Mr. Campion's Farewell - (Albert Campion Mystery) by Mike Ripley (Paperback)

About the Book

When Albert Campion contemplates visiting his wayward niece in Carfax, Superintendent Charles Luke warns him that the seemingly-idyllic village isn't all it seems. And when a missing schoolteacher reappears after nine days, and Campion's car is "inadvertently" damaged - not to mention Campion himself - all signs point to this being true . . .

Book Synopsis

The Golden Age of British Detective Fiction

The idyllic English village of Lindsay Carfax isn't run by the parish council, the rating authority, the sanitary inspector nor the local cops as you might suppose. The real bosses are the Carders - something to do with wool, four hundred years back. They wound stuff on cards, I suppose. But these boys are very fly customers - they're right on the ball. Boiled down, it comes to this; they're a syndicate who run this place - which makes a packet - with their own rules. One way and another they probably own most of it." Thus ruminated Superintendent Charles Luke to Albert Campion who was contemplating visiting his wayward artistic niece in Carfax. And when a missing schoolteacher reappeared after nine days, and Campion's car was "inadvertently" damaged, not to mention Campion himself, then all the signs were that not all was what it seemed. Campion himself plays the central role in this quintessentially British mystery, but there are appearances too from all of Margery Allingham's regular characters, from Luke to Campion's former manservant Lugg, to his wife Lady Amanda Fitton and others. The dialogue is sharp and witty, the observation keen, and the climax is thrilling and eerily atmospheric.

Review Quotes

"Ripley does an excellent job of expanding a story fragment that Allingham's husband, Pip Youngman Carter, began in 1969. Allingham fans will welcome the news that Severn has commissioned a follow- up, and newcomers will be inspired to seek out her work"-- "Publishers Weekly"

"Ripley agreed to use the fragment to write a new Campion story. He's produced a whimsical, delightful, witty, entertaining book that's part Jeeves and Wooster, part Laurel and Hardy, and part Miss Marple. Charming and full of surprises"-- "Booklist"

"Ripley is almost too successful in fulfilling the bespectacled detective's ploy of making himself an ineffectual nonentity. Only toward the end of this meandering, fitfully amusing, resolutely twee story does Campion become more than a sad echo of an earlier age."-- "Kirkus Reviews"