Traitor's Purse

[sawyl]

Another slightly odd one from Margery Allingham in the form of Traitor's Purse, which follows on relatively closely from The Fashion in Shrouds. Set in the small town of Bridge, a place dominated by its medieval council and by the intellectual power house that is the Bridge Institute.

A man wakes in a hospital with no memory of how he got there. He escapes dressed as a fireman and, after a car chase, is rescued by a woman and taken to the house of Lee Aubrey, the head of the Bridge Institute. Gradually the man realises that he is Albert Campion, the woman is Amanda Fitton, and that he is engaged on a top secret mission of national importance, the details of which are known only to him and to Stanislaus Oates. But with Oates missing and his memory gone — the only detail he can remember is the number 15 — Campion finds himself thrashing around in the dark, following the leads opened for him before his accident, while all the time trying to conceal his weakness from everyone around him.

Despite the thriller elements, which work rather well here, the story is actually a character study of Albert Campion; not only do we spend a lot more time in his head than usual, but stripped of his usual effortless superiority, the Campion we do get is truer to the underlying feelings and moods he spends most of his time concealing. Consequently we get an insight into his relationship with Amanda, seeing his pain when she offers to break their engagement and getting a chance to see the two of them come to realise that they do love each other despite their outward relationship of the detective and his lieutenant.

Probably my favourite of the Campion mysteries.