As my blog features one of Margery Allingham's classic Albert Campion mysteries this week, it's worth pointing out that Mr. Campion's stories are still being written - most recently by Mike Ripley. As there's a new one coming out from Severn House next month, I thought my readers might enjoy learning more about the new book starring a detective favorite.
Metropolitan Police Commander Charlie Luke was getting instructions (remotely) from Buckingham Palace about his old friend, Albert Campion. Luke was getting them by discreet word of mouth from Lord Breeze, Campion's neighbor and also a member of the House of Lords - and the message was quite clear:
'Is there a point to all this?' Luke snapped more sharply than he had intended.
'Of course there is. Nobody can possibly believe that Campion is down there for anything other than the Abdication Treasure [...] now you're needed to lean on Campion and make him stop looking.'
'But you're not sure he is, are you?'
'He must be. You said yourself that treasure hunting was right up Campion's street.'
'And you said the treasure doesn't exist.'
'It doesn't,' Lord Breeze said firmly, 'and I have been instructed to tell you to tell Campion that unless he wants to risk embarrassing the Palace he'd better lay off. There's no such thing as the Abdication Treasure, so there's nothing to find and Campion had better make sure he doesn't find it!'
And so we find ourselves once again in a new adventure for Albert Campion, that marvelous character created during the Golden Age of Detection by Margery Allingham, and - these days - returning in new stories written by Mike Ripley, with the blessing of the Margery Allingham Society. The latest of Ripley's books, to be released by Severn House publishers at the beginning of November, is called Mr. Campion's Abdication. This time, there may - or may not - be a treasure hunt underway for an unspecified and undefined "Abdication treasure" supposedly sent to people in the small and not-so-idyllic village of Heronhoe by a grateful ex-King Edward VIII in 1937, after his abdication from the English throne and subsequent marriage to the American divorcee, Wallis Simpson. His Majesty was supposedly rewarding some of the villagers who had helped arrange his secret pre-marital trysts with Mrs. Simpson.
It's a complicated story, jumping as needed from events preceding the abdication in 1936 to a modern-day (well, 1970) archaeological dig and a highly suspect effort to make a television movie about a visit to Heronhoe by the then-not-quite-Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson before he became king - and, of course, before his abdication. There are a couple of murders to be solved, too. As for the treasure, if any...well, you'll have to read Ripley's book to find out.
Regular visitors to this site know that - for the most part - I'm not a fan of these "continuations" of popular characters written after the death of the original author. In the case of Albert Campion, however, I think there's more of a direct chain leading from Allingham to Ripley. When Margery Allingham died, leaving two still-unfinished Campion novels, her husband, Philip Youngman Carter, completed them. Then Carter himself died, leaving behind a fragment of a new Campion novel of his own, which was eventually completed by Mike Ripley, who has now written more of them. So, to my mind at least, there's a direct link to be followed here, and the Campion of Ripley's novels is the legitimate inheritor of the original character. Campion is aging well, if not exactly gracefully, as he approaches his 70th birthday in 1970 (when this new book is set); regular followers of the series will also find Campion's friend and servant (he hates being called a "butler") Magersfontein Lugg playing a significant role, along with other members of Campion's family. The book is more of a thriller than a detective story, but Campion fans are likely to enjoy it. As I said, Mr. Campion's Abdication is being published in November by Severn House, which made an electronic copy available to me for this review.
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