing with the regular demands of life – work, home, holidays, kid activities, etc. I’ve been writing a fair amount, but most of that is business analysis for work clients. The stuff that isn’t for work is either half-finished, or sitting in my Documents folder waiting until I have the courage and gumption to submit it for publication. We’ll see when (or if) that happens. Watch this space.
We’ve also been contending with almost 8 feet of snow that have fallen around Boston since late January. It’s been an historic – and frustrating – winter in New England. You’d think being housebound would be a great incentive to write, but mostly I’ve been hanging with the family and watching Miss Fisher mysteries and Grantchester on Masterpiece Mystery. (More on both of those later, I hope.) Right now we are away in Florida, enjoying a week away from the snow (though it’s been cold here too).
For Christmas this past year I got a big gift card from Amazon, and promptly bought several new books with it. One of them was the “new” Albert Campion mystery, Mr Campion’s Farewell. The book is new in that it’s been recently published, completed by Mike Ripley from an outline started by Margery Allingham’s husband, Philip Youngman Carter before his death in the late 1960s.
The mystery takes place in 1969, in the days of the Apollo 11 moon mission and hippies and free love and mini-skirts. An odd time to be Albert Campion, born in 1900 and sharply feeling his age. Campion is lured into a mystery (by Superintendent Charles Luke, no less) in the ancient Suffolk village of Lindsay Carfax, run by a mysterious syndicate called the Carders, where people have a disconcerting habit of disappearing and showing up again nine days later. Who are the Carders? What are they hiding? And what does it all have to do with sheep smuggling, 18th-century weather predictors, and 19th-century spinster novelists?
Things get personal when Campion’s niece, Eliza Jane Fitton (a resident of Lindsay Carfax) is threatened. He ropes in a familiar cast of characters – Lady Amanda, Rupert, Rupert’s wife Perdita, and Lugg himself – along with some Cambridge University dons, to solve the puzzle.
As possibly Margery Allingham’s biggest fan, I started reading this book with a great deal of hesitation. In fact, I almost didn’t buy it at all, but felt I needed it to ensure my Albert Campion book collection was complete. Then I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
The puzzle was interesting, the characters were on the whole memorable and entertainingly eccentric, the Suffolk village setting was perfect, and the use of old English customs and superstitions added spice. There were a number of enjoyable references to classic Campion mysteries, including Police at the Funeral, Sweet Danger, and More Work for the Undertaker, among others. On the whole, it felt like a worthy addition to the Allingham canon.
The two things that rang falsest to me were Lady Amanda’s brief appearance, and Campion’s missteps and trouble toward the end of the book. Amanda comes across as shrewish, angry and protective when we meet her here. Granted, Campion has been injured and is lying in a Cambridge hospital bed when she shows up, and a loving wife would does have the right to be angry with her husband in such a situation. However, this is Lady Amanda we’re talking about here, an accomplished, worldly aircraft executive who has long supported – and generally, long participated in – Campion’s adventures. Not that you wouldn’t expect concern on her part (she really does adore her husband), but she does tend to harangue.
Campion’s actions near the end of the mystery were also surprising to me. I won’t give anything away, but when he finally realizes what’s going on in Lindsay Carfax, he doesn’t engineer a solution from afar or even engage police backup, but charges in himself to resolve things. This puts him in even more danger than his earlier injury. While I appreciated the tip of the cap to earlier Campion adventures where he rushes in on his own at considerable peril, it struck a wrong chord for a 69-year-old man – and was out of step with Allingham’s later mysteries in which Campion was involved, but not in bodily danger. Or maybe I’m just so attached to this character that I hate to see him in harm’s way?
At any rate, this was generally a good mystery and an enjoyable read. It appears that another “new” Campion, Mr Campion’s Fox, will be released later this year. We’ll see what that’s all about. In the meantime, I’ll return to snowy Boston and regular life, and try to have a bit more gumption about regular blog posts.