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 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. ( )

This is another very different book from those earlier in the series. In this we start with Albert in hospital, having been unconscious and with amnesia. He overhears a conversation that has him believing that he's about to be charged for killing a police officer and the feeling that there is something urgent he needs to do. And so he scarpers, dressed in fisherman's oilskins. A car chase ensues and any number of odd events take place from there. Set in the start of WW2, this has quite a different feel from the earlier novels as well as a very different narrative tale. I did wonder how he was going to recover his memory and that takes place a little too neatly, but it was one way out of the situation. The final chapters are at a breakneck pace as Campion strives to stop a swindle that would put the country's economic stability at risk.
I listened to this and the narrator had a somewhat annoying habit of making Campion sound like a blithering idiot. I admit that he is, at times, an entitled arse, but he;s not actually stupid. That aside, this was a good entry in the series, but I;d not try and read it first. Like Campion at the start, you'd be a touch too much at sea. ( )

Traitor’s Purse by Margery Allingham is a novel of wartime suspense as a severely handicapped Albert Campion tries to successfully complete his mission to uncover a group of enemy agents that were about to seriously derail England’s war efforts.

The book opens with Albert Campion waking to find himself in a hospital but having no idea of who he is or how he got there. He then finds that he is accused of attacking a police officer. He has taken a blow to the head and is suffering from a concussion and experiencing amnesia. He begins the slow process of putting the pieces together on his identity and the details of his under cover work for the government. Although he has no idea of what he is investigating, he does have a strong sense that he must stop something from happening. So with the clock ticking down and not knowing who he can trust, he sets to work.

An enjoyable outing that sees Campion thwarting the Nazis and giving the reader a taste of wartime Britain. Albert’s long time love interest, Amanda is on hand and their relationship takes a giant step forward as Campion finally recognizes just how much she means to him. Also there is an appearance by his long-time manservant Lugg, whose feelings are hurt when Campion doesn’t seem to know who he is. ( )

Traitor's Purse
Margery Allingham
October 25, 2016
I finished this novel in a day. Inspector Albert Campion awakens in a hospital ward after a head injury with a certain knowledge that he has only a short time to avert some disaster, but no clear idea of who he is, or what the disaster might be. He escapes, driving wildly, followed by his girlfriend. He is convinced he is wanted by the police, but allies himself with a constable, and breaks into a secret society in an English country town; he learned he should do this from the constable. His identity is doubted, and he escapes again, encounters his accomplices, and is finally back in the hands of police, where another head trauma restores some old memories. He finally thwarts a scheme to ruin the finances of England on the verge of the second world war. Very well plotted, intelligent dialog, but the plot turns on neurologically unrealistic features of head injury and amnesia, although the description of Campion's thought processes when he is in his amnesia is very well done. ( )

a very good read

a compelling example of having the main character having lost his memory and it only coming back gradually through the read, whilst at the same time trying to solve the mystery.

Spotted the "solution" ( ie the method) relativley early but not the culprit until quite late.

Allingham certainly does mix up the type of story through this series about Albert Campion.

Big Ship

5 January 2016 ( )